Schell Games, the studio behind I Expect You To Die (2016), today announced the critically-acclaimed VR spy game has generated over $2 million in revenue on the Oculus Quest platform alone.
This, the studio says, was earned through sales of nearly 100,000 copies on Quest, making it one of the 10+ VR games to break the $2 million revenue mark on the platform, joining games such as Pistol Whip and Moss.
I Expect You To Die takes players through Bond-style missions, all of which include the danger of immediate death when its puzzling contraptions kill you in fun and interesting ways. It’s a fun, well-built game, although that’s not the only reason for its on-going success.
Since its initial launch on PSVR and Rift in 2016, and later support for other SteamVR headsets and Quest, the game has benefited from a number of free updates that have added new missions and a subsequent continuation the story of your ongoing infiltration into the various lairs of the evil Dr. Zor. Itwas also one of the first to celebrate success as an early VR entrant, earning in 2018 over $3 million in revenue across all platforms.
“We are thrilled to have hit this milestone with I Expect You To Die, especially when in the company of other great games like Moss and Pistol Whip,” said Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games. “These numbers indicate we are right on the cusp of the Oculus Quest becoming the most popular VR system, and in fact, becoming a mass market phenomenon. I think the Quest will set the standard for consumer VR.”
I Expect You To Die is available on Steam (Vive, Rift, Index), Viveport (Vive, Rift, Index), the Oculus Store (Rift, Quest), and the PlayStation Store (PSVR).
Yesterday VRFocusreported on Fast Travel Games revealing sales success for its videogame Apex Construct and now Schell Games has done the same. Today, the studio has revealed that I Expect You to Die has earned over $2 million USD in revenue thanks to Oculus Quest.
In addition to the revenue, Schell Games also confirmed that almost 100,000 copies had been sold on Oculus Quest alone, not including Steam, Viveport or PlayStation VR platforms.
“We are thrilled to have hit this milestone with I Expect You To Die, especially when in the company of other great games like Moss and Pistol Whip,” said Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games in a statement. “These numbers indicate we are right on the cusp of the Oculus Quest becoming the most popular VR system, and in fact, becoming a mass-market phenomenon. I think the Quest will set the standard for consumer VR.”
That’s quite the feat considering Oculus Quest is only one year old, joining an elite group in the process. Actual Oculus Quest sales figures have never been released but Facebook has previously said owners had spent over $100 million on content and that 10 titles on the store had exceeded $2 million. So $2m seems to be the new defacto goal post to hit.
Originally released for Oculus Rift way back in 2016, I Expect You to Die has continually done well for Schell Games as headset support was expanded and new updates rolled out. The studio announced back in 2017 that it had hit $1m in just eight months, so today’s news is testament to the puzzle titles continued popularity.
I Expect You to Die offers a classic spy tale where you have to foil the nefarious plots of the evil Dr. Zor. Each location is its own little puzzle room with no movement to worry about, items are either within arms reach or can be remotely grabbed. Back in November 2019 Schell Games released the last content update for the videogame, “Operation: Death Engine”, taking players into space. It may be the final update but the team has teased it may not be the end of the franchise.
Schell Games’ I Expect You To Die is the latest VR title to celebrate huge success on Oculus Quest.
The game, which launched on Facebook’s standalone headset last year, has sold nearly 100,000 copies on the platform, generating $2 million in revenue. I Expect You To Die offers a series of escape room-style virtual puzzles set to a secret agent theme. Several free levels were added to the title following Quest launch last year.
In September 2018, over six months before Quest launch, we reported that I Expect You To Die had generated $3 million in revenue across PC VR and PSVR headsets. The game came to PC in late 2016 and followed on PSVR in early 2017. In other words, the Quest has reached two-thirds of that revenue milestone in 12 months, whereas those three platforms combined took nearly 24 months to reach $3 million.
I Expect You To Die joins Moss and Pistol Whip on a list of named games that have raised $2 million on Quest. Facebook says there are over 10 titles that have raised this amount so far. We’ve heard from plenty more developers saying they’ve seen better sales on the headset, which makes VR more accessible thanks to onboard computing and a wire-free design.
Indeed, we said that the Quest version of I Expect You To Die was the best way to experience the game. Schell Games is currently working on its next VR title, Until You Fall, which is on Early Access for PC VR headsets with Quest and PSVR versions planned.
