Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
WhiteMoon Dreams, the developers behind PSVR arena shooter StarBlood Arena (2017), released a statement recently bidding farewell to its community. Earlier this year, the studio announced that their online-only game would be going dark; the official date for server shutdown is Thursday, July 25th.
The post PSVR Shooter ‘StarBlood Arena’ Goes Dark Forever Starting July 25th appeared first on Road to VR.
Consider this a PSA: you have only a few hours left to play PSVR exclusive shooter, Starblood Arena, online.
Developer WhiteMoon Studios confirmed its six degrees of freedom (6DOF) dogfighting game would be shutting down back in January. Sony would be taking servers offline on July 25th. Studio had hoped that it might be able to save the game in some form by then, but it looks like that hasn’t happened.
To wind down the game, WhiteMoon is hosting one final Wednesday Night Wars session on July 24.
“Of course this farewell hurts, but there’s some solace we can take in knowing that we’ve made so many friends – as have have our players,” the developer wrote on Reddit. “I’m talking about lifelong bonds that you can’t quantify with sales figures or DAU analytics.”
Starblood Arena first launched in early 2017. It pitted players in multiplayer battles with flying craft. You’d pick one of several unique characters, each with their own play style, and try to take enemies down in complex maps. We thought it was a fun, if unspectacular multiplayer offering.
“Starblood Arena isn’t a profound expression of the power of VR, but it’s hard not to appreciate a rock solid shooter that will provide hours of multiplayer battles for those willing to put the time in,” we said in our review. “Ultimately it’s a little too niche to become the definitive multiplayer PSVR game, and the struggles to get into matches aren’t going to please people that threw down $39.99 to play it. But if you’ve got the patience the game will regularly ask of you, you won’t come away disappointed.”
As for what WhiteMoon is up to next, we don’t yet know. Hopefully it’s staying with VR, though.
The post PSA: PSVR Exclusive Starblood Arena Shuts Down Thursday appeared first on UploadVR.
Eariler this week we reported that PSVR multiplayer shooter Starblood Arena is shutting down. Now developer WhiteMoon Dreams has spoken up with a bittersweet goodbye.
Studio CEO Jay Koottarappallil took to the PSVR subreddit to talk about the game’s closure. “People, we loved this game so deeply,” he wrote, “it became a large part of the studio’s identity and though we work on other things today, the roots of SBA run deep, making this time even harder.”
Starblood was an enjoyable six degrees of freedom (6DOF) VR shooter that launched in 2017. It had some good ideas on how to build a VR shooter, but struggled to find a robust audience. That’s a common theme with VR games. Sony will take the servers offline in July. Koottarappallil revealed that the decision to shut servers down came from Sony itself, and WhiteMoon isn’t being given the chance to save it.
“Sony called earlier to let me know that they were shutting down servers,” he wrote. “The call was something along the lines of “This is always a very hard time, but its time to shut down the servers”. There wasn’t a whole lot of detail past that and there was no option for us to support servers ourselves, much less make any new releases. At the very least, we would have liked to have the option to pay for servers ourselves.”
However, Koottarappallil emphasized that he didn’t want the blame to be leveled at Sony. The post even cites a lot of figures at Sony that helped get the game made.
“As for you, well, I can’t thank all of you enough for how you guys carried SBA from launch,” he wrote, addressing the community. “We launched in April 2017 with zero marketing and PR support, much to our disappointment, but you guys rallied.”
WhiteMoon itself isn’t facing closure, though. Koottarappallil confirmed as much in an email to UploadVR and the post says the studio is working on new projects. Starblood Arena may be over, but hopefully WhiteMoon will continue its work in VR.
Tagged with: Starblood Arena, Whitemoon Dreams
The post Starblood Arena Dev On Server Shutdown: ‘We Loved This Game Deeply’ appeared first on UploadVR.
If you’re a fan of StarBlood Arena (2017), the online dogfighting arena exclusive to PSVR, you’re in for some bad news. Sony has decided to put an official expiration date on the title: July 25th, 2019.
Sony released word via the StarBlood Arena info page:
Please Note: Multiplayer and all online features for this product will be terminated and will no longer be available on 07/25/19. As you have to be online to play this title, this game will not be playable starting 07/25/19.
The game’s store page has since been taken down, meaning new users won’t be able to purchase the game for its latest price of $15. Considering it only has six months left to live, that’s probably the right move by Sony, the publishers of the game.
Developed by Pasadena-based WhiteMoon Dreams, StarBlood Arena first launched in April 2017 to a fairly mediocre critical reception. Like many online-only VR games, it suffered the same fate as other before and after it—a vicious cycle of low engagement levels leading to poor hourly user counts.
The post PSVR Exclusive ‘StarBlood Arena’ to Go Offline in 6 Months appeared first on Road to VR.
