Crytek’s first-person, dinosaur-filled, virtual reality (VR) adventure game debuted in late 2016 as a short-term PlayStation VR exclusive, but Sony’s exclusivity deal just ran out. Robinson: The Journey is now available on Oculus Rift.
We first caught wind of Robinson: The Journey in July 2015, when Crytek announced that it would be developing the Return to Dinosaur Island concept into a full-scale game following the positive feedback it received about the demo. At the time, we spoke with David Bowman, Crytek’s director of production, who confirmed that Crytek planned to bring Robinson: The Journey to all three major VR platforms.
Despite Crytek’s history with PC gaming, the developer launched the PSVR version of Robinson: The Journey first. During E3 2016, Crytek spoke of the console version and made no mention of Rift or Vive editions. Shortly after the PSVR’s release in October, Crytek released Robinson: The Journey, with nary a mention of the PC version.
Around the same time Robinson: The Journey launched on PSVR, reports that Crytek was having financial problems started to circulate on social media. On December 20, Crytek formally announced that it would be restructuring its business to concentrate on its “core competencies” of developing games and the technologies used to build them. This renewed focus on releasing games fueled hope that Robison: The Journey would get a PC launch after all, and days later, Crytek revealed that the game would be available for Oculus Rift in January.
January slipped by, and Crytek was mostly quiet about the game. On January 27, Crytek tweeted that the Robinson: The Journey is coming soon and posted a link to a blog post about the game’s development. The first week of February came and went, and Crytek was still silent about the release.
The company’s restructuring appears to have taken a toll on its PR team. Robinson: The Journey finally hit the Oculus Home Store yesterday, but Crytek didn't officially acknowledge the launch until today.
If you own a Rift and you’ve been waiting to see what dinosaurs rendered in Crytek’s Cryengine look like up-close and personal, your wait is over. Robison: The Journey is available for Oculus Rift on the Oculus Home Store for $40. The game is also available on Steam, but according to the store page, it doesn’t currently support the Vive HMD.