The news comes a few days after Fast Travel Games confirmed that its debut VR game, Apex Construct, had passed 100,000 units sold across all platforms. The company specified that half of those sales were generated in its second year, which is around the time Quest launched.
From Immersion VR, the same developers behind The Ancients, Extreme Escapes is an upcoming VR puzzle game that will support “all major headsets.” The footage shown above on Reddit is from the Oculus Quest version, but tethered headsets like the Rift S will have “better visuals” according to the developer on Reddit.
What’s notable about the brief bit of gameplay, other than the obviously impressive visuals, is just how interactive everything is. You can see the player reaching out and touching with tons of objects in the environment. It looks like a fiddler’s paradise in that floating contraption. For more, you can see this three-month old beta gameplay video too.
Stylistically I’m getting strong Red Matter vibes, which is certainly a compliment for the artists on the project, and gameplay looks a bit like an expanded and more free-form version of I Expect You To Die.
If puzzles and escape games are your jam, then you definitely need to keep an eye on The Room VR: A Dark Matter, which releases later this month on all major VR platforms. Check out our hands-on and interview right here for more on that one.
We don’t know a release date yet for Extreme Escapes, nor do we have any other concrete details, but the footage looked too promising to ignore. We’ve reached out to the developer for more details and will follow-up with more coverage when we hear back.
Perhaps one of the most common genres found in the myriad of VR games is the humble puzzle game. With such an immersive platform that carries huge interactive potential, puzzle games are an instant fit for VR.
The genre has become a staple of all VR platforms, so we’ve put together a list of some of the best puzzle games available across them all. Only a few of the games are platform exclusives, and some of the games are available across more than one platform. There’s also a few particularly older titles that have a new life on the ever-popular Oculus Quest standalone system.
Without further ado, here are 15 of the best VR puzzle games and experiences, ordered alphabetically.
A Fisherman’s Tale
Platforms: Oculus Quest, PC VR (SteamVR, Oculus Store, Viveport), PSVR
A Fisherman’s Tale is a short but incredibly charming puzzle game from development studio Innerspace. While it’s definitely on the shorter side, the ingenious puzzles will make you rack your brain until you finally reach that critical ‘a-ha’ moment that feels so satisfying. A Fisherman’s Tale was nominated in our Best of VR 2019 Awards for the Best PSVR Game/Experience, Best Quest Game/Experience, Best PC VR Game/Experience, and overall Overall Best VR Of 2019.
I Expect You To Die 2
Platforms: Oculus Quest, PC VR (Steam, Oculus Store), PSVR
Five years on from the release of the original, I Expect You To Die 2 is a game that executes a specific style of grueling puzzle game incredibly well. It’s a trial-and-error affair where you’ll spend an hour testing things, only to realize that the solution was obvious and right in front of you the whole time. It’s the mark of a quality puzzle — one where the solution is hidden not through obscure design, but through your own short-sightedness — but it can also mean a slow burn and periods of heavy frustration. You can read more in our review.
This excellent, high-tension puzzle game was designed in the very early days of VR with the constraints of the early hardware in mind. However, you wouldn’t know it while playing it today – Keep Talking remains an absolute blast to play with friends. The game sees you work with a partner to decipher increasingly difficult puzzles in order to disable a timed bomb before it detonates. One person operates the bomb in VR, while the other(s) reads and deciphers a printed (or website version) manual to help the bomb diffuser figure out what to do with the various attachments and buttons. It’s a fantastic puzzle game that you can play with someone who doesn’t want to put on a headset, but still wants to participate.
It would be easy to dismiss this game as a cash-in attempt to bring a beloved staple franchise of mobile gaming over to VR, only existing to make a quick buck. However, Angry Birds VR provides quite a beefy package that offers super intuitive gameplay that adds a new dimension, literally and figuratively, to the Angry Birds formula.
Cubism
Platforms: Oculus Quest, PC VR (Steam, Oculus Store)
Cubism is a deceptively simple game. Each level features a 3D wireframe shape into which you have to fit different Tetris-like block pieces. The puzzles get harder and the pieces more complex – it’s a slow and measured puzzle experience.
Even better, Quest players have the option for 120Hz and hand tracking support as well, both of which are perfect fits for Cubism’s style of play. You can read our review of Cubism here.