The first free PlayStation VR (PSVR) game of the year for PlayStation Plus subscribers is StarBlood Arena from Whitemoon Dreams, a 6DOF flying mech shooter game that released earlier this year. When we reviewed it we found a lot to love in the core mechanics and premise, but a lack of players and launch stability issues severely hindered its original release. Hopefully its PS+ inclusion will be the shot in the arm the game needs to get a much-needed second breath of life.
StarBlood Arena will be available to download for free to all PS+ subscribers starting this coming Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018.
PlayStation Plus hasn’t delivered the same level of quality titles in its free offerings as of late when compared to when the program first debuted on PS3, but hopefully that will change as the PS4 catalog continues to expand. Only a handful of PSVR games have been offered as part of the program thus far, but they seem to be included with much more frequency lately.
For those unaware, PS+ is a subscription service, much like Xbox Live Gold, in which users pay a monthly or yearly fee to gain access to premium features like online multiplayer, cloud storage, and a monthly allocation of free games for PS3, PS Vita, PS4, and now recently, PSVR. As long as you subscribe to PS+ you have access to any and all games that you’ve redeemed as part of the program.
Now that there are are 100 PSVR games on the market, what are some of the other titles you’d like to see offered up in future months? Let us know down in the comments below!
Tagged with: Starblood Arena, Whitemoon Dreams
Yesterday we brought you news of the second PlayStation VR Demo Disc which would be available for PlayStation VR users as of today. At the time we weren’t sure what exactly we would get by way of videogame titles baring an announcement from developers Polyarc confirming that virtual reality (VR) action platformer Moss would be amongst the titles on offer. (Much to the delight of the VRFocus team.)
The listings for PlayStation VR sampler has now been revealed and includes titles from across the genre spectrum. The full list of titles joining Moss can be found below.
A regular on VRFocus’ lists relating to the best VR videogame experiences out there, the tank-based shooter takes the series classic roots and updates them for the virtual stage. Battlezone gained a 5-star review on VRFocus, where it was described as “intense and addictive”.
Cowboys meet Jurassic Park by way of Sim City, Dino Frontier lets you capture and tame dinosaurs in the Wild West to help build and manage a virtual town.
CCP Games might be packing up the big top as far as their involvement in VR is concerned but that doesn’t stop EVE: Valkyire continuing to be one of the best VR experiences out there, and now VR and non-VR players can enjoy dogfighting in spaceships together.
Another title commonly amongst those VRFocus recommends: “Easy to begin with, Fantastic Contraption lets you get accustomed to the intricacies of what does what before throwing the real challenges at you. And there’s a lot, the title features 50 levels to get your head around.”
A multi-award winning videogame, Job Simulator was so good Google brought developers Owlchemy Labs into the company. The title continues to get development and content as well, with the recently revealed ‘Infinite Overtime’ update.
A highly popular virtual reality (VR) shooter, Raw Data sees players equipped with both firearms and a katana, and have the simple object of taking out the enemies before they themselves are overcome.
Another PlayStation VR title that received a full five stars in its review, Rez Infinite is the spiritual successor to the original Rez, which first appeared on SEGA’s Dreamcast console.
The only title on the listing specifically requiring additional downloading, a demo of Starblood Arena was initially made available back in August. Starblood Arena allows the player to take control of one of nine available ships, each with its unique pilot, features and weapon loadout. Allowing would-be players the combination that suits their preferred style of play.
One of a crop of PlayStation VR titles to receive a share of the spotlight recently during Sony’s press event at Paris Games Week, which included the reveal of a brand new trailer. Star Child is takes place on an alien world full of fantastical Martian creatures and creations in a homage to platformers of the 90s while also being something entirely new.
Originally revealed back in March this year, The Persistance comes from the developers behind The Playroom VR. Awaking from cryosleep, it’s up the players to kill the undead and take back control of the ship before it plunges into a nearby black hole.
The self-described “rhythm violence” videogame was announced in March last year and by the time it hit the show floor at 2016’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) it had already made an impact. Drool said in their announcement that Thumper was “unlike anything you’ve seen, played or heard – a cocktail of kinetic action and aggressive acoustics. It’s the kind of game that inhales you, spits you out and leaves you yearning for more.” And they certainly aren’t exaggerating.
Slot car racing get a new twist. Tiny Trax features a drifting/boost-recharge mechanic, alongside lane switching and epic jumps across twelve tracks that’ll take players to tropical islands, volcanoes, ice caves and outer-space. It’s developer, Brighton-based studio FuturLab, recently revealed a new PlayStation VR title in Mini-Mech Mayhem.
The PlayStation VR Demo Disc 2 is now available on the PlayStation Store, it requires 15.2GB of space and several titles within it – Raw Data, Rez Infinite, Job Simulator, Dino Frontier and Fantastic Contraption – do require PS Move Controllers in order to play them.
VRFocus will bring you more details on developments with the PlayStation VR very soon.
