Portal Stories VR to be renamed, launch delayed

Portal Stories VR to be renamed, launch delayed

One of the most hotly anticipated virtual reality games aimed at the HTC Vive, was/is Portal Stories: VR, a virtual reality retooling of Portal Stories: Mel, a fan-made expansion of Portal 2 that puts you in the shoes of a new character, who also explores the damaged and run down facility that is Aperture Science's Portal laboratory.

However anyone who was excited to play Portal Stories VR at the end of May when it was slated for release, will now have to wait a little longer. The developers have now announced that the game's launch will be delayed, because Valve got in touch with it to ask for a name change.

While the reason for this changing of its name wasn't given, some comments from fans suggest it could be to do with the game not being made by Valve, so it would rather that game didn't feature the Portal name.

However, more likely we feel at this point, it's to do with the abbreviation. Portal Stories VR, could quite easily be converted to PSVR, which is also the name of Sony's virtual reality solution, PlayStation VR.

That sort of marketing conflict is likely something Valve wants to avoid, especially with its own IP being used as part of the game. However, you do have to wonder why it didn't notice such a comparison earlier on.

Portal Stories VR and PlayStation VR were announced months and months ago. So why the wait to change things around just a few weeks before it was expected to release?