The Room VR: A Dark Matter
Platforms: Oculus Quest, PC VR (Steam, Oculus Store, Viveport), PSVR
The latest installment in The Room series is also its first installment in VR. This isn’t a mobile or PC port either – The Room VR: A Dark Matter is made entirely for VR from the ground up.
Developer Fireproof hasn’t lost its penchant for incredibly clever and creative puzzles in the transition. Read more in our review.
Myst
Platforms: Oculus Quest, PC VR (Steam, Oculus Store)
This seminal PC game made its way over to PC VR and Oculus Quest last year. It’s an upgraded and all-around solid port of the original PC title that will have you reaching for a notebook or a friend to help work your way through the tough puzzles.
It’s a game everyone should play once and the VR ports provide you with a modern but faithful way to do so. You can read more in our review.
Puzzling Places
Platforms: Oculus Quest
This game takes the staples of 2D jigsaw puzzles and brings them into VR with a new element — all of the puzzles are 3D models of real-life places, brought to life through highly detailed photogrammetry captures. The 16 included puzzles range from landscapes to individual objects, each with accompanying ambient sounds that build up as you solve.
It’s a slow, meditative but also appropriately challenging puzzle game that offers a similar yet fresh take on traditional jigsaw puzzles. You can read more in our review.
A Rogue Escape
Platforms: Quest, PC VR (Steam, Oculus Store)
This is a tough, short (1-2 hours), claustrophobic puzzler that will set you stuck in the cramped confines of a submerged submarine. There’s no hand-holding here, resulting in an immersive yet excruciatingly slow set of submarine-based puzzles.
Please, Don’t Touch Anything is perfect for players who appreciate hardcore, difficult puzzlers. Initially released for Gear VR back in 2016, but now available on several platforms, we noted in our review that the basic progression of the core gameplay loop was “experiment, succeed, scream, laugh, reset. The results of your tinkering vary immensely.” Read our original review played on Gear VR.
Statik
Platforms: PSVR
Statik is a PSVR-exclusive puzzle game, and for good reason – it uses the PS4’s DualShock 4 controller as a tracked object in the virtual world. The main gripe we had with the game back in 2017 was the length. “No two puzzles are the same, and they’re all well-balanced and thought-out trials, but they left me begging for more,” said Jamie, in his review. Read our review.
Tetris Effect
Platforms: PSVR, PC VR (Epic Store)
What do you mean? Tetris? One of the best VR puzzle games? Yes, you read that right. Jamie explained it best in his original review. “Yes, this is indeed Tetris… in VR. But, by applying its unmatched strand of spectacular visual and musical flair, Enhance creates something with a powerful, compelling and entirely unexpected hypnotism to it.”
Platforms: Oculus Quest, PS VR, PC VR (SteamVR, Oculus Store)
One of the newer puzzle games on the list, The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is a charming puzzle game that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. You’ll play through tiny diorama-style worlds in a puzzle game that “makes you laugh, makes you smile, and often times makes you feel clever and creative.” Read our review.
The Talos Principle
Platforms: PC VR (SteamVR, Oculus Store)
This port of a classic puzzler is an incredibly well-done translation of the original game, initially developed for PC, and now available in VR. If you never played the game on PC, The Talos Principle will feel right at home in your VR headset. Read our review.
Transpose
Platforms: PC VR (SteamVR, Oculus Store, Viveport), PSVR
Originally released in late 2018, Transpose is a VR puzzle game that sees you able to create clones, or “echos”, of yourself that carry out the exact same actions you did. Coordinating and synchronizing echoes is the key to solving the game’s 30+ mind-bending puzzles. Read our review.
So there you have it – our 15 best VR puzzle games and experiences. Is a VR puzzle game you love missing from the list? Let us know in the comments below.
This list was originally published on January 15, 2020, and updated with new listings on September 15, 2021.
It’s Black Friday today, and Facebook is finally putting a large number of Quest games on sale – though mostly still through bundles.
Since the release of the Oculus Quest back in May, games in its app store haven’t gone on sale. In fact, even when a game was on sale on Steam or a non-cross-buy game was on sale on the Rift store, it wasn’t on sale in the Quest store.
On Wednesday Facebook finally launched a discounted Thanksgiving Collection, but this isn’t much of a deal if you only wanted a few games from it.
But Black Friday is the day of sales, and Facebook is finally offering a range of 6 bundles, as well as 8 Quest games on sale individually.
The bundles are sorted by price, with the most expensive (Black) being $200 and the most affordable (Bronze) being $45.
