Wasteland creator and InXile Entertainment CEO Brian Fargo has joined the advisory board of Swords of Gargantua developer, Thirdverse, as the company appoints a new CEO.
The studio this week announced that it had appointed Hironao Kunimitsu as its new leader. Kunimitsu previously established gumi in 2007. He looks to lead the company into a new era as it also announces it’s raised $20 million. That’s a combination of the $8.5 million raised in last year’s Series A round and $11.5 million in a Series B.
Thirdverse just launched another massive update to its VR sword fighting game, Swords of Gargantua. It was also the publisher of InXile Entertainment’s competitive VR shooter, Frostpoint, though that game was shut down just a few months after launch. According to a press release, Thirdverse is developing two new VR games across its Japanese and US studios. No details about what either title could be just yet.
Though Frostpoint may not have worked out, Fargo will continue to advise the company as part of his new role. To be clear, the developer is still heading up InXile, which is now a part of Xbox Game Studios, but will be advising Thirdverse on the side.
What are you hoping to see next from Thirdverse? Let us know in the comments below.
InXile Entertainment, the studio behind virtual reality (VR) title The Mage’s Tale and acquired by Microsoft several years ago launched its most recent project, team-based shooter Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds back in December. Now, only four months later the developer has announced it’ll be terminating the videogame next month.
In what can only be seen as a rapid abandonment of the project, inXile Entertainment and its publisher Thirdverse Inc. issued a statement over the weekend saying: “On May 9, 2021, Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds servers will be deactivated. We greatly appreciate the support of our dedicated Frostpoint community, which has been invaluable in providing insights and feedback through the development over the past several months.”
Considering Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds was only announced in July 2020, that’s an incredibly short amount of time to see a videogame like this go belly up – even a VR one. Especially considering inXile’s pedigree. However, it was a project beset with problems and negative feedback – just look at its Steam page to see the comments – with players reporting bugs as well as difficulty finding matches.
So in less than four weeks, the servers are going to close and Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds will be no more. While it’s still on sale via Steam and Oculus store, Thirdverse Inc. has yet to mention if players will get a refund as Nostos implemented. Last month NetEase Games announced it was closing Nostos’ servers this June and that anyone who purchased the title after 30th November would get a full refund.
Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds was an ambitious multiplayer where two teams of 10 would fight across an abandoned military base in Antarctica in various game modes. Additionally, players would also encounter an alien race called ‘The Function’ who would attack both sides.
It might be the end for Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds but that’s not the end of inXile Entertainment and Thirdverse Inc’s. VR plans with the statement adding: “As we focus our resources on new VR projects over the next year, we look forward to bringing you along and connecting once again.” As further details come to light regarding what these new VR projects are VRFocus will let you know.
It’s time for the last VR Job Hub of 2020 and what a year it has been. Whether you’re already in the videogame industry and looking for a new challenge or are keen to enter the XR field, VRFocus has plenty of new vacancies to peruse over as you plan for 2021.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds is inXile Entertainment and Thirdverse’s upcoming team shooter, and although it was supposed to launch into open beta for everyone on Monday, kicking off a three-week period of free 10v10 team shooting action, it’s now officially live, albeit a little bit later than expected for everyone to play. Here’s some of my impressions after playing a good number of matches in both off-peak times and with a full cadre of live users.
Note: This is an open beta that will change progressively throughout its three-week period. Some things are missing, other things still need polish, the developers tell us. Once the retail version has launched, we’ll be able to drill more into specifics in our full review.
Starting off at your own personal base, you’re given access to a quick text-based tutorial and a firing range where you’ll be able to test out all of the game’s guns and accessories. After getting a handle on the basics and playing around with your preferred locomotion style, which includes snap-turn, smooth turning, and both hand and head-relative forward locomotion, you’re then left to brave the online hordes.
For now, the only match types are your bog standard capture point mode called ‘Conquest’, and ‘Team Deathmatch’, however inXile says more will be coming down the line. Conquest presents a standard A, B, and C site objectives to capture.
Maps are fairly large, and offer a good mix of interiors like hangars and underground bunkers to act as both cover and chokepoints. A constant fog limits the outdoor visibility so much though that your shooting distance is much smaller than the map itself, which makes sniping a little less appealing than it otherwise might be with perfect cross-map visibility.
