Well, Sony just confirmed what… had sort of already been confirmed. Beat Saber is coming to PSVR!
The news was announced during PlayStation’s pre-E3 livestream today as the final part of a series of announcements before tomorrow’s press conference. A trailer introduced the highly popular rhythm action game to viewers.
Beat Saber has players holding what are essentially two lightsabers. Like Guitar Hero, notes stream down from afar and you slash them on time to the beat of the given song. It launched on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in Early Access earlier this year and it’s something of a hit, shifting 100,000 units in less than a month.
We actually always knew Beat Saber was coming to PSVR. The intention was announced as soon as the game was earlier this year. But it’s good to know it’s officially, officially on its way. May the force be… oh what’s the point.
Last week, Sony revealed it was kicking off festivities for E3 2018 early with its ‘Countdown to E3 2018‘, which offered a series of livestreams which would reveal some big news before the event even starts. Today’s announcement concerns the appearance of Beat Saber on the PlayStation VR.
The announcement formed part of the PlayStation effort to whip up hype before the big PlayStation E3 2018 Showcase. Sony promised that an ‘Eagerly Anticipated’ title would be announced for PlayStation VR.
Beat Saber has become something of a minor phenomenon since it was launched on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Combining lightsaber-swinging action with fast-paced rhythm game gameplay which offers satisfying musical reaction to getting the movement right.
The PC VR version got a good response in its preview from VRFocus, where it was said: “Beat Saber works excellently at everything it sets out to do. It can easily eat vast amounts of your time without you even realising it as you fight to get a perfect score. The gameplay is extremely satisfying while still being very simple and is the sort of thing that would serve as a great introduction to VR.”
Previously announced during the PlayStation E3 Countdown were a virtual reality (VR) take on the famous Tetris franchise called Tetris Effect, brought to the PlayStation VR by Rez Infinite developer Enhance Games. Players can expect classic Tetris fast-paced puzzle gameplay along with the stunning visuals that Enhance Games have become known for.
Also announced was a VR platform title called Ghost Giant, in which the player takes the role of a see-through giant who befriends a sunflower farmer called Louis and helps him to solve problems and progress forward.
The big Sony media showcase and presentation is yet to come, and there is much anticipation on what will be revealed, with some leaked documentation suggesting that Spider-Man, Bioshock Resurgence and Resident Evil 2 will be featured, along with PlayStation VR compatibility for each.
For continued coverage of E3 2018, keep checking back with VRFocus.
Nach dem phänomenalen Verkaufsstart von Beat Saber am 1. Mai im Early Access konnte der rhythmusbetonte VR-Titelbereits nach einer Woche mehr als 50.000 verkaufte digitale Kopien auf den Verkaufsplattformen Steam und im Oculus Store vorweisen. Und der Verkaufstrend setzt sich fort, denn knapp einen Monat später twittern die Entwickler von Hyperbolic Magnetism nunerneut über den nächsten erreichten Meilenstein: Das Spiel knackte bereits jetzt die 100.000er-Marke.
Beat Saber – Mehr als 100.000 verkaufte Kopien nach knapp einem Monat
Der Erfolgstrend des VR-Rhythmusspiels Beat Saber scheint auch weiterhin nicht zu stoppen. Der VR-Titel feierte bereits nach einer Woche mehr als 50.000 verkaufte digitale Einheiten und konnte damit einen Umsatz von knapp einer Millionen Euro erwirtschaften. Nebenbei sicherte sich der Topseller in den Verkaufscharts von Steam einen festen Platz in den oberen Rängen. Auf der Erfolgswelle reitend, twitterten die Entwickler von Hyperbolic Magnetism damals die nächste anstehende Hürde: Die 100.00er-Marke. Ein ambitioniertes Ziel, das nun, nicht einmal drei Wochen später, bereits erfüllt wurde:
Wow! Beat Saber sold 100,000 copies in less than a month! We're so excited to watch our community grow this much. Thank you for your support!
Nebenbei verkünden die Entwickler erneut den nächsten Schritt innerhalb ihrer Erfolgsgeschichte: Den bereits von vielen Fans gewünschten Level-Editor sowie neue Musikinhalte, um mehr Abwechslung in der Songauswahl zu ermöglichen. Derzeit stehen zehn verschiedene Musikstücke zur Auswahl. Die Community behilft sich derzeit mit verschiedenen Mods, beispielsweise einem Doppellaserschwert im Stil des “Star Wars”-AntagonistenDarth Maul.
