Having released Doctor Who: The Edge of Time back in 2019 – followed by the PC and console version The Edge Of Reality – and currently highly focused on Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom, Maze Theory is well versed when it comes to bringing big IP’s into virtual reality (VR). Way back in 2018, when the studio first formed, the project the team first teased was an original IP called The Vanishing Act. Renamed Engram, it hasn’t disappeared, in fact, Maze Theory confirmed to VRFocus that it is alive and well, with the current aim to bring it to PlayStation VR 2 and Oculus Quest.
VRFocus recently interviewed Maze Theory CEO Ian Hambleton about the studios’ metaverse ideas and how Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom was going. Inquiring about Engram and whether it still existed three years after first being mentioned Hambleton said: “So we’ve got Engram in the works, what we’re thinking is on that title at the moment is to push it back for the PSVR 2 launch, to launch it on Quest and PSVR 2 at the same time.”
Regarding that decision to push the launch further down the road, he went on to say: “What we decided on Engram, it was going to be focused on Quest because we didn’t want to compromise. By making it so multiplatform you sometimes have to make design choices that compromise things. So it was going to be Quest – because at the time we saw that as the future of where VR was going – and it will be PC VR as well, but we didn’t want lots of other controller options that weren’t going to make it as pure as it is. But now the sensible thing with PSVR 2 [on the way] the sensible thing is to push that back.”
At the moment how far back that’s being pushed is unknown as Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has yet to confirm and release window for PlayStation VR 2 – or an official name at the moment. Current rumours put the hardware launch during holiday 2022.
As to what Engram looks like and how it plays Maze Theory is still staying quiet with only one old image having been released. A brief synopsis does explain that the videogame is a narrative-based experience centred around people being able to “experience the memories of others and travel to deeper layers of their own.”
This news means the unrevealed PlayStation VR 2 now has another videogame on its roster, the third that VRFocus knows about. Engram now joins Pavlov Shack and the anime-inspired Runner. And cropping up on the PSVR 2 rumour mill last week saw mention of Firesprite possibly getting involved with the headset.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Maze Theory and its latest projects, reporting back with further updates.