Image courtesy inXile Entertainment, Thirdverse
As for the game’s shooting mechanics, Frostpoint doesn’t simulate guns to the level of, say, Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, which offers every manner of physical doodad and selector switch on real-world rifles and pistols. While there a bunch of your standard military and police-issue rifles, submachine guns and pistols, it’s slightly more on the arcade end of the simulation spectrum—ammo is infinite and there’s also a number of alien plasma weapons to choose from.
Image courtesy inXile Entertainment, Thirdverse
Infinite ammo notwithstanding, it does however include manual reloading, which requires you to eject a used magazine, insert a new one by grabbing it from your hip, and racking the weapon to chamber a bullet. Because not all guns are the same, each gun has a highlighted section to indicate where you need to pull with your free hand to feed the weapon. You can also toggle auto and semi-auto for some guns, however this is done with a single button on your motion controller. Yes, you can go dualies on any weapon, but you’ll probably fumble them and toss one away as you go to reload.
I think Frostpoint strikes a good balance here in the name of keeping action quick with infinite ammo, but not so quick that you’re spraying bullets everywhere willy-nilly. A personal gripe (for now?) is the actual effect shooting has on your enemy. Aiming down the iron signs or magnified scope (depending on the gun) and pulling the trigger feels way more like lobbing a paintball than effectually splattering someone’s guts with a high-powered rifle. This isn’t something you’d notice on a flatscreen shooter, but in VR you need bigger, more expressive effects to make it crystal clear what’s happening to the unfortunate son on the other end of the barrel. Guns aren’t physics-based, so passing them from hand to hand, or from player to player, is a game of tossing them on the floor and hoping the right person picks it up.
Image courtesy inXile Entertainment, Thirdverse
As it is now, bots are hopelessly stupid as they casually malinger around objectives and aimlessly stroll towards danger. Playing on off-peak times means you’ll be greeted by a wave of nameless buggers, which are decidedly more cucumber than human. Granted, this isn’t an issue when everyone playing is a human being, but it’s not a welcome sight if you’ve just popped on for a quick game.
The main PvE baddies, called ‘Reclaimers’, are also somewhat stupid at the moment, offering more of a momentary distraction than an actual challenge worth more than a second of your time. They pop into places at random, and are basically just walking bullet sponges waiting for a half-mag worth of bullets to silence before you move on your merry way. I know the game’s PvE element is supposed to help amp up action, but I just don’t think Frostpoint has nailed it yet into making them a more substantial threat that, ideally, would give both teams pause during a firefight to take down before heading back into combat.
Image courtesy inXile Entertainment, Thirdverse
Visually, the game is still lacking optimization to make sure it doesn’t look like a potato on min-spec machines. At the time of this writing, frame rate drops are consistent in the largest maps, and that’s on my (very old, don’t laugh) GTX 1080, which is well above the game’s GTX 1060 min-spec.
That said, the game undeniably has good bones, and is in the right hands to make it better. I still wonder whether a good enough game will be… well… good enough to make sure people are coming back for more. As more players come into VR looking for the obvious equivalents of the games they love on flatscreen, games like Frostpoint will definitely have their time to shine. As a cautionary tale, the folks over at Ubisoft Montpellier though stopped pushing updates to Space Junkies (2019) only a few weeks after launch due to low user engagement, and the game worked pretty flawless on basically every level, raising the question whether there’s really a large enough pool of PC VR players to sustain a pure multiplayer shooter which importantly needs to garner a healthy playerbase, fast.
In the end, it remains to be seen whether the ‘Play to Own’ strategy will work in Frostpoint’s favor, as the game will no doubt need to overcome that very same stumbling block that so many other multiplayer-only VR titles face, namely maintaining a high enough concurrent userbase to keep people playing and not overly relying on Discord groups to help fill up servers.
There’s still plenty more to do to get the game in retail condition though, so in these next three weeks we may see all the missing pieces come together. There’s certainly no telling what the magical formula is for a VR hit team shooter either, so we’ll be reserving judgement for the final version when it launches on Steam and the Oculus Store for PC VR headsets sometime soon.
The next VR game from developer inXile and publisher Thirdverse is epic-scale sci-fi shooter Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds. The Open Beta starts next week on September 28th and will last until October 19th and you can earn a FREE copy just by playing!
