Schell Games sequels to its hugely successful virtual reality game I expect you to die, and it is expected to appear later this year.
Along with the announcement, the studio mentioned that the original game earned $ 6 million in revenue on all VR platforms, which may explain how it can afford to make a sequel. It’s not yet clear which VR platforms the next game will be coming to, but it will at least come on Steam, indicating support for Vive, Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
The original was more or less an escape room in VR with a spy theme, and the second looks like it will be more of the same, which is not necessarily unwelcome in a world where real escape room is not really accessible during a pandemic.
So far, most of the early era VR games that people would recognize have not been followed up, and this is doubly so for those made by indie studios. While Lone Echo has a sequel in the works, the studio behind it was bought by Facebook and is now part of Oculus Studios. Just like that, Job Simulatorcontinued (Holiday Simulator, of course), was made after the studio behind it was bought by Google.
Superhot was very nice when it comes to VR, but its sequel does not support VR game yet. I can continue to make a list of VR games that have not received sequels Arizona Sunshine, Boneworks, en Klop Saber (not that it needs one), but you get the picture.
Hopefully this follow-up announcement addresses the fact that VR is coming out of a slump. It experienced a fairly successful 2020, with the release of Half-life: Alyx and the Oculus Quest 2, but one year of success does not necessarily indicate a trend. As with all things, content is king, and VR will continue to release killers to gain market share. Of course, that’s not all. I expect you to die 2shoulders, but if it can repeat the success of the original, it may indicate that the VR market is back on its feet.