In Beat Saber zerschneiden die Spieler anfliegende Blöcke mit Laserschwertern rhythmisch zur Musik in liebevoll handgefertigten Leveln. Der VR-Titel gewährt einen casual-freundlichen Einstieg, fordert jedoch bei ambitionierten Zielen ein gutes Taktgefühl sowie ein ausgeprägtes Können am Lichtschwert. Die besten Tipps und Tricks zum Erreichen einer S-Auszeichnung findet ihr hier. Dabei ist das spaßige Zersäbeln der anfliegenden Blöcke durchaus anstrengend und gleicht dem Kalorienverbrauch einer Runde Tennis.
Since it was released on to Steam Early access, Beat Saber has become something of a phenomenon. The online leader boards are filled with players striving to reach those high scores, and of course VRFocusstaff have been practising and bring you a bit of gameplay in Hard mode.
Bringing the same kind of fluid, satisfying gameplay as rhythm games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, Beat Saber is an action-rhythm virtual reality (VR) title where the player wields a pair of lightsaber-like swords and slices up blocks.
Of course, it isn’t quite that simple. Each block has an arrow, so the player needs to slice in that direction, and keep the the beat of the music. If successful, you are rewarded with a more beautiful and complex form of the playing music, which makes for a very satisfying playing experience.
That’s not all, though, for more experienced players there is ‘No Arrow’ mode. This means that all the arrows on the blocks go away, so the player is free to choose whichever direction cut is most efficient. Don’t think that learning the block layout in regular mode will help, though, since the No Arrow mode offers a different beat chart to add to the difficulty.
VRFocuswere lucky enough to try the title for a preview, and said: “Beat Saber works excellently at everything it sets out to do. It can easily eat vast amounts of your time without you even realising it as you fight to get a perfect score. The gameplay is extremely satisfying while still being very simple and is the sort of thing that would serve as a great introduction to VR.”
Developer Hyperbolic Magnetism are regularly updating Beat Saber with new tracks in the various modes. You can also check out our previousBeat Saber gameplay video. VRFocuswill bring you updates on Beat Saber as it becomes available.
Beat Saber is one of the most popular VR games around. However, not only is the rhythm game popular for its base game and DLC tracks, but also for its huge custom map community.
There’s a wealth of great community maps available online, and with a little bit of tinkering you can start playing some fantastic custom maps in Beat Saber. Here’s our guide on how to get started.
The following guide is for the PC VR version of Beat Saber only. Modifying the game doesn’t seem to be possible on PSVR and the Oculus Quest has a very different process that changes regularly, depending on which tools are currently available.
This guide is up to date as of February 2021 for version 1.13.2 of Beat Saber. We’ll try to keep this guide up to date as much as possible, but sometimes it can be hard to keep up with all the patches and changes to the modding tools.
If you’re using a newer version of Beat Saber and this article hasn’t been updated, it’s likely that the process remains exactly the same. If not, let us know in the comments and keep an eye out for an update.
Tools and Sites
There are a bunch of different tools and sites you can use for Beat Saber modification. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll be using Mod Assistant for installation and first-time setup and the site Beast Saber to find and download custom maps.
Although we won’t cover it here, if you want to read up on an alternative for managing your custom maps, check out BeatDrop 2.
While we prefer using Mod Assistant to keep things simple, it is possible to manually download and install custom maps yourself, without any external tools. To see how, scroll to the bottom of this guide.
You might also need to know the install location of Beat Saber on your system. If you simply installed the game through Oculus or Steam on your standard C:// drive in the default location, then you shouldn’t need to worry. However, if you have your games installed in a custom location or you have multiple drives with different programs installed across them, you might want to locate your Beat Saber install folder location now (you should be able to use the Oculus app or Steam to find the location). In this instance, the folder you want to select is the one called ‘hyperbolic-magnetism-beat-saber’.
Also, make sure you’ve run/played Beat Saber at least once on your system before proceeding or installing any mods.
