It's being ignored by them for good reason. Before touting a whole slew of upgrades like this, Hello Games still has unfinished business when it comes to their half-hearted support of the PSVR version for PS4 Pro (and soon, PS5) owners. There are some out there who have zero interest in playing 2D NMS, so why not give them a better polished version on machines that are capable?
You can just look at how many PSVR games received Pro upgrades by other dev teams to see why there are complaints. Some of those teams likely have less employees, and they still figure out a way to offer SOMETHING in the way of Pro upgrades.
I mean, off the top of my head I remember reading a few posts from the developer of Ultrawings for the PSVR headset. They put out several free patches in the span of a few weeks where they improved the graphics on 60 fps version and then went back in forth public testing of a 90 fps version with the old visuals.
That dev can't be any more taxed for these type of upgrades than HG with NMS for a strongly requested improvement.
Are other PSVR dev teams as small as Hello Games? Are they continuously working on patches and content updates for PC, Xbox One, Xbox One X, PS4, and PS4 Pro? And now you've added Xbox Series S, Xbox Series S, and PS5 to their pipeline?
Making video games isn't just "push button to implement awesome." It's a lot of hard work, and Hello Games, while insanely hardworking, is also a very small studio. Over the past 4 years, they've released nearly a dozen significant updates to this game that have exceeded the expectations of what even gamers had back before the title launched on PS4. You compare it to Ultrawings, which, in scope, pales in comparison to what Hello Games is doing with No Man's Sky. You're comparing an open world areal flight game with an extremely stylized visual presentation (I like it, so no shade thrown on them), and a more narrow focus, to a game with a procedurally generated universe (from star systems, to planets, to creatures, so derelict freighters, etc), crafting, exploration on ship, foot, vehicle (with terrain deformation tools), base building, a more complex visual presentation (higher polygon counts in comparison to Ultrawings), all fully playable on PSVR? Really? The Ultrawings team is no doubt small as well, but their game simply isn't on the same level of interlocking systems that have to function as smoothly as possible. They should definitely be commended for supporting Ultrawings with free updates, and continued improvement patches for VR, but you're comparing apples to oranges.
The PSVR is successful, yes, but I don't hold it against Hello Games that they prioritize the platforms with the largest install base (ie, the non-VR platforms), and then, when timing and scheduling allows, will get to the PSVR. It's not a matter of "ignoring" PSVR. It's that their plate is full. They literally just released No Man's Sky: Origins a little over a month ago, and now they are releasing a pretty nice next gen patch for the launch of the next gen consoles in 2 weeks.
Not to mention that all of these updates have to be tested for various issues and bugs, by a team of less than 30 people (2020 numbers says they have 26 employees). A game of the scale and complexity of No Man's Sky, being supported by a team of 26 people, is no easy task. Ensuring that the PSVR mode of NMS is functional on the PS5 no doubt took some work. That's priority number one: Make sure it's compatible at all. Now that the compatibility is functional, they can start to roll out additional improvements that could benefit how the game looks and runs in VR.
I love NMS in PSVR. I most assuredly want them to take advantage of any performance and visual improvements the PS5 can add to that experience, but this stuff takes time. The PS4/Pro/PSVR combo can only do so much. It's more than possible that they hit a wall on what they could accomplish on the PS4/Pro when running NMS in VR, so they pocketed wishlist improvements for the PS5. Maybe they aren't ready in time for launch, and they aren't ready to discuss those improvements just yet, because they know oh too well what happens when expectations aren't met on things that they speak of too soon.
If you seriously think, after all Hello Games has done to support No Man's Sky since it's launch, backlash, and redemption, that they don't care how the VR experience is for their major title, I don't know what to tell you. Not to mention that, knowing their history of setting the groundwork for future updates/patches, they most assuredly have plans to update the VR functionality on the PS5 so that the inevitable jump from PSVR to PSVR2 will be even smoother. I imagine that once the Next Generation patch is certified and released, they will continue to work on the PSVR BC mode to bring it up in quality, and improve that experience until the "actual" PS5 VR solution is announced and released.
I've been excited for NMS on PS5
precisely because of the potential of playing it on PSVR, but I know these things aren't easy to implement, and take time. I can play 2D NMS, and VR NMS no sweat, so I'm excited that there's even a next gen patch coming on launch day. I honestly wasn't expecting a proper next gen update for a while still, and was actually expecting to just enjoy the game through BC on my PS5, and maybe benefit from boost mode increasing performance, and the benefits of some level of faster load times since it's one of the few PS4 titles I'm going to install on the PS5's internal SSD. Getting a proper next gen upgrade for free, is more than I expected, and I certainly don't think I'm owed it. Hello Games has more than done right by NMS owners over the years. AT t his point, I think they've earned a little bit of benefit of the doubt in terms of future support for all versions of NMS in the future. Including the VR versions.
Realistically, there's only so much they can do at once, and I'd rather have them do a few things well, than a bunch of things half assed. I have no doubt that when they patch NMS for PSVR, it's going to be impressive. Then, when PSVR2 releases, it's going to get even
better.
