Wednesday, 12 April, 2023 UTC
Summary
Media Molecule confirms it’s shutting down live service support for Dreams this September, also ruling out a PSVR 2 port.
Three years after releasing Dreams, Media Molecule revealed it made the decision “to shift our focus to an exciting new project,” stating this “is not Dreams 2, or the Dreams IP.” Crucially, Dreams won’t be delisted from the PlayStation Store, servers will remain online for sharing creations and critical bug fixes will still be fixed once live service shuts down. New updates are also promised before September, with Media Molecule stating this includes “the much anticipated Tren, and a significant improvement to animation and our last Create mode update.”
A message from Media Molecule regarding the upcoming server migration and live service support for Dreams.https://t.co/XAIHZyB025 pic.twitter.com/eBRTG52zFg— Media Molecule (@mediamolecule) April 11, 2023
Media Molecule also reconfirmed its planning to migrate Dreams onto a new server in late May but advised “not every feature in Dreams has been compatible with the needed modifications to the server.” There’s only two listed changes for PSVR support, which states Dreams will make personalised comfort ratings visible on content, while comfort ratings on maps and collections are being removed. Otherwise, storage limits will be established for Creations (existing Creations excluded), the ability to archive Creations will be removed and replaced by a delete option, and more.
Sadly, the announcement also ends any hopes of a PSVR 2 port. On the blog post, an FAQ definitively states “the planned releases for Dreams do not include multiplayer, PS5/PSVR2/3D printing support.” The team was asked about a potential next-gen version back in September, when Sony confirmed that PSVR 2 wouldn’t support backwards compatibility. Media Molecule stated it wasn’t part of the current roadmap, but that didn’t stop fans from hoping those plans might change.
We praised Media Molecule’s latest game in our Dreams review, with PSVR support arriving nearly half a year after the flatscreen PS4 edition back in 2020. Though we believed creative mode did “not integrate with PSVR as naturally as hoped,” we considered it an “incredible, robust creation platform.”
Paired with the platform’s inherent comfort issues, its sprawling, untamed ecosystem can prove to be a minefield to navigate, but for every unwelcome rollercoaster ride (literally and figuratively), there’s another wish waiting to be fulfilled or something genuinely original to discover. The only way to truly judge Dreams is by the strength of its creations and those already speak for themselves; if you want to embrace VR’s experimental side, you shouldn’t miss it.
Dreams is available now on PSVR for $19.99.