According to the studio behind L.A. Noire: The V.R. Case Files (2017), Rockstar Games is producing a new game which promises to be a “AAA open world title in VR”.

Video Games Deluxe, a Sydney, Australia-based studio working exclusively with Rockstar, released word via LinkedIn recently, stating that the company is currently hiring staff to build the VR game.

“Having finished the critically well received L.A. Noire: The V.R. Case Files we are now gearing up for a new project, a AAA open world title in VR for Rockstar. 2020 marks our 7th year of working exclusively for Rockstar in Sydney and we are excited to taking on this ground breaking project,” the studio writes.

Video Games Deluxe worked on both the PC VR version of L.A. Noire: The V.R. Case Files and the PSVR version, which arrived on PS4 late last year.

By the sounds of it, the small studio will be expanding by a fair bit too, as it’s currently hiring for Senior Programmers, Engine Programmer, a Designer and Animator.

It’s difficult to estimate the scope of the project from just this information alone; Video Games Deluxe may be handling only a portion of the game’s development.

Whether it’s a completely new IP or a continuation of the GTA series also remains to be seen. The dedicated VR studio cut its virtual teeth on adapting the non-VR version of L.A. Noire (2011) to the medium, so it’s also possible we could be seeing a VR-adapted re-release of an extant Rockstar title such as GTA V (2013) or Red Dead Redemption.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Ad

    I’m guessing a port, and I think they would call LA Noire Crime stories itself a AAA game so keep expectations in check. Upload VR thinks this is the next Alyx and I think that’s unlikely unless we’re just talking about amounts of content.

    • Bob

      I’m predicting that this game will be a port of GTA 5 over to VR as day one launch title for the PSVR 2.

      Calling it now :)

      • Ad

        I’m skeptical because of the scale of that job if they want it to feel high quality. I think it’s a VR sequel to LA Noire.

        • Bob

          No it’s not a sequel to LA Noire because no one really gives a damn about LA Noire in comparison to a full blown port of GTA 5 which all the masses are in love with on flatscreen. Also to make a sequel would take much longer than it would of an existing game that already technically works within VR.

          Not to mention the money making potential simply isn’t there with this so-called sequel of a detective game.

          • Ad

            Yes but can 15 people port a massive game like GTA without cutting insane amounts of corners?

          • Bob

            Hello Games did it successfully with 20 people (at the time) with No Man’s Sky with a monumentally smaller budget and taking approximately just over a year without cutting insane amounts of corners. And that game has a myriad of systems and game mechanics significantly more complex than a game that doesn’t offer anything else other than roaming around, collecting guns and cars, and taking on missions from NPCs.

            And did I already mention that the game already works within VR? It’s already proven to work which makes the testing a whole lot easier.

          • Ad

            1) I don’t think that comparison works and it took like 6 years of development to get to where it is now.
            2) If you mean the VR implementation, I can tell you right now that people would absolutely not be okay with that level of quality for a GTA port. NMS VR was a free update, it would not have been received nearly as well if it was a separate purchase.
            3) You don’t pick anything up in NMS, you don’t drive a hundred different cars on roads, you barely have combat, environments are less complex, and the gameplay in my opinion is definitely simpler.

  • namekuseijin

    Rockstar is not producing a new VR AAA OW game. ex-Team Bondi is working on a new project to port a Rockstar AAA OW game to VR. I’d be fine with either a full port of GTA V, RDR 1 or 2 – preferably the latter.

    • Are you positive it’s a port? I really hope it’s gta v

    • DanDei

      I don’t think it will RDR2. How few systems could run that game in VR? They’d have to lower details by a lot. Also, car driving seems much more a VR thing than horse riding.

      • namekuseijin

        I had no issues riding horses in Skyrim. RDR2 would really be a dream.

        don’t be discouraged by VR mods of GTA V requiring much hardware. Proper VR port can manage level of detail in distant objects better, rendering them mostly flat until closer. Plus, resolution is not as high on TVs, plus foveated rendering, either static as of now or dynamic in future headsets with eye-tracking, as Sony’s latest “ad” patent suggests.

        • Will

          It also likely won’t be coming for a few years, lots of time for both technology and techniques to catch up for a proper port.

          • Jerald Doerr

            It’s not going to take years….

          • Will

            It’s Rockstar, it’ll take years. They’ve been coasting on the last GTA for 7 years now, and 14 years passed between Red Dead 1 and 2. Even just porting an already completed VR mini-game in LA Noire: The VR Case Files from PC to PSVR they took 2 years. If they’re porting a fully-realized VR version of one of their AAA titles it’ll take a couple years, and if they’re building something from the ground up it’ll come nearer the end of the next console cycle. These folks do not move quickly.

