Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed a VR adaptation of Jumping Flash was in early development before being cancelled.
Speaking to VGC, Shuhei Yoshida – the Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) veteran who served as President of SIE Worldwide Studios (now PlayStation Studios) between 2008 until 2019 before leaving the company earlier this year – shared the news in an upcoming interview. Before Sony explored modern licensing deals, Yoshida informed VGC that the company had previously considered licensing dormant franchises for VR adaptations.
Asked about which franchises were considered for PlayStation VR, Yoshida confirmed an adaptation of the 1995 1st person platformer Jumping Flash by Exact and Ultra was in the “very early” stages of development. While he didn’t confirm which developer was working on this game or when this was cancelled, he advised VGC that, “some developers wanted to license Jumping Flash to develop it into a part of their new VR game.”
Though Jumping Flash VR didn’t get any further, Yoshida points out one game that did get through is Fantavision 202X, which rebooted the 2000 puzzle game from the now-defunct PlayStation Japan Studio. This became one of 2023’s PlayStation VR2 launch games before later receiving a Steam release. Developed by Cosmo Machia, this included optional VR support on both platforms.
After retiring from Sony back in January, Yoshida has remained an advocate for PlayStation VR2. While he previously apologized for being “wrong” about Sony’s latest headset in a Kinda Funny interview, he continued by expressing his love for Synapse and Before Your Eyes. Since then, he’s recently been seen at Summer Game Fest with nDreams to support its upcoming game, Reach.
