It doesn’t look like Respawn’s long-promised Oculus exclusive VR game will release this year. But it might not be much further out, either.
In a recent interview with Polygon, Facebook’s Jason Rubin said the game will “come close” to hitting its original 2019 window. “We believed heavily it would come out at the end of ’19, or thereabouts,” Rubin said, “and so we were willing to put that line in the sand, and the developer is going to come close to hitting their target.”
Respawn first revealed it was making an Oculus Rift game in 2017. At the time, a teaser video provided a vague ‘2019’ window. To some extent, the studio is hitting that target; the game is going to be revealed during the Oculus Connect 6 keynote talk tomorrow. Not only that, but it will be fully playable for people at the show. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, Rubin’s words suggest it won’t actually release in 2019.
Respawning In 2020?
From the sounds of it, then, an early 2020 release window might be more realistic. In the meantime, Oculus is launching other Studios projects like Stormland before the end of the year.
Elsewhere, Oculus’ head of AR/VR content, Mike Verdu noted that he thought of the game as “the first of a new generation” of VR games.
“It’s not like a movie studio betting their year on a product,” Verdu said. “We’re just thrilled to have what we think is sort of the first of its kind, and it’s super exciting. Like, one of the top developers in the world, and they have a sensibility and they have a standard for what’s good, and they are picking up the skills to bring that to life in VR. And, you know, they’re thrilled with what they’re making and we’re thrilled to see that. There’s a lot of emotion around it and it’s very, it’s very cool. But, you know, riding on it? Probably kind of the wrong framing. But excited about it as the first of a new generation? Hell yeah.”
We already know a handful of things about Respawn’s game. Firstly, it’s not a VR Titanfall game. Oculus previously labeled it an ‘AAA First-Person Combat’ game. Other than that, there’s not much to say. Last week, David made some guesses about what it might be and where it might be set.
We’ll be at OC6 to bring you all the latest news from the show.
