No, but for real this time.
After months of speculation, miscommunications, and general confusion, davevillz (David Villz), lead developer behind Pavlov VR, confirmed earlier today that the massively popular competitive VR shooter will be arriving on the Oculus Quest before the end of the year.
In a message posted to Twitter earlier this morning, Villz stated that Pavlov “Lite”, a working title according to the developer, will be arriving on the Quest December 18th 100% free of charge. The tweet fails to specify whether the title will be available via the Oculus Store or through sideloading; in a tweet posted this past June, however, the developer stated that Pavlov VR would be heading to the Oculus Quest Store. It also remains unclear as to whether or not the Quest release will feature cross-platform play with PC VR, though past comments made by Villz points to a hard “no.”
“It’s fundamentally not ideal to have crossplay, even tho it’s possible,” states Villz in the tweet. “I example, Index Players at 144hz have a huge advantage over Quest player who would play at 72hz.
Villz has also confirmed that the Quest release will not be receiving a dedicated workshop or custom map creation, though he and his team will be taking inspiration from popular player-created maps.
“Only to quest store or w/e is called,” states Villz in the tweet. “For PCVR on steam due to workshop – there’s no reason for it to be in Rift store without it. There won’t be quest workshop or similar, we’re planning to add plenty of original content.”
For those of you who’ve been out of the loop the last couple months, here’s a quick rundown of the turbulent events surrounding Pavlov VR on Quest: On May 22nd, Villz stated via Twitter that after a spending a couple of hours with Oculus Quest hardware, he was able to confirm that Pavlov VR would be heading to the Quest. The following day, he released a rough Open Alpha build of the experience which users could side-load onto their headsets and play free of charge.
The following month, Villz tweeted that “for reasons out of his control,” Pavlov would not be heading to the Oculus Store as intended, though it would still be available to download via the popular sideloading app SideQuest. The next day, he would return to Twitter one last time, claiming that he had “jumped to conclusions” with his last tweet and that after clarifying “some mutual miscommunication” with Oculus, he could once again confirm that the title will be available via the Oculus Store.
Based on the tweets leading up to today’s announcement and the specific use of the term “Lite,” it’s more-than-likely the Quest release will feature a more streamlined version of the original Pavlov experience. As previously stated, Villz has already confirmed that the Quest build will not feature a dedicated workshop or custom map-making, and given Quest’s less-powerful hardware, the experience will definitely be taking some hits in terms of resolution and overall visual quality.
Still, a free-to-play military team-based VR shooter would no doubt make waves on the Quest, offering users a more mature competitive experience compared to that of Rec Room or Dead and Buried 2. With Echo VR also set to launch free on the Quest in the near future, standalone VR is shaping up to be the next big platform for esports.
Feature Image Credit: davevillz