          • DeenVR

            > 14 years passed between Red Dead 1 and 2

            Wtf are you babbling about, RDR = 2010, RDR2 = 2018

            And it’s a third party doing the port, clickbait title is clickbait

          • Will

            Lol I was thinking of Red Dead Revolver which did come out in 2004, but even the gap between Redemption 1 & 2 is still 8 years. These guys really don’t move fast. The studio doing the port works exclusively for Rockstar so I feel they’re more of a 2nd party, like Rare and Nintendo used to be. They’re essentially a Rockstar branch – and given they took two years just to port their previous mini-game from PC to PSVR, I also think it’s safe to say they’ve been thoroughly indoctrinated by Rockstar’s lackadaisical culture.

          • Wild Dog

            I think the easiest choices would be L.A. Noire VR complete edition since they’ve already built the game in a sense and Bully VR since the weaponry is incredibly VR friendly. Slingshot, thrown weapons and a baseball bat? More boring but perfect for VR, the minigames would probably be the hardest part.

            At this point, I doubt they’ll be making a GTAV or RDR2 VR port soon or even at any point in the future, not even to bring in a crossplatform influx of VR users. They’d have to optimize them to make that happen.

            Though I’ll be exceptionally giddy to be proven wrong.

          • Will

            An L.A. Noire VR complete edition would be fine by me, although I would prefer RDR2 since I haven’t played it yet. I think that would be the smartest move on their part as well since it’s the freshest release with the biggest sales numbers to capitalize on when re-releasing next gen. That or putting them in charge of bolting VR to whatever/whenever their next GTA is.

          • Wild Dog

            RDR2 would probably be the hardest nut to crack. On top of figuring out how dual wield would work, they’d need to figure out how to let players reload guns that were meant to have unique reloads.

            GTAV would probably be the second easiest, being that most of the reloads are just a change of a magazine and there’s no akimbo.

          • Will

            I agree RDR2 would likely be the most difficult to port, but mostly because of it’s scope and more detailed graphics to optimize for VR. Developing control schemes is relatively simple in comparison, at least in terms of workload, and there are plenty of existing VR games where dual-wielding is a mechanic to draw from. It’s not really a make-or-break feature either, if they decide to go the Half-Life: Alyx route. It would almost certainly be the most lucrative opportunity for a VR port from their library though, so that’s a pretty strong vote in its favor either way.

          • Wild Dog

            As lucrative as it might be, I think Triple-A companies have proven quite hesitant to bet on VR with their top dollar franchises. It’s only been fairly recently we heard about upcoming titles like hitman 3’s PSVR mode, splinter cell VR and this. I would not be surprised if Rockstar chose an easier franchise to dip its feet into the water.

          • Will

            They already “dipped their feet” into VR development with L.A. Noire, that was the whole point. Now they have a VR studio integrated with their work flow. The difference between porting GTA or RDR is minimal. I think you’re overestimating the difficulties. Amateurs have done passable VR ports in their spare time. An entire studio dedicated to the task is entirely capable. There are plenty of comparable AAA examples already: Skyrim, No Man’s Sky, Fallout 4, and Borderlands are all large open world games with successful VR ports. And of course you have many other types of AAA ports like Star Wars: Squadrons, Minecraft, Resident Evil 7 and big ground-up games like Half-Life: Alyx, Astro Bot, and Asgard’s Wrath. By the time PSVR 2 launches the VR market will be quite mature. When the amount of effort needed to port GTA vs RDR is negligible, while the reward for RDR is much greater, it just seems to point in that direction. Who knows, companies make what I would consider mistakes all the time too, and sometimes they’re even right.

          • Wild Dog

            I think you’re overestimating their level of experience by comparison. In LA Noire VR, the most advanced feature I’m aware they added was VRIK and the driving. To my knowledge, the control scheme was little different from other titles, no dual-wielding or grenades.

            Yes, Rockstar dipped their feet into the water with LA Noire VR, but that doesn’t mean they think they’re ready to do a cannonball into the pool, nor do I think they should. GTA V would better fit the control scheme they’ve been using so far and would likely garner a substantial level of support.

            It could be the cherry on the sundae as far as GTAV is concerned to finish off all their work on it, and the crystallization of what they’ve learned so far about VR. I’d rather they polish off their skills that way before taking on RDR2 VR.