All of the offers end midnight tonight in the Pacific Standard Time Zone.
Black Collection ($200) [21% Off]
The Black Collection is priced at $200, which saves $55 off the price of buying all of these games separately. It includes:
OUR TAKE: None of these discounts are significant, but if you’re a fan of the Rocky franchise you’ll want to pick up Creed while it’s on sale. And if you want to use your PC from your Quest, there’s no better way than Virtual Desktop.
The hit spy-themed VR puzzle game I Expect You to Die (2016) is getting a DLC mission soon, this time tossing you into a deadly encounter in space – the final frontier, and consequently the game’s final mission.
Called Operation: Death Engine, the free DLC throws players into a tense space mission, where you’ll again match wits with Dr. Zor and his deadly contraptions. It’s slated to arrive on all supported platforms on November 19th.
If you haven’t played since the game’s launch, there’s been a number of free DLC drops since it initially went live on PSVR and Rift in 2016 (later adding support for other PC VR headsets and Quest). The penultimate DLC—Seat of Power—introduced the ‘Death Engine’, which is now precariously floating in earth’s orbit.
Schell Games says players must infiltrate Zoraxis Space Corporation to stop the deadly device before it fires on “some unknown target.” Sounds pretty ominous.
“When I Expect You To Die launched three years ago, none of us could have imagined the incredible level of support we would receive from fans. We are proud to have made a game that has stood the test of time for so many players,” said Schell Games CEO Jesse Schell. “Without the ingenuity and skill of our development team, I Expect You To Die would not be the success that it is today. For the sake of fans everywhere, the team hopes to be able to continue this franchise into the future.”
You’ll find I Expect You to Die on Steam (Vive, Rift, Index), Viveport (Vive, Rift, Index), the Oculus Store (Rift, Quest), and the PlayStation Store (PSVR).
I Expect You to Die, the escape room puzzle experience from Schell Games which first began in 2016 will finally reach its conclusion this month. The studio has announced “Operation: Death Engine”, taking players on a mission to space to defeat Dr. Zor’s villainous master plan.
Keeping with the comedy puzzle elements the title is known for, I Expect You To Die “Operation: Death Engine” takes place on Dr Zor’s Zoraxis Space Corporation station, to stop the death engine before it fires on some unknown target.
“This level is the last one of the game; other levels of I Expect You To Die have placed players in a car, onto a window washing platform, under the sea, in a winter lodge, on a train car, and in Dr. Zor’s boardroom. In the final level, players will need more determination and smarts than ever before to outwit Zor as the evil scheme unfolds,” explains the synopsis.
“When I Expect You To Die launched three years ago, none of us could have imagined the incredible level of support we would receive from fans. We are proud to have made a game that has stood the test of time for so many players,” said Schell Games CEO Jesse Schell in a statement. “Without the ingenuity and skill of our development team, I Expect You To Die would not be the success that it is today. For the sake of fans everywhere, the team hopes to be able to continue this franchise into the future.”
By the sounds of it, Schell Games hasn’t entirely finished with I Expect You to Die, hopefully, the franchise will return with a new storyline at some point.
The I Expect You To Die “Operation: Death Engine” DLC will be freely available to download from 19th November 2019. The core videogame supports PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift/Rift S, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, Valve Index and Oculus Quest.
This month will also see Schell Games update its Early Access experience Until You Fallwith new levels, enemies and weapons. As the developer continues to roll out new VR content, VRFocus will let you know.
I Expect You To Die’s generous supply of free missions finally wraps up this month.
Developer Schell Games just announced that the final free mission, Operation: Death Engine, launches on all platforms on November 19. As with other missions, the new level will be entirely free to download.
Operation: Death Engine has been teased for some time. It finally takes players to space for a final showdown with Dr. Zor. You’re tasked with dismantling the deadly… death engine. You’ll need to infiltrate a space station and avoid whatever perils stand in your way. Check out the first trailer for the mission below.
“Without the ingenuity and skill of our development team, I Expect You To Die would not be the success that it is today,” Schell Games CEO Jesse Schell said of the final level’s launch. “For the sake of fans everywhere, the team hopes to be able to continue this franchise into the future.”
Indeed, it’s rare to see a VR game three years into its life get this level of support. I Expect You To Die first launched with support for HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift before making its way to other platforms.
