Firewall Developer Shuts Down Due to "Lack of Support for VR"

First Contact Entertainment closes its doors.

By Tanner Dedmon

First Contact Entertainment, the developer behind games like Firewall: Zero Hour and other games in the series, announced this week that it's shutting down. In a statement from the developers, First Contact attributed the decision to a "lack of support for VR within the industry." Individuals from First Contact also shared their own messages on socials confirming the studio's intentions to shut down. There's been no indication that the Firewall games will shut down or change in any way in the wake of First Contact's closure.

Games from First Contact Entertainment include ROM Extraction, Solaris Offworld Combat, Firewall: Zero Hour, and Firewall: Ultra. While it's not a member of the PlayStation Studios group, First Contact partnered exclusively with PlayStation on the last two Firewall games with Firewall: Ultra releasing just this year for the PlayStation VR2.

First Contact Entertainment Shuts Down

Over on the studio's Facebook page, First Contact Entertainment shared a message about the decision to shut down. The lack of support for virtual reality was cited as the reason for the closure there, though it wasn't specified if this was an instance where publishers weren't confident enough in VR to pursue projects or if consumers weren't biting enough.

"After almost 8 years of working with the most amazing team I've ever have the pleasure of being part of, I'm sad to announce that we will be closing our company First Contact Entertainment by the end of the year," reads an unsigned post on the game's Facebook page. "The lack of support for VR within the industry has eventually taken its toll. As a AAA VR game developer, we are just not able to justify the expense needed gouging forward. We are a team of fearless innovators willing to push new technologies to its limits. I am extremely proud of the team and grateful to our investors, our partners and of course our community of dedicated and passionate players. It's been a wild ride, Thank you!"

Frank Marm, the community manager for Firewall: Ultra, Firewall: Zero Hour, and Solaris Offworld Combat, tweeted about the company's closure as well to confirm the news outside of Facebook.

Firewall: Zero Hour released for the first PlayStation VR headset and was regarded as one of the more impressive first-person shooters that the emergent technology offered. It boasted a Metacritic score of 79, though the next and most recent game, Firewall: Ultra, got a much lower score of 61 as well as a significantly worse user score of just 4.3.

While ports of games like Resident Evil 4 and mainstays like Beat Saber continue to be popular in the VR market, the incremental upgrades with each new VR headset have perhaps made it difficult for the average consumer to stay invested in VR. The PlayStation VR2 specifically got several new games this year following its February launch, though many of those were ports of games like Beat Saber since the library wasn't backwards compatible with PS VR games.

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