            No man’s sky was an impressive leap, but titles like RE7 and squadrons don’t even have controller support. I imagine you wouldn’t be too satisfied if the only VR support they added to RDR2 was headset support. And minecraft is the point and click of VR, there wasn’t any difficulty there.

          • Will

            Fair points. It’ll be interesting to see which way they choose. I also have zero interest in GTA V but am looking forward to RDR2 at some point in VR or otherwise so I’m sure that color’s some hope into my opinion lol.

            In general, I think we disagree on the relative difficulty of either port though. Both Skyrim and Fallout 4 were ported relatively quickly with full controller support. Compared to full game development it really only takes a small team a short amount of time to add decent VR support. Mostly it’s just playing around with the feel of things, nothing on the scale of building a game engine, coding AI, art pipelines, composing scores, bug testing, etc. that we see for the core game. They’re really just layering some control and UI elements on top of the existing package. The amount of work there doesn’t really change much for either title. Performance optimization would likely take a bit longer for a more modern, performance intensive game like RDR2 of course.

            You have convinced me that it’s certainly possible Rockstar would choose the route of GTA first though, despite the fact I personally think it’s the wrong choice I can see the reasoning and can certainly imagine them seeing things that way as well. I believe it would be more wise for them to strike while the iron is hot however, and go with a game that hasn’t already been spread across two console generations. RDR2 still looks like a cutting edge game, and hasn’t worn out much of it’s welcome with multiple releases already. Save a VR GTA experience for GTA VI and just let GTA V go already it’s been 8 damn years lol.

          • Wild Dog

            I certainly feel you on that last point, but while it might be harder to imagine them implementing VR on such a big, often graphics intensive game, there is precedent. I mean, we bought Skyrim VR didn’t we? Would you abstain from GTAVR?

            As for discerning what we disagree on, I don’t think game building has been the biggest obstacle for progress in VR development, but rather control design. Do you recall hearing that VR is the most elder-friendly videogame platform ever? Creating intuitive VR controls are in my opinion, the biggest and most important hurdle. I don’t know if you’ve tried them, but titles like VTOL VR and a few motion controller supporting racing games show us how important and versatile intuitive virtual controls can be. They’re criminally underappreciated in my opinion, I was pissed when you couldn’t grab the joystick yourself in Star Wars Squadrons. They lied about full VR support, it’s literally right in front of you and you can’t grab it in VR! Ridiculous.

            Anyway, I think if we lose that intuitive spark good motion control support tends to have, we’ll start seeing a decline in VR game quality. The fire grows slowly, but oh is it worth it.

            I’ve also enjoyed our lengthy and intellectual conversation. I’m honored that I’ve reached you in such a way.

          • Will

            Cheers – I consider any conversation that affords me the experience of changing my mind a success! Although, as a close second I’ll take changing someone else’s mind, I suppose the ideal situation would be something learned on both sides. I’m sure people would still purchase GTAVR, it just wouldn’t be near the “event” of a RDRVR at this point. Actually, to that I guess they could re-release the original RDR and it would seem like a bigger event release than yet another GTA V port.

            I agree that the biggest overall hurdle is nailing VR controls, and no one has quite managed it yet. I think the interactions have become decent though, and with the release of PSVR 2.0 the limiting factor of lowest common there will finally be removed from the development cycle in PSVR 1.0; I think that’s a big part of the reason for lack of full VR controls still, too many people still have older hardware. A full second generation cycle should finally address that.

            The bigger problem I see is movement controls. Once good 6DOF controllers and headsets are widely available at mass market pricing, that will still be a huge problem to be solved. I really can’t see a critical mass of consumers adopting VR treadmills as a standard. What I’d like to see is something like Ascend VR, where the players own bodily movement through 3D space determines the direction and speed beyond 1-to-1 movement. I’m excited to see how that’s received, and how further development iterates if it proves successful.

          • Wild Dog

            It’s wonderful to meet someone else who enjoys it. We should stay in touch. Discord, steam?

            I’m not so sure about how much steam it’d pick up in RDR2 by comparison. In some ways, I’d say the overall experience is actually kind of primed for VR if you look past the weapons, like picking up items from shops. I just suspect players have come to expect GTA to make comebacks in terms of content or gameplay, rather than RDR2. I’m sure it’d make money, but I get the feeling people are expecting it to come from GTAV and might be caught off-guard.

            As for movement controls, I haven’t had any complaints about using joysticks for smoothwalk/smoothturn w/ a side of Hmd-oriented movement. I do look forward to hip tracking and the benefits that’ll bring as well as full body tracking.