WhiteMoon Dreams launched its six degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) shooter StarBlood Arena in April for PlayStation VR. Today the studio has announced it’ll be releasing a demo version for free, allowing headset owners to get a feel for the title before buying it.
Being a demo WhiteMoon Dreams only wants to give you a little taster of this frantic, inter-galactic bloodsport. So it includes one arena and one pilot, Alice. You’ll be able to see all nine pilots and their various attributes but you can only play as Alice, who has a grenade launcher launcher as her secondary weapon.
Really the demo is designed to see how you’d get on with 6DoF controls in virtual reality (VR) as not everyone may find it comfortable. Being inside a cockpit usually helps to mitigate simulator sickness but that’s not always the case, especially if you’re in multiplayer combat dodging every which way trying not to get shot.
For EU PlayStation VR owners the demo should be available through PlayStation.Store today, while US gamers will need to wait until tomorrow.
For any further Starblood Arena updates, keep reading VRFocus.
PlayStation VR title Starblood Arena has gone gold and developer WhiteMoon Dreams has revealed some of what players can expect from the upcoming title.
Starblood Arena allows the player to take control of one of nine available ships, each with its unique pilot, features and weapon loadout. So players can choose the pilot and ship that suits their preferred style of play.
Each ship comes equipped with protective shields, two gun systems, missiles and mines as well as powerful engines. The ships have slightly different variants to bring an element of strategy into the experience. Mods can also be unlocked to further customise the ship’s loadout to the players liking.
Alongside the Gold announcement, the developer highlighted three characters. Balanced soldier Elsa in her ship Mandible, who comes supplied with Stasis Mines and a Heavy Hyper Cannon. Then there’s fast but fragile assassin Blade and his ship Raptor, equiped with Swarm Missiles and the Black Death heavy weapon. Lastly there’s Dregg the sniper in his ship Deadeye, sporting the Singularity Missile and the Ghost Gun which shots through walls.
Multiplayer can feature two to eight players, either in team play or in a multi-way brawl. A leaderboard will show the progress of those who choose to play in Ranked matches.
As was previously announced, Starblood Arena is due to launch in the US on 11th April, and in Europe on 12th April.
You can watch the new Starblood Arena features video below.
VRFocus will continue to keep you updated on Starblood Arena and other PlayStation VR titles.
December’s third annual PlayStation Experience didn’t showcase many virtual reality (VR) titles for PlayStation VR, but one experience that did debut was StarBlood Arena. Developed by Whitemoon Dreams, StarBlood Arena is an intense first-person shooter (FPS) multiplayer which is now scheduled for release in April.
Taking control of one of nine available pilots, players will engage in six degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) firefights across a variety of map sizes and game modes. Matches can feature anywhere between 2 – 8 players, with Carnage mode an all out PvP battle, whilst Team Carnage allows groups of four players to fight it out. Other modes will also be available and they can all be played in either Ranked or player created unranked matches.
Pre-orders for StarBlood Arena have now opened and of course there’s a special bonus available. Gamers that do pre-order will get the StarBlood Arena Legends Pack which features: the Steel Hercules skin for The Baron, the El Diablo Azul skin for Buck, and the Granny Granny Boom Boom skin for Alice.
The release date of StarBlood Arena will depend on the territory you live in with the US PlayStation.Blog listing an 11th April date while the EU site lists 12th April. Whitemoon Dreams also released a newly update trailer for the title, with the studio’s Creative Director, Scott Campbell giving some further details about StarBlood Arena.
For any further StarBlood Arena updates, keep reading VRFocus.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has begun its third annual PlayStation Experience today, with the event kicking off with the PlayStation Showcase. Live-streamed around the world, the showcase highlighted lots of new titles coming for PlayStation 4, and obviously PlayStation VR featured. SIE’s Asad Qizilbash took to the stage to talk about the head-mounted display (HMD), and begun by announcing a new title, Starblood Arena.
Created by Whitemoon Dreams, Starblood Arena is a first-person shooter (FPS) that looks to feature six degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) movement. From the trailer shown at the event the videogame will be focused around online multiplayer combat, with Battle Royale and Team Deathmatches set to be two of the main modes.
But its not just about one-on-one or big teams, Starblood Arena will also feature 2 – 4 player co-op combat, so friends can gang together for some hectic online action.
What if you want to hone those skills before heading out into the online matches, well Starblood Arena includes single-player arena challenges to do just that.
And to make you standout from the crowd Whitemoon Dreams has added loads of unlocks, so that you’ll be able to improve your ship but also customise the exterior with all manner of different designs and appendages for that unique look.
Starblood Arena has been confirmed as a PlayStation VR exclusive and is set for release in Spring 2017. As VRFocus learns more about the title, we’ll bring you the latest details.
EVE: Valkyrie by CCP Games
Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs
The Persistence by Firesprite
Thumper by Drool
Tiny Trax by FuturLab