‘Titanfall’ Developer, Respawn Entertainment, Teases Rift Exclusive Game Coming in 2019

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Today at Oculus Connect 4, the company’s Head of Content, Jason Rubin, announced that Oculus Studios will be publishing a Rift exclusive title made by Respawn Entertainment, the studio founded by ex-Call of Duty, and the creators of Titanfall.

On stage during the Oculus Connect opening keynote, Jason Rubin revealed a range of forthcoming Oculus content.

At the end, Rubin said that he constantly gets asked when the world’s leading developers will begin creating VR games. He remains steadfast that they will come, and asked for patience, but also said that he was ready to “made a down payment on that promise today.”

That was the lead up to the reveal that Oculus Studios will be publishing a Rift exclusive title, developed by Respawn Entertainment, coming in 2019. Little more has been revealed about the game, including a name, however, the 2019 release date suggests this will be a full VR title with a lengthy, AAA development period.

The companies release this teaser trailer:

In a post to Respawn Entertainment’s blog about the announcement, Game Director Peter Hirschmann offered just a bit more teasing:

There are so many cool parts to making a game in VR, but perhaps the most intense one is emotion. While you know you’re wearing a headset, your brain processes VR on an emotional level. Though you’re in a simulation, you feel like you’re there. It’s all kinds of awesome.

So as a developer, game assets you’ve seen a hundred times on a monitor suddenly become real when you put the headset on. The sense of scale, the sense of presence, there’s nothing else like it. It’s the difference between using your mouse to rotate an object in an editor and walking around it in real life. It is a true privilege to build a game in this kind of immersive world.

Hirschmann also revealed that the studio’s upcoming VR game is not a Titanfall VR or Star Wars VR game.

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Respawn Entertainment is the studio behind Titanfall (2014) and Titanfall 2 (2016), both published by EA Games. The studio is made up of an undeniably talented group of game developers, and was founded by ex-Call of Duty developers from Infinity Ward.

Image courtesy Respawn Entertainment

Respawn’s forthcoming VR game is just one of “multiple” Rift exclusive titles which Oculus has confirmed are already in production for 2019.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • GreasyMullet

    The real news here is Oculus long term commitment to the PC confirmed.

    Pure speculation but this may be the first Gen2 game.

    • PJ

      That would be terrible if it did indeed work that way.
      In my mind VR isn’t a platform, it’s a peripheral for the PC. It would be catastrophic if VR turned into a console like release cycle.

      But having AAA developers onboard releasing VR titles is a good thing, but the exclusivity needs to stop, or better yet Oculus take over Revive and officially support of headsets, but in order for them to work they have to run it through Oculus Home, it will be no different to have to instal origin to play EA funded games

  • Raphael

    Imagine your disappointment when the game turns out to be wave shooter with teleport and no mechs but bow and arrow mechanic and balloons to pop.

    Only kidding.

  • Bruce Steever

    Oh yisssssssss