          • Will

            Cool – Disqus and Reddit are pretty much the only social media I use with any regularity, sometimes Twitter. I’m currently DJ-Dowism on reddit and @DJDowism on Twitter. I’m looking to get on Soundcloud soon and might be changing names tho lol but if you’re interested I can update then.

            Both RDR2 and GTAV have sold an incredible number of copies, somewhere around 15 million per year each since release. It seems like we’re coming down to personal biases on which we’d rather play ourselves in VR, you’d rather play GTAV and I’d rather play RDR2. Really, it seems like both would sell a ton of copies either way and in the end it would be great to see both released in VR anyway so I guess it really doesn’t matter. They should be applying much of the same lessons on VR controls and UI to both games and any subsequent releases so the only thing we can say with any certainty is that they’ll likely keep getting better at it as they go. So, maybe I should hope they release GTAV first ;)

            In my personal experience I’m a bit mixed on current movement controls, but I have certainly felt some motion sickness in FPS games using the thumbstick to move, and I think there is a decent percentage of players in the same boat. I also tend to think it’s more immersive and intuitive when your own body motions are being reflected in the game. Ascend VR seems promising to me as a solution, but I’d like to try Golem on PSVR which has some similar adjustments. Options for different players is probably the best bet. If you just want to sink into the couch and thumbstick doesn’t give you motion sickness that’s probably great for lots of situations – especially if you’re wanting to relax lol. Myself I do fell more engaged being physically active in the game world, generally at least.

          • Wild Dog

            I’m almost ready to gut some divine entity for this BS RDR2 style. It’s like I’m getting pranked. I meet someone cool that I wanna get to know more and then life throws a “just kidding lol, they don’t use real chat services”. Hate it. Fine, let’s go with reddit since they at-least try at a chat service. The twitter one isn’t as good.

            It’s just my idea of public perception. They don’t add content as much at a time or at a comparable frequency in RDR2 so I don’t think people look to it for attractive updates. Sort of a “I’ve already tried everything in-game, if there’s no new content I’m just doing it for the story perspective.”

            And that’s cool, but it could age a little more. Could use that time for retexturing, optimization and figuring out the controls. GTAV on the other hand has a shitload of toys ripe and ready to try in VR.

          • Will

            Lol no need to go all Kratos on some poor unsuspecting deities. I’m just more private/antisocial than some I guess, and never been drawn to most social media. Same would likely go for my enjoyment of RDR2 vs GTAV as well, I really don’t get much out of multiplayer I only play games for the single player story mode, so most of the post-launch support for GTA V just doesn’t interest me. I do really like the way a game like Witcher 3 was supported though, with multiple huge story campaigns added. Actually, that’s a game I’d love to see in VR too. Their follow up Cyberpunk 2077 as well, a least once the kinks are worked out in a few years I’d imagine there will be quite a few campaign add-ons by then.

          • Wild Dog

            Yeah, we all woulda liked to see Cyberpunk VR. I loved how the weapon selection works in it compared to most FPS’s, such a delightful selection. A veritable candy store!

          • Will

            Maybe by the time I get a PS5 they’ll have at least worked out the kinks in the 2D version on CP2077…

          • Wild Dog

            There’s an idea. I messaged you on reddit btw.

          • Will

            Huh, just looked and couldn’t see anything. What’s up?

          • Wild Dog
          • Wild Dog

            We were both wrong, it seems.

          • Will

            Lol, well I did suggest RDR1 might be a pretty sweet pick. I certainly would have preferred it to San Andreas, I’d much rather explore a rural setting in VR. The choice to go with an older game makes sense though, even if they did just hilariously fumble the 2D remaster.

          • Wild Dog

            As sweet as RDR1 VR would be, I think they’re more used to San Andreas.

  • Bumpy

    I’m imagining a cheap, quick Fallout 4 VR type port. So basically, very simplistic; the only thing VR about it would be the weapon firing or throwing and ‘being there’ in full 3D.

    I hope to be proven wrong and it will contain Boneworks quality interaction.

    • Sven Viking

      Considering it’s from the dev/s who did their L.A. Noire VR port I’d guess that game would provide a better guide. Presumably they’ll know a lot more about VR since finishing that port, though.

