The Most Anticipated VR Games of 2024

https://ift.tt/ObdraSi

There are a ton of VR games coming this year, although there are a few big names we’re really holding out hope for.

Many of them are targeting all major VR headsets (thankfully), with only one actual Quest 3 exclusive listed below. More importantly, they’re all slated to arrive in 2024. Check out the this year’s most anticipated VR games below:

Aces of Thunder (PSVR 2, PC VR)

Created by War Thunder (2012) studio Gaijin Games, Aces of Thunder promises to bring a host of WWII combat airplanes across 15 maps representing three key theaters: Western, Eastern and Pacific Fronts. It’s said to include War Thunder’s physically accurate flight and damage models, so we’re hoping for some intense and realistic dogfights.

There’s no precise launch date yet, although Gaijin says it’s coming sometime in Q4 2024 on Steam and PSVR 2.

Alien: Rogue Incursion (Quest 3, PSVR 2, PC VR)

Alien: Rogue Incursion pits you against a stealthy swarm of Xenomorphs, although you won’t be creeping around and hiding in lockers the entire time. Developer Survios is tossing in a few tools to keep aliens at bay: motion-tracking radar and a few guns too, including a pulse rifle, revolver, and pump shotgun.

Alien: Rogue Incursion is releasing sometime around Holiday 2024, coming to PSVR 2, PC VR, and Meta Quest 3—not Quest Pro or Quest 2.

Batman: Arkham Shadow (Quest 3)

Batman: Arkham Shadow has big shoes to fill. Not only is this the first fully-fledged Batman game for VR, but we think developer Camouflaj’s last game Iron Man VR was “VR’s first great superhero game”.

Facing off against ‘The Rat King’, Batman: Arkham Shadow promises a heavy dose of exploration, stealth, and free-flowing combat across Gotham. That includes Batman’s Grappling Gun, Batarang, smoke bombs, and even working cape that lets you glide from the city heights.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is due out sometime in Fall 2024, coming exclusively to Quest 3.

Hitman 3 VR Reloaded (Quest 3)

Hitman 3 came along with VR support for the original PSVR at launch in 2021, later bringing PC VR support a few months later. Now IO Interactive is working with XR Games to bring Hitman 3 exclusively to Quest 3. Notably, the game is said to be “rebuilt from the ground up” for VR, which may smooth over some of retrofitt-y woes of the PSVR and PC VR supported versions.

We don’t know when it will launch specifically, although it’s slated to arrive sometime in Summer 2024. In the meantime, you can wishlist it over on the Horizon Store for Quest 3.

Metro Awakening (Quest, PSVR 2, PC VR)

Coming from VR veteran Vertigo Games in partnership with 4A Games, Metro Awakening throws you back into the Moscow metro with plenty of guns and a mission to protect your home station from mutant threats. One of the biggest concerns, we learned last month, would be scrounging for ammo, making thorough exploration essential.

There’s no release date yet beyond the “2024” window, however you can wishlist the game now on PSVR 2, PC VR, and Quest 2/3/Pro.

Skydance’s Behemoth (Quest, PSVR 2, PC VR)

Skydance Games, the studio behind The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners franchise, is getting the hype train fueled for its next big single-player VR game, Skydance’s BEHEMOTH, which promises to bring a bevy of immersive melee combat and epic adventuring to all major VR headsets later this year.

Promising a 12-hour single-player campaign, you’ll face off against blighted soldiers and, of course, the game’s namesake: hulking beasts taller than skyscrapers, aka Behemoths.

Skydance’s Behemoth is slated to launch sometime in Fall 2024 on all major VR headsets, including PC VR, PSVR 2, and Quest 2/3/Pro.

Zombie Army VR (Quest, PSVR 2, PC VR)

Rebellion, developer behind cult horror shooter series Zombie Army, is getting ready to release the franchise’s first VR game on all major headsets this year. The co-op campaign takes place during the events of the Zombie Army series, letting you take to the field as one of the Deadhunters, an elite squad that is hunting down zombie war criminals.