What makes Frostpoint a bit unique in the VR FPS space is that each of its four large maps are actually PvPvE engagements. This means that while you’re fighting the other team in large 10v10 battles, there are monsters and other AI enemies roaming about that drop loot for you to target and take down as well. It’ll have various game modes, such as capture and control. There is also full bot support as well.
Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds ‘Play to Own’ Campaign
Back when we unveiled Frostpoint VR during our interview with the developers, they mentioned plans to debut a “Play to Own” campaign during the Open Beta period. In order to quality you must sign up on the official website and link your Oculus or Steam account to make sure everything is tracked and recorded.
Each week during the Open Beta test, the developer are awarding 3,000 players a free game key on release. All you have to do is reach a target of 10 games played within that week. Presumably the faster you hit that milestone, the more likely you are to get a key. Target stats are reset each week and you’ll be notified via email if you’ve qualified to receive a key.
You can join the Open Beta test starting on September 28th via Steam here or via Oculus here. There’s no firm and final full launch date yet, but it’s slated for this year still after the Open Beta ends with support for all major PC VR headsets including Rift, Vive, and Index. Let us know if you plan on playing down in the comments below!
Thirdverse and inXile Entertainment announced last week that Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds, the upcoming team-based multiplayer shooter, is going into open beta starting today. You could also get it for free when it launches.
Update (September 28th, 2020): The open beta for Frostpoint kicks off today, and goes on for three weeks. Users who sign up by linking their Oculus or Steam accounts will be able to compete to win a free code for the retail version. Signs-up are here.
We’ll be bringing you gameplay impressions in the coming days once we get a few matches under our belts, so check back soon.
Original article (September 23rd, 2020): The game’s open beta runs from September 28th until October 19th, available for download through Steam and the Oculus Store for PC VR headsets.
The studios will also be handing out free copies of the retail version of the game to the first 3,000 players who met a few requirements.
Players will need play at least 10 games within a week and also connect their Steam or Oculus accounts to qualify for a code for the retail game when it releases later this year on PC VR headsets.
Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds pits players in 10v10-player matches. As you’d imagine there are a few familiar game modes, like control and capture, however players on both sides will have to simultaneously fight off ‘Reclaimers’, the game’s biomechanical baddies.
If you were already a part of the closed beta on Steam, the open beta is said to include more weapons, tools, enemies, two new maps, and an ‘Attack and Defend’ game mode now too.
This is one of the first ‘Play to Own’ promotion types we’ve seen for a VR shooter, and it may just help generate the hardcore player base the studios are looking for. There’s no word on what the game will cost, but—to state the obvious to veteran PC VR gamers—one of the biggest hurdles to overcome for these sort of multiplayer games is undoubtedly garnering enough concurrent users to not only make sure people come back on a regular basis to find bustling servers, but also to justify continued development on the game.
Thankfully, both Japan-based Thirdverse (Swords of Gargantua) and inXile (The Mage’s Tale) have proven expertise in VR game creation, so we’re hoping to see fully rounded gameplay to justify what might otherwise be considered a dicey move by less experienced studios. We’ll be going hands-on here soon, so stay tuned for impressions.
Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds is the next big VR game from inXile Entertainment, developers of The Mage’s Tale and non-VR classics like The Bard’s Tale and Wasteland, and publisher Thirdverse.
Today, the developer revealed Closed Beta testing kicks off next week from August 24th – September 4th on Steam and you can sign up right now at this website.
Frostpoint is a fast-paced team-based competitive online multiplayer VR shooters that takes place around a dilapidated military training base in Antarctica. Grotesque creatures roam the enviroment, creating an innovative PvEvP scenario in which you’ll need to contend with both the monsters and opposing team at all times.
The Closed Beta test lasts for nearly two weeks on Steam with players due to receive invites in waves across the testing period. When the Open Beta launches later this year, testers that meet specific (although currently undetermined) playtime requirements will receive free copies of the game. inXile is calling this its “Play to Own” initiative.
We revealed Frostpoint last month in an exclusive story that featured an in-depth interview (embedded above) and the debut trailer. Fans of competitive multiplayer first-person shooters should be excited for this one, as it blends realistic weaponry with a dark sci-fi settings in a really unique way.