      • Oh man, that one didn’t have smooth locomotion. :o

        • Sven Viking

          “ Smooth Locomotion
          To maximize accessibility and appeal to the preferences of multiple players, L.A. Noire lets you choose from four comfortable locomotion modes:

          – Double-click the right trigger for reticule-based blink movement
          – Select highlighted key objects with your gaze and click the right trigger to see your avatar move from a third-person perspective prior to teleporting
          – Swing your arms to simulate virtual walking—and hold down the right trigger to sprint
          – Access classic thumbstick-based movement from the pause menu for directional navigation.”

        • Gonzax

          Wrong, it did have smooth locomotion!

    • Boneworks is bar none the most damn fun vr interaction.

  • Dave

    The title makes you believe Rockstar are developing a original AAA VR game. It appears because they are using of another company that this will probably just be a port. It’s just not what was promised in the article title which was why I clicked here in the first place.

  • ComfyWolf

    Rockstar is most likely testing the waters with a VR port, even if it does well it will be a long time before they develop a fully fledged VR game from the ground up.

    • Sven Viking

      They already did that with L.A. Noire VR, though I’d guess they’ll be testing the waters again with a more polished VR port this time.

      • Ghosty

        The day for VR ports is over lets see some made for VR AAA games! Valve has shown the way, lets hope it inspired Rockstar!

        • Sven Viking

          Although even HL:A is a low-budget game compared to something like GTA or RDR. Estimates for RDR2’s budget are insane.

        • mirak

          I didn’t go very far in GTA V since I don’t play non vr anymore, so I am good for it.
          Also I will never play red ded redeption 2 if not in VR, so I am ok for it.
          If it’s well done.

      • ComfyWolf

        The VR market has grown quite a bit since LA Noire VR, and that also wasn’t the full open world game. If they released something like GTA5 VR, that would give them a better idea of how successful they could expect a VR Rockstar game to be, and would probably be a factor in how much they’re willing to invest into VR for future titles.

  • Ryan

    Exciting! Open world games are my jam.

  • antonio mora

    They might have seen the VR mod by Luke Ross.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    Still think LA Noire VR should have been a DLC instead of the expensive game it is now, for people who already own the full game. From most reviews I gather the VR is just partially tagged on to the original game.

    • gothicvillas

      If you have played you would know for sure without guessing

      • Andrew Jakobs

        But I think the game is still way too expensive even at 50% off during the steamdays. I already own the complete game on PC AND PS3..

        • Andrew McEvoy

          I know Im not really saying anything interesting, but I must say I really enjoyed LA Noire Vr ..played it through 4 or 5 times now over the years. Agree though it would have been great with at least double the missions though

  • indi01

    Great news! Hope it’ll be RDR but I’ll take GTA no problem!

  • Please rockstar: offer options for boneworks style gameplay, and half life alyx polish, and rockstars immersive open world. Please don’t do the thing where the game magically runs like a dream on psvr on a ps4 and garbage on a pc. I’m looking at you no mans sky vr.
    It’s gotta be roomscale, hand collision, good locomotion (boneworks is a prime example).

    • Kay Becker

      for your NMS part, I would say that’s the other way around: ran awesomely well on my PC and looks like crap on PS Pro – amazing technology lol Let’s face it also, not sure what you are running as PC machine, but NMS is still one of the most graphically demanding program on my PC I got a lot of them.

  • doug

    Sounds like a launch-day purchase to me, port or fresh title. In terms of hours played, Fallout 4 VR was the best value in my VR library, thanks to the game’s open world design.

  • Sky Castle

    Having already played GTAV in VR with a mod I’d rather see an new GTA VI or something fresh.

  • Greyl

    I love playing GTAV in VR on PC, via the mod, so this sounds exciting.

  • Bob

    The PSVR 2 will most likely launch by holiday 2021 and this game will be GTA 5 exclusively for the new Sony headset. What better way to get people buying VR headsets than to sell a massively popular game to be experienced properly in virtual reality for a brand new shiny VR headset for the masses.

    • Kay Becker

      I sure hope they don’t do that because in all honesty, VR is happening on PC right now, not on PS if you ask me.

  • david vincent

    Let’s hope they learnt from their semi-failure “L.A. Noire: The V.R. Case Files”
    (BTW, has L.A. Noire VR been fixed since then ?)

  • I hope it’s a new game, but probably it will be another porting…

    • Andrew McEvoy

      Yeah more than likely. But personally, the port of LA Noire is still one of my all time favourites. Id take more of that kind of fun at the very least.

  • Keith Collins

    they have removed the reference to the AAA open world game from their linkedin post

    reported in the description section here

    https://youtu.be/TsAHlBx7BcU

  • Wild Dog

    Is this writer retarded? A cheap new IP, maybe.

    A continuation of GTA? lol