First Time Install
If you’ve never installed custom maps on your copy of Beat Saber, you’ll need to install some plugins and mods that enable third-party map support in-game. When Beat Saber updates, your custom maps may or may not be intact/enabled. For example, previous updates (such as going from 1.6 to 1.7 of Beat Saber) did not disable or remove any custom maps. However, patches and updates do have the potential to break mod support, so you’ll have to check on a case-by-case basis with each new update.
In this event, a new version of ModAssistant will be released to work with the new patch. As of the most recent 1.13 patch of Beat Saber, ModAssistant is up-to-date and should work with Beat Saber.
For future updates, there’s a chance you may have to repeat these steps again, perhaps with some changes to accommodate for a new patch.
To set up a first-time install or update your modded Beat Saber after a new patch:
1. Open up ModAssistant.exe and agree to the terms of use.
You don’t need to install Mod Assistant — you can place it anywhere and open it from wherever, whenever you want to use it.
If Mod Assistant can’t find you Beat Saber install folder, it will ask you to locate it. Point it toward the folder you located earlier, if so.
2. Open up the Mods tab.
When you open the mods tab, all of the prerequisite mods for custom maps should be automatically ticked. There are a whole bunch of others you can install, but for the purposes of this tutorial, just click the “Install or Update” button in the bottom right for now. You only need to install the basic, pre-selected mods to play and install custom maps.
NOTE: On the left hand side, you’ll see a drop down menu indicating your Beat Saber version. Sometimes, after an update, the latest release of Mod Assistant might not technically support the latest version of Beat Saber. In this case, Mod Assistant should warn you that your Beat Saber version is newer than what the program supports. It should also ask if you want to proceed anyway. In the past, we’ve successfully been able to proceed anyway and just continue the process with the most recent supported version of Beat Saber selected in Mod Assistant, even if it doesn’t completely match the version we have installed. While we didn’t run into any problems, this might vary on a patch-by-patch basis or might change in the future.
3. Wait for mods to finish installing.
Once mods are finished installing, you’re ready to install some custom maps.
Install Custom Maps
If you didn’t change any of the preset mod installs, then Mod Assistant should have installed a tool that will allow you to search for and install custom maps in-game. You can find this on the left hand side of the Beat Saber main menu next to release notes. There will be a tab reading “Mods”. Clicking on that tab will offer the option “More Songs”.
If you would rather install maps from your desktop and then hop into VR later to play them, go back to Mod Assistant and go the options tab. Under “Enable One Click Installs,” tick Beast Saber (You should only need to do this once, just to turn the feature on). Then, while browsing maps on Beast Saber, you can simply click the cloud-install button (pictured below) to install a map (you may need to be logged into Beast Saber, you can register a free account).
The cloud download button, third from the right, will install the maps from Beast Saber via Mod Assistant.
When you go to one-click install a map from Beast Saber, your browser might ask if you want to allow the site to open Mod Assistant — click yes. This will bring up a Mod Assistant window showing the install progress — it will say ‘Done’ when the install is complete.
After downloading and installing maps, either in-game or on your desktop, they should appear in-game under a custom songs tab. Go get slicing!
Installing Without Mods
Mod Assistant is an easy one-click solution when used with Beast Saber. However, if you’d rather avoid modding tools all together, you can manually install custom songs yourself without modifying Beat Saber at all.
Simply download your custom song from Beast Saber (or elsewhere), which should come as a ZIP file. Unzip it and copy the resulting folder. Navigate to your Beat Saber install location, and then go to Beat Saber_Data\CustomLevels. Paste the unzipped custom song folder into your Custom Levels folder and you’re good to go.
That should be everything you need to start installing custom maps on Beat Saber for PC VR. If you have any questions or problems, comment below and we’ll try our best to help you out.
This article was initially published in 2018 with a different, now outdated, process. This guide has been updated several times, most recently on the 15th of December 2020, to reflect current methods and remove outdated ones. If you’d like to see an archive of past methods and the previous article content, check out this archive post here.
