Yesterday, Oculus announced the release date for what will be one of its first big Studios games this year, Rock Band VR. But there’s plenty more where that came from.
Following the news, Jason Rubin, Head of Content at Oculus, tweeted out a tease that the launch of the Harmonix music game was “Starting Months of high profile rollouts” for the headset, suggesting we’re going to see many more Rift and Gear-exclusive games in the coming months.
Starting Months of high profile rollouts with #Rockband from @Harmonix for @Oculus Rift: https://t.co/W7offpnzzD
— Jason Rubin (@Jason_Rubin) February 6, 2017
That’s a very exciting thought, but it left us wondering: “What exactly is coming?”
So we decided to round up all the Oculus Studios projects we know about right now and shine a spotlight on them below. Keep in mind we don’t have release dates for any of these games yet so we’re not sure how far away from release they are.
Arktika.1
What Is It?: Made to showcase the power of Touch, this is a gritty underground shooter where you’ll use inventive weapons to take down monstrous and robotic enemies, making use of cover and highly customizable guns.
Who Is Making It?: 4A Games, which is known for the Metro series of shooters. They’re tonally very similar to Arktika, set in a bleak apocalyptic wasteland. This team knows a thing or two about making convincing environments.
Why Are We Excited?: 4A has plenty of experience in making moody, atmospheric shooters quite unlike anything we’ve seen in the VR industry so far. Arktika could prove to be a genuinely engaging VR FPS with a meaty campaign that takes us on an epic journey.
Landfall
What Is It?: A first and third-person multiplayer warfare game, where you lead machines and soldiers into battle in a fight for what remains of the Earth’s resources. It is more top-down shooter than it is strategy game.
Who Is Making It?: Force Field VR, a new studio that’s dedicated to the technology and is making several Studios projects. We’re expecting big things from them going forward, not just in VR but in augmented reality too.
Why Are We Excited?: If you got into the recent beta that was available on the Oculus store then you should know. Landfall is proof that great gamepad-based games aren’t going anywhere now that Touch is here. The game is releasing later this month, so keep an eye out.
Lone Echo
What Is It?: A Touch-starring sci-fi adventure in which you navigate around a space station using your hands. A routine repair job soon turns into a catastrophic incident, and players will be left fighting for survival in the cold depths of space.
Who Is Making It?: Ready at Dawn, which is known for its graphical prowess. Games like PS4’s The Order: 1886 and the PSP God of War spin-offs pushed the hardware on which they were running to their limits, so we’re expecting them to do the same for Rift.
Why Are We Excited?: Lone Echo is easily the best-looking Rift game we’ve seen so far, but it includes some exciting gameplay mechanics too. Not only that, but there’s a very promising multiplayer mode to go with the solo campaign. We have high hopes.
Robo Recall
What Is It?: The automated future is here, and robots do a lot of jobs for us. Only this specific batch of droids has malfunctioned, and you’re here to take them back in. One problem? They don’t want to come with you, so they’ll have to be returned piece by piece.
Who Is Making It?: Epic Games. You know, the guys behind Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, and the Unreal Engine that so many developers use to make their VR projects. We expect great things from such a high caliber developer.
Why Are We Excited?: Epic knows how to make AAA blockbusters better than anyone, and we’re expecting them to make one of VR’s first. The best part is every Touch owner will be able to play it; Epic and Oculus are releasing the game for free.
Wilson’s Heart
What Is It?: A noir adventure game with a trippy horror twist. Wilson’s Heart has you using Touch controllers to explore a seemingly abandoned mental asylum, where you’ll quickly find yourself questioning what’s real and what’s in your head.
Who Is Making It?: Twisted Pixel, a studio that made its name back in the days of Xbox Live Arcade with the Spolsion Man titles. They excel at making quirky, experimental projects and this looks to be no exception.
Why Are We Excited?: Wilson’s Heart makes the best use of the Oculus Touch controllers we’ve seen in a game, and what we’ve played promises one of the most intriguing stories in VR so far. This is one of our most anticipated VR games in general, let alone from Studios.
