Population: One, the battle royale game built specifically for VR, was already confirmed to support cross-play between Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality. If you’re on Oculus Quest, we now know that you’ll be able to join in on the fun, too.
Confirmed via YouTube creator VR Oasis on Twitter, Population: One will support cross-play between Quest and all other versions of the game. You can play the battle royale mode either in matches or in teams, enjoying the same experience as those tethered to a PC.
Population: One aims to make battle royale a fully immersive experience, allowing you to explore on a one square kilometer map, and climb essentially anything you come across. You can also design your own structures like a certain other popular battle royale game, and you can glide over the map in a wing suit to to get the drop on your opponents. There are fewer people per match than other non-VR battle royale games – a typical match only has 24 people – but that makes every encounter even more important.
Other VR battle royale games include Rec Royale from Rec Room (which isn’t on Quest yet, but is planned) and Stand Out: VR Battle Royale, which does not appear to be coming to Quest any time soon, although there is a mobile VR-based spin-off called Survive.
We were fans of Population: One during our time with the game at CES. The climbing system was especially impressive, as all you need to do is reach out your hand and squeeze the grip button in order to start scaling obstacles. This can be particularly useful when looking for the best loot hidden on the map, which you’ll need before going toe-to-toe with your enemies.
Population: One is planned for launch on all platforms later in 2019. You can request access to the game’s private beta by visiting the official website.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post mentioned more details were coming from E3 2019, but that mention has been removed.
Gabe Gurwin is a journalist who has been covering the video game and VR industries since 2010. He is a graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and has written for sites like IGN, Digital Trends, Lifehacker, and VR Fitness Insider.