Das VR-Rhythmusspiel Beat Saber macht nicht nur eine Menge Spaß, sondern bietet dank seines anstrengenden physischen Gameplays zeitgleich eine attraktive Möglichkeit, um den Kalorien den Kampf anzusagen. Das vor einem Jahr gegründete Virtual Reality Institute of Health and Exercise untersuchte kürzlich den Kalorienverbrauch des VR-Titels und kam dabei zu einem interessanten Ergebnis: In einer Runde Beat Saber können Spieler ebenso viel Kalorien verbrennen, wie in einem Tennismatch.
Beat Saber – Mit musikalischem Zerschneiden von Blöcken Gewicht verlieren
Der Early-Access-Titel Beat Saber startete in der ersten Verkaufswoche nicht nur mit beeindruckenden 50.000 verkauften Exemplaren, sondern kann außerdem als Ersatz für Ausdauersport dienen. In einer Untersuchung des Virtual Reality Institute of Health and Exercise stellten die Experten fest, dass das körperbetonte Gameplay des Rhythmusspiels Beat Saber zum erfolgreichen Kalorienverbrennen geeignet ist und dadurch zur Gewichtsreduktion beitragen kann.
Die Wissenschaftler des Instituts arbeiten mit professionellen Forschern der Bewegungswissenschaft zusammen und nutzen eine Methode zum Sammeln der Daten basierend auf dem Metabolischen Äquivalent (MET) – ein Messwert zum Vergleichen des Energieverbrauchs bei verschiedenen Aktivitäten. Dabei wird der Stoffwechselumsatz eines Menschen im Verhältnis zum Körpergewicht erfasst und das Ergebnis tabellarisch eingeordnet.
Dabei erfasst das Institut verschiedene VR-Erfahrungen und -Spiele und vergleicht sie mit den bereits erfassten Daten von diversen Sportarten. In einem Testlauf über vier Spielsessions wurde bei einer Zielgruppe von Casual-Spielern von Beat Sabern ein Mittelwert von 6,24 MET festgestellt, was dem Energieverbrauch einer Runde Tennis (6 bis 8 MET) gleicht. Dies entspricht ungefähr 8 bis 10 verbrauchte Kalorien pro Minute. Damit dieser Wert gehalten wird, müssen die Spieler jedoch dauerhaft in Bewegung bleiben und die Runden nicht frühzeitig abbrechen. Umso höher das Skill-Level des Spielers, desto höher ist auch der Energieverbrauch.
Now that users can mod in their own custom songs for Beat Saber (lots of them are uploaded to Beat Saver for easy access) the game’s already starting to feel more robust. When it launched with just 10 tracks it was still an easy recommendation, but now it’s only growing to become one of VR’s most exciting, addictive, and varied music games.
We’ll be livestreaming Beat Saber on PC using Rift with Touch starting very soon (which means we’ll start at approximately 3:20PM PT) and aim to last for about an hour or so. We’re going to use Restream to hit both YouTubeand Twitchat the same time!
Beat Saber confirms what we all knew: two lightsabers are better than one. But, as fun as dual-wielding laser swords is, wouldn’t it be cool to use them like Darth Maul, too?
One player is doing just that.
One fan of Hyperbolic Magnetism’s popular VR rhythm game is channeling his Phantom Menace in the best way possible using the ProTube VR peripheral. This adaptable add-on holds your VR controllers and can be twisted and turned to resemble virtual objects. In the case of Beat Saber, though, it just needs to hold one of the two VR controllers at each end. In VR, that gives you two lightsabers stuck together, just like Darth Maul’s.
As you can see from the video above, it does make the game a little less practical; Beat Saber’s existing levels are designed with two free hands in mind so it’s not possible to slice every note. But what you lack in high score you’ll more than make up for in feeling like you’ve become one of the most iconic baddies in Star Wars history. We’re sure Maul would be thrilled to learn of his inclusion in VR’s funkiest game if he was, y’know, still alive.
Still, with Beat Saber getting its custom level editor, you could now make levels that cater to different styles of ligthsabers. Call me old fashioned but I’d like to try the game with just the trust blue blade.
Das populäre VR-Rhythmusspiel Beat Saber ist seit dem 1. Mai im Early Access erhältlich und erfreut sich seitdem großer Beliebtheit bei VR-Enthusiasten. Bereits in der ersten Woche erreichten die Entwickler einen Meilenstein, denn sie konnten zusammengezählt auf den beiden Verkaufsplattformen Steam, sowie im Oculus Store mehr als 50.000 digitale Kopien des VR-Titels an den Mann bringen.
