A few years ago, the internet, which has always held a special place of esteem for cats, found itself enamored with a Japanese app called Neko Atsume, or kitty collector. The premise of the game was simple. You had a back yard, you could fill it with food and toys and other goodies, and entice a collection of local cats to hang out there.
The whole endeavor was maddeningly cute, and it turned out to be a lot of fun to work on creating the perfect conditions to attract all the different neighborhood cats, including special character cats who wore costumes and had adorably pun-y names.
The craze may have died down a bit, but it seems like it is about to see a resurgence. Back in September, the Japanese developers announced that they would be releasing a version of the game for the PlayStation VR. Now that the game has been released in Japan, people are getting their first look at the virtual reality experience and it is adorable.
Most of the features look pretty similar to the app game. You can decorate your yard and watch with glee as cute virtual kitties frolic and play in it. The VR version even features a miniature phone that you can use to take photos of the cats, just like you could in the original game.
If there was a downside to the app version, it was that there was no way to directly interact with the cats. You could only watch them play with the things you set out. As you can see in the tweet above, this has been corrected and now you can play with the cats who come to visit you.
Unfortunately, there is no date for a US release at this point in time, but the Japanese version is available now on the PlayStation store.