To say that VR gaming in general is a niche market is a bit of an understatement; combine that with making an MMO in VR and you’re paring down that market even more. Those are a couple of takeaways from a GIBiz interview with Ramen VR CTO Lauren Frazier, who discussed several of the challenges that the studio’s VR MMO Zenith has faced.
Frazier acknowledges that VR gaming didn’t set the world on fire as was first speculated and further discussed how making a VR game and an MMO game meant easing the panicky minds of gun-shy and nervous investors.
“It was hard [pitching] because VR and MMO are two of the riskiest things you can do. So, by doing both of them together, many investors were very wary. A lot of investors have been burned by the first round of VR that didn’t quite pan out.[…] The biggest hurdle was two risky ideas that people are already on the fence about. A lot of people focused on the VR side of [Zenith] just because the market is small.”
To the point of a small market, Frazier explains the importance of making Zenith cross-play across multiple VR platforms. This further led into talks about making the MMO perform for multiple devices and controllers on its server and through its open world, as well as recognition that a smaller game is going up against genre heavyweights. The interview itself is not exactly hard-hitting, particularly as it doesn’t ask about Ramen VR not releasing a desktop version of the game in spite of promising Kickstarter backers it would do so, but there are still a few things fans might care to learn.
As for the MMO itself, the studio announced on Twitter yesterday that its upcoming Skyward Summit content update would enter open testing on May 5th, granting everyone access to the Cyber Ninja, player housing, new lifeskills, and combat adjustments. Details on how this test can be accessed weren’t part of the announcement, but those details are likely to come soon.
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Our upcoming patch, Skyward Summit, will be available for open beta testing starting on May 5th! Try out Cyber Ninja, player housing, new lifeskills, combat changes & more! All players are invited to take part and check out the new features!— Zenith MMO 🇺🇦 (@ZenithMMO) May 1, 2023
