It’s time to add another developer to the burgeoning list of teams making exclusive VR videogames for the Oculus Rift.
Force Field VR has confirmed that it is working on a “big budget AAA exclusive” for the VR headset. Creative Director Martin de Ronde confirmed as much during his talk at the 2016 Develop: Brighton conference today, titled ‘Converting an Established Genre into VR: Pitfalls and Opportunities’. Apparently the game will be played from a top-down perspective. The developer didn’t offer any other hints as to exactly what the team was working on, only briefly teasing the title before going on to host an in-depth discussion in which he highlighted games like AirMech: Command and Eagle Flight.
Force Field VR itself has some pretty interesting recent history. Earlier this year the company merged with Vanguard Games, the developer behind two spin-offs in Microsoft’s Halo franchise, Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike. Both of these were top-down shooters, so the exclusive game could be similar to them. Oculus VR’s own Jason Rubin commented on that news, calling the developer a “talented team” that had the “creative and technical skills” to bring VR experiences to life. Given Rubin himself discussed the news, it was kind of a no-brainer that the studio was closely working with Oculus somehow.
That said, de Ronde did confirm that the team will work on other headsets later down the line. In other words, you can expect this first game to only come to the Rift, but other projects to show up on platforms like HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.
Oculus has been bullish about its exclusive content over the past few months despite facing criticism from some VR fans. Deals such as this, however, will help to give developers a big boost in the field and kick start a VR development ecosystem. Aside from Force Field, the company is still working with the likes of Harmonix, High Voltage Software, and Insomniac Games on Rift exclusives, and has already released such titles from teams such as Crytek and Gunfire Games.
We’ll be excited to learn more about what this exclusive could be later down the line.
