Virtual reality rail-shooter Switchback VR's release has been delayed from its originally planned February launch date according to a recent announcement. Developer Supermassive Games tweeted to fans that it was a difficult decision to postpone the game's release, but the delay would be used as a chance for refinement of any issues and to ensure the level of horror would be an experience not soon forgotten.Supermassive Games is well known for its cinematic and interactive survival-horror genre of games, starting from The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan released in 2019 to the most recent The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me which came out last year. Switchback VR is an on-rails rollercoaster-style spin-off set in the same universe, where players will experience some of the same terror while attempting to survive and shooting their way through shared aspects of The Dark Pictures Anthology games.Switchback VR was planned as a launch title for the new Playstation VR 2 headset that is expected to be released to the public in February, almost seven years after the original PSVR headset launched in 2016. However, the game is now planned to release on March 16, 2023, following the delay. Developer Supermassive Games explained in the tweet that Switchback VR was the studio's most ambitious VR title to date, spanning five different worlds filled with terror, and also thanked fans for their patience with the game's delay. The studio also teased the upcoming and new gameplay features video that will be released in the future.
The VR rail-shooter will also share some of the original's choice selection and repercussion systems, allowing players to choose a variety of paths throughout the game. In the announcement trailer released near the end of 2022 players are shown riding along a track, a pair of pistols with flashlights at the ready as they illuminate the darkness that surrounds them. Enemies flit through the darkness on either side, with various horrors appearing on and off the track as the player shoots their way through obstacles and monsters in an attempt to survive. Creatures and characters from previous The Dark Pictures Anthology games will make an appearance in Switchback VR as well.
The sort-of butterfly effect Supermassive Games like to tout in each game has been instrumental in the developer's success, and has created a large fan base excited about each new entrant in the ongoing series of stories. Branching off into a rail-shooter might not make sense to some fans, but it still allows Supermassive Games to give that sense of decision-making with repercussions that have been a staple of the choice-based survival genre. Even though VR gaming has become more popular, the price increases in other headsets, and the PSVR 2's $549.99 price tag, have made success in VR gaming much more difficult. Losing out on being a launch title will undoubtedly hurt the game's sales to some degree, but taking the time for more polish and getting various aspects of the game right should help create more success for the title in the long term.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is coming out on March 16, 2023 for PSVR2.
