PokerStars released its newest version of its virtual reality social casino and poker game on PlayStation 5 and its VR2 hardware, with the goal of introducing its brand to a new audience.
“Our Sony debut introduces PokerStars VR to a brand-new audience and we’ve spent months in development making sure it’s rewarding social experience,” said James O’Reilly, PokerStars Director of VR & Innovation. “The PlayStation VR2 hardware is astonishing, and Sony have been a great partner in helping us realize its potential. I’m looking forward to welcoming PlayStation VR2 fans to our community over a few hands of poker, and to unveiling more to come from our game.”
The latest version of PokerStars VR, released yesterday (May 9), gives players the chance to win piles of fake chips playing on a virtual poker table with friends or strangers, then jaunting off into the virtual casino to lose them all on a virtual craps, blackjack, or roulette table.
Players play with chips worth no monetary value. If they lose them all, they have to wait another eight hours before more free chips appear in their wallets — if only the real-world worked that way.
Of course, players have the option to spend real money to buy the for-entertainment-only chips.
For those who haven’t had the chance to mess around with VR, people put on headsets that immerse the user into another world. Using controllers, players on PokerStars VR move their hands around to peak at their cards and physically throw chips into the middle of the pot.
Sony’s VR2 is an updated and more powerful system that only works on the newest version of its console, PlayStation 5. PokerStars has had suite of VR poker and casino games on both PlayStation 4 and 5, as well as computers, since 2017.
Besides PlayStation, the older version is also available on Meta Rift, Meta Quest, Quest 2, Quest Pro, Sony PlayStation VR2, and HTC Vive.
It is available to download from the Meta Store, PlayStation Store, Steam and Viveport.
Non-VR options available
Those without the VR-set up that is required to explore the world that PokerStars’ VR developer Lucky VR came up with have other video games to muck around with on PlayStation and desktop computers.
Poker Club ($19.99) allows players to play against up to five opponents. It requires players to buy virtual chips to play with starting at $4.99 for 500,000. It’s also available through Steam, where it’s gotten a review of 6/10.
Prominence Poker is a free download that is “built around unsuspecting and seedy locations. Prominence is a gambling utopia ruled by crooked goons that are determined to keep you from cashing out.
Only here can you find the thrill of high stakes poker while risking everything to take over this underground empire from ‘The Mayor’ – the mysterious town founder. A single poker hand can make all the difference…if you’re good enough.”
(Why that appeals to me — and why do I think Eric Persson when I think of a character called “The Mayor” — I don’t know.)
Poker is also found in the 2018 award-winning and extremely popular game Red Dead Redemption 2. Played in saloons and camps through the its world, players must win at least five hands of Texas hold’em in order to complete the game.
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