Beat Saber – Erfolgreicher Verkaufsstart mit mehr als 50.000 verkauften Exemplaren
Beat Saber befindet sich derzeit noch in der Early-Access-Phase und feiert dennoch mit mehr als 50.000 verkauften Exemplaren in der ersten Woche seinen erfolgreichen Verkaufsstart. Damit konnte das VR-Spiel bei einem Preis von knapp 20 Euro bereits zur Veröffentlichung einen Umsatz von knapp einer Millionen Euro generieren und sich einen Platz als Topseller in den Verkaufslisten auf Steam sichern. Das nächste Ziel liegt bereits klar vor Augen: Die 100.000er-Marke soll ebenso in naher Zukunft geknackt werden.
Das Entwicklerstudio Hyperbolic Magnetism verkündete am 13. Mai auf Twitter den erfolgreichen Durchbruch des Indie-Titels:
Beat Saber sold 50.000 copies in the first week! That's INSANE, guys!
Der Erfolg des innovativen VR-Titels lässt sich anhand der liebevollen und optisch ansprechenden Levelgestaltung durch die Entwickler sowie der suchterzeugenden Mischung aus Musikpartyspiel und schwungvollen Einsatz von Laserschwertern erklären. Das spaßige Zerschneiden der anfliegenden Blöcke zur Musik kann zudem ganz schön schweißtreibend sein, wodurch eine ausgeprägte physische Komponente hinzugefügt wird. Dabei ermöglicht das Musikspiel einen casual-freundlichen Einstieg ins Spiel, fordert jedoch bei ambitionierteren Zielen einiges an Können am virtuellen Lichtschwert sowie gutes Taktgefühl. Damit ihr eine S-Auszeichnung erhaltet, haben wir für euch die besten Tipps und Tricks zusammengefasst.
Bisher beinhaltet das VR-Spiel zehn verschiedene Songtitel, wobei die Entwickler bereits weitere Inhalte in Form von Updates nachreichen möchten. Dazu zählen unter anderem neue Musikstücke von verschiedenen Künstlern und ein eigener Level-Editor, der in naher Zukunft erscheinen soll. Zudem ist die Veröffentlichung einer Konsolenversion für PlayStation VR (PSVR)weiterhin in Planung, wodurch eine komplett neue Zielgruppe angesprochen wird, welche die Verkaufszahlen weiter erhöhen könnte.
In its first month, Beat Saber has sold 100,000 copies across Steam and Oculus, generating $2 million in revenue—another big milestone of success for a game still in early access and made by a three-person indie studio.
Update (05/28/18): Hyperbolic Magnetism has confirmed the new figure of 100,000 units sold, something they say was accomplished in “less than a month” via a recent tweet. The studio also says their level editor, which is poised to bring users a way to bring any music and create & share levels, is still in the works.
The original article detailing the 50K milestone follows below:
Original article (05/14/18): Beat Saber developer Hyperbolic Magnetism confirmed the 50,000 figure on Twitter, suggesting that 100,000 units isn’t far off. At $20 a pop, the game has generated around $1 million in revenue, before the 30% cut taken out by the storefronts.
Considering the game’s independent development, VR’s niche status, and the fact that the game has yet to be launched on PSVR, Beat Saber is a clear indie success, even now just two weeks after its early access launch.
Consider Fez (2012)—one of the best received indie games of the last decade—which took a little more than a month and a half to hit 100,000 unit sales. Yes, it was exclusive to the Xbox at launch, but that still represented a potential audience that was many times larger than all of the high end VR headsets today.
And Beat Saber likely has most of its sales still to come. Despite its polish, the game is still in early access, with the developers still to add one of the top requested features: a track builder for user generated levels. And the game has yet to launch for PSVR, which would increase its potential audience by more than 2 million—which could be more than double what it is with PC VR headsets alone.
Beat Saber’s not-so-secret secret to success seems to have a lot to do with its balance of immediate fun, high accessibility, and motion-driven gameplay—attributes that anyone developing for VR should be heavily considering.
Next steps: finish our Level Editor & bring you fresh new music content! 