Developed in partnership with XR Games, Zombie Army VR is slated to launch sometime this year on PC VR, PSVR 2, and Quest 2/3/Pro.

---

What VR games are you looking forward to this year? Let us know in the comments below!

The post The Most Anticipated VR Games of 2024 appeared first on Road to VR.

from Road to VR https://ift.tt/ALUhvC3
via IFTTT

PSVR 2 Discount More Than Doubled Usual Sales Volume, But Quest Still Leads

https://ift.tt/BnZNa8F

PSVR 2 got its first big sale the other week which resulted in a large lift in sales volume for the headset in the US.

At $550 MSRP, PSVR 2 is actually more expensive than the PS5 console that powers it, at $500. That’s made it a tough sell for some, especially with Quest 3, its nearest  competitor, priced at $500 and not requiring a tethered console.

Demand for Sony’s VR headset may be greater than it appears however, with many seemingly willing to buy once the price is right.

Sony discovered this after its first big sale on PSVR 2 the other week, which dropped the price of the headset alone to $350 (37% discount), and the price of the Horizon bundle to $400 (a 33% discount).

In just the week or so that the sale was active, we can see that sales volume for headset more than doubled on Amazon US compared to the prior months.

PSVR 2’s short-lived Summer sale may tell us something about the forthcoming holiday period, the time of year when the most VR headsets are sold and the biggest sales are generally seen. Sony now has a clear idea of how much its headset sales could ramp up if it offers the same deal during the holiday, or perhaps an even better one.

While the discount appears to have resulted in a nice boost in unit sales for PSVR 2, to put things into perspective we can see that it’s still a far cry from the number of Quest 2 and Quest 3 units Meta has been selling.

The post PSVR 2 Discount More Than Doubled Usual Sales Volume, But Quest Still Leads appeared first on Road to VR.

from Road to VR https://ift.tt/Bh5TRLc
via IFTTT

Spiders Are So Scary in VR That ‘Dungeons of Eternity’ Added an Option to Remove Them

https://ift.tt/Hldf65y

Dungeons of Eternity (2023) is chock-full of skeletons, zombies, slimes and yes… spiders. But now developer Othergate has added an ‘Arachnophobia Mode’ that lets you take on the VR hack-n-slash adventure on Quest without fear of eight-legged creepy crawlies.

The recent update is a game of give and take, it seems. On one hand, the new Arachnophobia Mode replaces the spider monsters with a new enemy type—accessible by enabling the mode in Settings > Visuals > Enable ‘Arachnophobia Mode’.

On the other, the studio is also including a new monster to “balance things out”: Kamikaze exploding spiders.

Image courtesy Othergate

The update also comes with a host of new features and bug fixes, according to the patch notes:

• Tier 3 Epic Chest Improvements. Hint: They can sometimes be dangerous but rewarding!
• Improved Crossbow head tilt/aiming assist mechanic
• Upgraded voice chat SDK and improved reliability of voice chat
• Kick feature allows you to kick the same person repeatedly if they rejoin
• Increased the AOE damage on bombs again (almost 2X)

The Arachnophobia Mode release follows the game’s most recent ‘Longsword and Traps’ update in May, which brought two-handed longswords, host of new traps and 25+ new chambers to the game.

The game’s roadmap also maintains we’ll be getting a few things later this year, including new a quest mode, single player DLC, and of course more monsters, bosses and weapons. You can find it on the Horizon Store for Quest, priced at $30.

The post Spiders Are So Scary in VR That ‘Dungeons of Eternity’ Added an Option to Remove Them appeared first on Road to VR.

from Road to VR https://ift.tt/kpxGZNr
via IFTTT

Meta VR Studio Behind ‘Lone Echo’ Shuttered After No New Game Release in Nearly Three Years

https://ift.tt/nePKlzF

Meta’s first-party VR studio Ready at Dawn—the developers of Lone Echo and more—is reportedly being shuttered. This comes after the studio was acquired back in 2020 and has only released one game since.

