Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we have our very first smash hit of 2016. The Witness reviews are in, and they’re very very positive. The game has received glowing reviews across the board with very little deviation, and we’re seeing plenty of 9s and 10s. It’s being hailed as original, powerful, challenging, and beautiful. I was certainly intrigued when I saw a preview video some time ago, but I haven’t given it much thought since then. From what I can tell there are many of you in the same boat; Jonathan Blow’s latest game was well under my radar until I was blindsided by stellar reviews. While the game is available for PC owners and PS4 owners alike, the PC version has one decisive advantage.
No, it’s not higher resolution and a better framerate; the PS4 version runs 60 fps at 1080p. But one thing The Witness players can look forward to on the PC is an eventual VR adaptation down the road. In the past, Jonathan Blow has mentioned the possibility of Oculus VR compatbility, and in September he talked about his dev team playing around with experimental VR support. The game seems to lend itself very naturally to VR, since the entire thing consists of walking around and exploring this vast, beautiful island, and focusing in on squares to solve puzzles.
Naturally all of these blowout reviews have directed a dazzling limelight on The Witness and questions about its future – questions about VR – have come up again as a prominent point of curiosity. Of course by mid 2016, we’re assuming the battle for VR dominance will be waged by the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR, and while PS VR is looking like the more affordable and more gamer-friendly option, it seems like Sony is getting the cold shoulder as far as The Witness is concerned. Blow has confirmed that there are no plans at the moment to make the game compatible with PS VR.
In an interview with iDigitalTimes, Blow stated that it was simply too late, saying “…to support that you would’ve had to deign the game from the outset. We started this game a long time ago way before PlayStation VR was a concept… We might do some support for PC based UV because it’s easier to add that in later.” So it seems like the first smash hit of 2016 may also be the very first VR platform exclusive that will actually influence gamers. So far neither PS VR nor Oculus VR have a killer app or must-own game announced that have us talking, but The Witness is a game that will soon earn the praise of millions of gamers everywhere, and I for one need to explore that island in virtual reality.
This was supposed to be PlayStation VR’s thing. Not The Witness specifically, but the must-have games from experienced developers. It’s been made abundantly clear that the Oculus Rift is the Mercedes of VR HMDs and PlayStation VR is more like a Nissan Sentra: it’ll have everything you need, but it won’t have all of the bells and whistles. Where the PlayStation VR really needs to shine if it’s going to succeed is exclusives. PlayStation has dominated this console generation, and its legacy will be defined by the games that we play this year. As Sony takes a huge financial risk with PS VR in the middle of what could be its most critical year, it’s games like The Witness that we’ll really want to see at launch. Otherwise, I just can’t imagine the average consumer will be willing to invest.