First Contact Entertainment has shut down over the last few days of 2023.
The studio announced its own closure on Facebook last December 22, 2023. They shared this message:
“After almost 8 years of working with the most amazing team I’ve ever have the pleasure of being part of, I’m sad to announce that we will be closing our company First Contact Entertainment by the end of the year.
The lack of support for VR within the industry has eventually taken its toll. As a AAA VR game developer, we are just not able to justify the expense needed gouging forward. We are a team of fearless innovators willing to push new technologies to its limits.
I am extremely proud of the team and grateful to our investors, our partners and of course our community of dedicated and passionate players. It’s been a wild ride, Thankyou!”
As reported by Eurogamer, the studio was responsible for making team shooters Firewall Zero Hour and Firewall Ultra for the PlayStation VR and PlayStation VR 2, respectively. Both of these titles were published by Sony themselves.
On the other hand, First Contact published Solaris: Offworld Combat to PlayStation and Meta Quest themselves. All three games are multiplayer first person shooters, demonstrating that the studio’s specialty was in one of the most popular game genres in the industry today.
Unfortunately, the studio is no more, and there are several possible suspects for this being the case. When First Contact cited the lack of support for VR, they did seem to make sure blame was not directed at their partner, Sony.
Sony, of course, has spent millions pushing PSVR and PSVR 2, and seen limited success for doing so. Similarly, other VR companies aren’t particularly profitable, though they have captured enough of an audience to at least seem to be sustainable.
First Contact also expresses a belief in VR for video games, but as they have alluded to, most of the industry hasn’t embraced the technology as they have. While there is an increasing number of AAAs in VR, they don’t make nearly as much money as the console business, and definitely not as much as mobile gaming.
For companies like Sony and Meta, their investment in VR is a long term commitment. They want to be front and center when the technology finally takes off, no matter how long it takes. This logic is why they are willing to take on losses and low profit margins.
But these companies may have to owe up to the reality that First Contact’s closure is showing. The industry is particularly hard to survive in at this moment. And so, the other game studios can’t be blamed for their lack of faith in VR. They have to think of their own survival at this time, and they don’t really have the money or clout to muddle in more technology experiments.
We wish the former staff of First Contact Entertainment the best.