Ready at Dawn is the studio behind one of PC VR’s most immersive games: Lone Echo (2017), and its popular multiplayer spinoff, Echo VR. Following the release of those two titles, the studio was eventually acquired by Meta in 2020, and then finally launched Lone Echo II on PC in late 2021.

Ready at Dawn was well into the development of Lone Echo II when the studio was acquired by Meta. The impetus for the acquisition remains unclear to this day, but two major possibilities are: Ready at Dawn was struggling to find enough money to make it over the finish line on Lone Echo II and Meta stepped in to make sure it would happen, or things were going just swell for the studio but Meta made a seriously attractive offer the studio couldn’t refuse.

Image courtesy Ready at Dawn

Whatever the case, Lone Echo II was the only major title released by Ready at Dawn following the Meta acquisition. Nearly three years after its late 2021 release, the studio hasn’t released any new game, let alone announced one.

In fact, the only major thing that’s happened outwardly with the studio is that it shut down Echo VR, a beloved multiplayer spin-off of the Lone Echo games, in 2022.

With little to show, many were left wondering what the studio was up to.

A port of Lone Echo and Lone Echo II for Quest was considered a possibility, but Meta quashed that hope in 2022 when it said there were no plans for Lone Echo on Quest, and instead said the studio was “in the early stages of working on new, exciting projects and can’t wait to share more information about them in the future.” Perhaps a brand new Quest game was in the works?

Whatever the studio was working on, it was unfortunately all for naught. Android Central reported today that Ready at Dawn is being closed down, effective immediately.

This is not only an unexpected shock for those outside of the studio, but seemingly for those within as well; Android Central says that Meta employees were “encouraged to apply elsewhere within Oculus Studios and that the company wants to retain as many talented developers as possible”—suggesting that little effort was made to absorb the studio’s talent into the company at large ahead of time.

The closure of the studio comes amid Meta’s efforts to curb spending in Reality Labs, its metaverse and XR division. The division has spent an average of $15.5 billion annually since its inception, with average annual revenue of only $2.1 billion.

The shuttering of Ready at Dawn closes a nearly 21 year chapter for the studio which got its start building titles for PSP, PS3, and PS4. Before its acquisition by Meta, the studio had pivoted to VR development and created Lone Echo, which became an iconic PC VR title thanks to its production quality, innovative zero-G locomotion, and the Echo VR multiplayer spin-off which took on a life of its own.

The post Meta VR Studio Behind ‘Lone Echo’ Shuttered After No New Game Release in Nearly Three Years appeared first on Road to VR.

from Road to VR https://ift.tt/ufrYxIg
via IFTTT

Pico to Unveil New XR Product on August 20th in Special Event

https://ift.tt/9FtjGJq

Pico Interactive today announced it’s getting ready to reveal “a new product” this month, promising to boost your “MR/VR experience to the next level.”

The device is slated to get its big reveal on August 20th. An image obtained by Antony Vitillo of Skarred Ghost maintains it will be revealed at 14:00 China Standard Time (local time here).

It seems that the new Pico Headset is coming on August, 20th at 2pm Beijing Time!#VirtualReality #VR #China #technology #metaverse pic.twitter.com/nuuv3On8zq

— TonyVT SkarredGhost (@SkarredGhost) August 7, 2024

The company also teased the new headset in a separate X post yesterday, with the hashtags ‘Pico 4’ and ‘Upgrade’:

Brace yourself for a surprise! Coming soon! #PICO4 #Teaser #Upgrade pic.twitter.com/5tQhpynZe4

— PICO XR (@PICOXR) August 6, 2024

The tease suggests it will likely be another XR headset and not an optional accessory, although the mention of ‘upgrade’ isn’t conclusive.

Provided it’s indeed a new headset, a possible candidate could be the rumored Pico 4S, which was the subject of a leaked controller design back in March.

Less likely is Pico 5 or prospective Pico 5 Pro Max, both of which have been rumored since late last year. Since then, Pico parent company Byte Dance issued wide-reaching layoffs, which may have dampened its consumer ambitions—at least outside of Asia and possibly Europe where it has launched previous headsets.

