Cancelled Development of a Jumping Flash VR Game for PlayStation

I had this odd conversation (one of those chats that go from A to Z in record time) with someone who used to be quite high up at PlayStation. You remember Shuhei Yoshida, right? The guy was practically the brain behind Sony’s Worldwide Studios (that’s PlayStation Studios now, I think) from 2008 to 2019. Anyway, he let slip something pretty wild in this chat with VGC. Apparently, there was almost a VR version of Jumping Flash. Yeah, you heard right, that quirky 1995 first-person platformer by Exact and Ultra.

So, Yoshida throws this tidbit out there like it’s nothing. But, oh, the excitement! Except, well, it never saw the light of day. I mean, they were just dabbling in the “very early” stages, so who knows what happened. Maybe they got distracted with some shiny new project. Or maybe they just decided to shelf it because, well, reasons. But get this — some developers were all set to nab Jumping Flash for a VR reboot. Alas, not everything goes according to plan.

Oh, but it wasn’t all for naught. Fantavision 202X did manage to make the jump (pun intended) into the VR world. It’s that 2000 puzzle game — you know the one — revamped by Cosmo Machia. It even became one of those launch titles for the PlayStation VR2 in 2023. And if you’re a PC gamer — lucky you — it popped over to Steam too, with the VR option just hanging out like a cool bonus feature.

Yoshida’s stepped back from Sony now, retired in January, but he’s still all about that VR life. Maybe he’s having second thoughts about not believing in Sony’s latest headset, which he admitted in this candid moment during a Kinda Funny chat. But he’s got some personal faves, like Synapse and Before Your Eyes. Kinda charming, right? And if you’re wondering where Yoshida is these days, he was spotted rubbing shoulders with the folks from nDreams at some gaming fest, cheering on a new game called Reach.

And that’s that. Funny how life twists, right?