During an interview with The Electric Playground, the director of Iron Man VR, Ryan Patton, said Camouflaj was initially denied the Iron Man license because they weren’t a “bigger and more accomplished studio.” But against all odds, Jay Ong, the head of Marvel Games, changed his mind and gave Camouflaj the project.
During E3 2016, Marvel’s Jay Ong approached Camouflaj and asked if the developer wanted to make a “big, ambitious, and character-focused” VR title based on one of their properties. At the time, Patton said no, as they were busy with another project and they weren’t knowledgable enough on how to build a VR game.
After more thought, however, Patton contacted Ong and asked if the developer could make an Iron Man game that wasn’t just a short experience; it would be a full game. According to Patton, Ong initially said yes, but then followed up by saying, “Actually, it’s a no; you can work on anything else, except Iron Man.” Ong iterated that that property would go to a “bigger and more accomplished studio than Camouflaj, no offense.”
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Patton then asked what Camouflaj had to do to earn the ability to make an Iron Man game. According to Patton, Ong said that Camouflaj wouldn’t get it, but “it would have to be the best prototype I’ve ever seen, the best pitch I’ve ever seen, and they would have to be able to promise [him] how big, and ambitious, and amazing the game would be through a lot of documentation that we would need.”
After 2 weeks of work on the pitch and then presenting it to Marvel, Camouflaj was able to develop the game. That’s impressive!
So far, Iron Man VR seems like it has sold well for the game’s publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment, especially when you consider it’s a PlayStation VR exclusive. It was #2 on the UK Sales charts behind The Last of Us Part 2 when it launched last week and sold better than the likes of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Grand Theft Auto V. This doesn’t include digital sales, as well, so it seems like this ‘Marvel’ous adventure is on track to be a successful PSVR exclusive for Sony.
The game seems to live up to that big, ambitious, character-focused VR title that Marvel was looking for with 8-10 hours of playtime (via UploadVR). ScreenRant’s Cody Peterson wrote in his review that the visuals are impressive and that Iron Man VR’s portrayal of Tony Stark was unique from the Marvel Cinematic Universe interpretation. He also said, “Anyone who owns the PSVR should pick up Iron Man VR immediately.”
Sources: The Electric Playground, Upload VR
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