The post Pico to Unveil New XR Product on August 20th in Special Event appeared first on Road to VR.

from Road to VR https://ift.tt/NA3krHI
via IFTTT

Microsoft Reportedly Orders Samsung Micro OLEDs to Restart XR Hardware Ambitions

https://ift.tt/S8RJ5wt

According to a report from Korean tech outlet The Elec, Microsoft has contracted Samsung to supply micro OLED display panels for what is described as “next-generation mixed reality devices.”

Citing industry sources, the report maintains the order could reach into the “hundreds of thousands” of micro OLED displays, with such a Microsoft XR device reportedly slated to arrive as early as 2026.

Unlike Meta’s current line of Quest headsets, the alleged Microsoft headset will be used for “enjoying or watching content such as games or movies rather than the metaverse,” the report maintains (machine translated from Korean), potentially putting it in competition with Apple Vision Pro.

Since Microsoft’s abandonment of its WMR platform late last year and ongoing stagnation around its HoloLens AR platform, the company has mostly concentrated on smaller XR software projects.

Microsoft HoloLens 2 | Image by Road to VR

In January 2024, the company released support for 3D and VR meetings in Mesh, its immersive chatting platform. The company later announced at its Build developer conference in May it was bringing Windows Volumetric apps to Quest.

Since the release of Vision Pro earlier this year however, competing—or at least preparing to compete—with Apple seems to be the order of the day.

Samsung and Google confirmed in July their forthcoming “XR platform” will be announced sometime this year. The ‘platform’, which is thought to be hardware built by Samsung and an Android XR operating system built by Google, was previously reportedly delayed in effort to better compete with Vision Pro.

Meta is also apparently looking to compete with Vision Pro, with a device reported to arrive sometime in 2027.

---

Thanks to Brad ‘SadlyItsBradley‘ Lynch for pointing us to the news.

The post Microsoft Reportedly Orders Samsung Micro OLEDs to Restart XR Hardware Ambitions appeared first on Road to VR.

from Road to VR https://ift.tt/pYhzPGV
via IFTTT

VR Veteran Studio nDreams to Reveal “what’s next” at VR Games Showcase Next Week

https://ift.tt/qyaiZVh

One of VR’s most senior studios nDreams announced they’re getting ready to announce “what’s next” at the VR Games Showcase next week.

Coming August 15th and presented by industry veteran Jamie Feltham, the inaugural VR Games Showcase will cover titles targeting Quest, PSVR 2 and PC VR—promising 15 titles and announcements from a smorgasbord of XR studios.

Among them will be nDream, which has developed a host of memorable VR games including Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), Fracked (2021), Synapse (2023), and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2023).

Are you ready for what’s next from @nDreams?

Then you better tune into the VR Games Showcase in 10 days on YouTube.https://t.co/oq7etivmWy pic.twitter.com/t3uQhJIHq9

— VR Games Showcase | Aug 15 on YouTube (@vrgamesshowcase) August 5, 2024

It’s uncertain what nDreams has up its sleeve, whether it be additional content to existing titles, or a new game. Outside of its main studio, nDreams maintains a publishing arm in addition to first-party nDreams Studio Orbital, nDreams Studio Elevation, and Nearlight (Shooty Fruity, Perfect), the latter of which was acquired by nDreams in late 2022.

Whatever the case, the studio will be present at Gamescom from August 21st – 23rd at the Home of XR megabooth, also headed by Feltham, which will also feature content from Vertigo Games, Fast Travel Games, Soul Assembly, Combat Waffle Studios, Beyond Frames Entertainment, Flat2VR Studios, and Patient 8 Games.

The VR Games Showcase is slated to air on Thursday, August 15th at 12:00 PM ET (local time here). We’ll of course be following along via the showcase’s official YouTube channel.

The post VR Veteran Studio nDreams to Reveal “what’s next” at VR Games Showcase Next Week appeared first on Road to VR.

from Road to VR https://ift.tt/WSNCqhO
via IFTTT