At its core, Frostpoint isn’t that different from games like Onward, other than the setting and details surrounding it. Rather than picking a class, for example, your gear and abilities is just based on what you equip before entering combat. Armored suits provide some slight differences for speed and stats, but everything else just comes down to your weapons and personal skill level.
Frostpoint does not have a set release date yet, but it will arrive this year for PC VR headsets, specifically Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index devices. Closed Beta sign ups are now live.
Let us know if you sign up and what you think about the news down in the comments below!
InXile Entertainment, the studio behind The Mage’s Tale (2018) and The Bard’s Tale series, are getting ready to move to closed beta for their upcoming team shooter, Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds.
Update (August 19th, 2020): Thirdverse Inc. and inXile entertainment are starting an invite-only beta for Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds, which will be held from August 24th until September 4th.
You can now sign up for your chance to participate in the closed beta. The closed beta is technically under NDA for capturing, sharing, or streaming the game, so it seems the only way to get eyes-on is by getting an invite yourself.
The studios say the when the open beta for Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds launches later this year, players who participate and meet specific playtime requirements will be provided with a free copy of the game at launch. Nifty.
Original Article (July 29th, 2020): Frostpoint VR is set in a dilapidated military training base in Antarctica where “strange biomechanical creatures now roam,” the studio says.
The game, which will be published by Thirdverse, the successor to Japan-based company Yomuneco, is said to include over a dozen weapons which not only help you fight off the opposing team of players, but also the so-called ‘Reclaimers’, which seem to spawn from the ground.
Check out the announce trailer below:
The studio appears to be honing in on a level of realism—at least with its guns—as you can “realistically hold each with one or two hands, and load, rack, fire, and clear them, as well as change firing modes,” the studio explains. “Tools and munitions help round out your arsenal, including grenades, health kits, armor upgrades, turrets, and tracking upgrades.”
Both a Steam and Oculus Store version are coming; supported headsets include Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index. An open beta is said to arrive “in the near future” in preparation for a launch later this year.
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Image courtesy inXile Entertainment
Image courtesy inXile Entertainment
Image courtesy inXile Entertainment
InXile says it’s been working on Frostpoint for a number of years in secret, and that it represents a first for the studio in a number of ways. It’s certainly the studio’s first team-based FPS, which boasts 10v10 gameplay entirely targeted at VR players.
Large-scale VR multiplayer games are risky moves since the pool of potential players is small in comparison to traditional monitor and console games. If the studio can’t manage to bring anything significantly new to the table in terms of gameplay, Frostpoint VR could be at risk of ending up like many (many) multiplayer VR titles before it by either becoming cult classics that manage to attract a hardcore group of players, or a veritable ghost town. We’re certainly hoping for the former.
There are some exciting multiplayer virtual reality (VR) shooters on the way this year, with Onward arriving tomorrow for Oculus Quest and Solaris Offworld Combat launching in August. Today, there’s another to add to this growing genre, with inXile Entertainment revealing Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds will be released in 2020.
Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds is going to be a team-based first-person shooter (FPS), where up to 20 players in teams of 10 fight it out across an abandoned military base in Antarctica. Players will be able to gear up using a variety of realistic and some sci-fi weaponry as well as using grenades, health kits, armour upgrades, turrets, and tracking upgrades to aid combat.
Gameplay modes will mix encounters up across four maps, so players will have to capture or control specific locations. To make things a little more interesting it won’t just be human players wandering the frozen levels, both teams will also encounter hostile biomechanical creatures.
“I’ve been enamoured with VR since the early days, and have had some of my finest gaming memories with a VR headset on,” said Brian Fargo, founder and Studio Head of inXile entertainment, in a statement. “We’ve created an immersive new world with Frostpoint VR, and dialled up the intensity with 20+ player matches. It will be a thrill for us to watch people step into the world and battle it out.”
“The world in Frostpoint VR: ProvingGrounds is vast, while the action is dense. We want players to be challenged to experiment and find the right combinations of gear and weapons to survive and level up their skills to be effective in this punishing yet highly enjoyable game,” said Kiyoshi Shin, Co-Founder of Thirdverse Inc. “We’re looking forward to seeing how audiences respond to Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds’ gameplay in the next several months.”
Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds is slated to launch later this year for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index headsets. inXile Entertainment will be launching an open beta soon, when those details are available VRFocus will let you know.
