We Happy Few Gets a Free VR Experience, Now out on PSVR

A free VR experience titled We Happy Few Uncle Jack Live VR made a surprise launch today on PlayStation VR.

[crazyCoconuts]

Ok, pretty cool that MS didn't tank this altogether. MSEvilRating - -;

[Jinger]

Pretty sure MS has no control over We Happy Few since it's still being published by Gearbox.

[crazyCoconuts]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the role of the publisher... Don't they handle promotion and distribution? If MS / Compulsion wanted this VR experience axed, they still own the game and Gearbox wouldn't have a say,would they?

[ApocalypseShadow]

The game was already made and released on PS4. This is a different situation than Hellblade. If the base PS4 was powerful enough, I don't doubt that the VR update would have released too.

It adds value

[rainslacker]

@crazy

Gearbox would have already paid for the production of the game. When MS brought the dev, they'd still be obligated to honor any contracts that existed before they made the purchase.

[Jinger]

Depending on the entire role of the publisher. If they're funding game development as well as advertisement, distribution etc. then they would probably have more say. Not sure how much Gearbox is involved. But I doubt Compulsion wanted to axe the PSVR version they have been working on before MS bought them. Would be a waste of money and I don't think MS wants to operate and annoy their newly acquired studios like that.

But its hard to say for sure without knowing exactly what their deal was when MS acquired them.

[Jinger]

Awesome! Will be checking this out.

[Fist4achin]

Some should be happy bout that...

[Jinger]

I guess this flies in the face to those that were saying MS purposefully kept Hellblades VR version off of PSVR...

[rainslacker]

Not really. In this case, the game is being published by someone other than MS. Due to the way the game was funded, MS had no control over We Happy Few, or this VR thing. With Hellblade, the dev was self publishing, so when MS brought them, they kept control over the game, and any IP's owned by NT.

Its not to say that MS purposefully kept the game off PSVR, but this doesn't fly in the face of that.