Given that this is the last level, Schell’s comments seem to suggest a sequel to the game is on the cards. Currently, Schell Games has its hands busy with the Early Access version of Until You Fall. The VR sword combat game continues to see plenty of updates and is planned for release on Oculus Quest and PSVR, too.
I Expect You To Die is available on all PC VR headsets, Quest and PSVR too for $24.99.
Now we’ve heard from the makers of Richie’s Plank Experience, The Exorcist: Legion VR, Acron, and I Expect You To Die and they are echoing the sentiment shared by the other Quest developers. To understand the responses, here are the two questions we’ve put to all these developers:
1.) Can you give us a sense of your sales performance on Quest after 1 week and 1 month versus those same launch periods on other platforms you’ve released? You can be as general or specific as you like.
2.) Also, more broadly, how is Facebook’s Quest curation strategy working for you?
These questions, of course, allow developers to self-select what information they want to release. Very few developers are willing to release actual numbers showing their specific units sold, or revenue, and we wouldn’t be surprised if we heard Facebook’s developer relations people got inundated by developers asking what they can say in response to these questions. Overall, that means these reports aren’t representative of every app on Oculus Quest nor is it representative of the average developer experience in trying to get through the strict curation process instituted by Facebook for release on the headset. This process forced at least one approved developer to move an unapproved feature to the SideQuest system.
We’re still interested in trying to understand what the process means to all devs. Whether you were approved for release on Quest or not, you can DM me on Twitter or write to ian@uploadvr.com if you want to go on the record explaining your experience.
Richie’s Plank Experience
Toast VR, the developers behind Richie’s Plank Experience, reached out after our first story and said “I can’t share our specific data, but I can say that we sold more copies of RPE on Quest in it’s first week than our total sales on the Rift in our first two years.”
I followed up with Toast to send the creators our direct questions. They sent back this chart:
“This is after 1 month…Without giving away the actual numbers I think this gives a good indication of what we mean when we say Quest blew all our other launches out of the water; keeping in mind that it was our most recent, so it benefited from all the other positive media and brand awareness that was generated by the previous launches.”
“While we were upset that we were initially rejected from releasing on the Quest store, we understood the reasoning,” according to a statement from Richard Eastes, co-founder and CTO. “It pushed us harder to create a better product than we thought we could and it has certainly paid off in the long run. Although it’s harder to get on the Quest and it requires more work, the rewards are there and it creates a process that customers trust.”
The Exorcist: Legion VR
The Exorcist: Legion VR is published on Quest by Fun Train, Inc, and they said, “Our Oculus Quest launch of The Exorcist: Legion VR exceeded our expectations and has continued to surprise us even months into release. It is performing nearly as well as other established platforms such as PlayStation thanks to a very faithful port by Wolf & Wood.”
“I feel that any strategy which emphasizes quality over quantity is a good thing,” an email from Fun Train reads. “The Oculus team has been very direct with us regarding what type of content they feel best suits the Quest platform. For example, our episodic release of Tarzan is an ongoing conversation. Whatever the result, that dialogue is greatly appreciated. Not every platform has such open lines of communication or a clear vision of the type of content they would like to see.”
Acron
Resolution Games is the studio behind several VR games including Bait!, Angry Birds and their latest cross-platform multiplayer joy, Acron (Review 8/10).
We “can confirm that Quest is a very healthy platform for us in terms of downloads and sales and that we are very optimistic about the market potential the device is creating,” an email from Resolution Games co-founder Paul Brady states. “Quest is where we are seeing the most downloads for both Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs and Acron: Attack of the Squirrels! Exceptionally so for the latter…”
“As for the second question we don’t have a solid opinion there other than to say we’ve always felt that quality of content is more important on VR than any prior platform (especially for new users),” Brady explains. “And, with VR being young we have a chance to start fresh when it comes to ensuring discoverability doesn’t encounter similar pitfalls as we have seen in the past with other platforms. We of course can’t speak to how, or if, the curation process for Quest will impact that one way or the other.”
I Expect You To Die
Lastly (for now at least) we also received a brief statement from Schell Games. The studio behind spy game I Expect You To Die (Review 8/10) and swordfighter Until You Fall has a founder, Jesse Schell, who predicted in January that Facebook would sell at least 1 million Oculus Quests in 2019.
“We are happy to report that since Quest launched, it is our top-selling platform week to week,” reads a statement from the studio.
