Category: netease

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Online VR RPG Nostos Latest Beta Test Includes Two Hours Of Story Content

Open-world online VR RPG Nostos is currently holding a four-day long Beta Test featuring cross-play between both VR and non-VR PC players until September 9th and it will include lots of new things that weren’t in the previous test.

For being one of the most anticipated VR games on the horizon (if the popularity and interest our coverage has seemed to generate is anything to go by) we still know very little about the title, generally speaking. After getting to try it briefly at Gamescom 2018 it’s been lots of mystery. Luckily, this weekend’s Beta Test should be a good opportunity to learn more for anyone lucky enough to get picked.

According to the developers at NetEase, this Beta Test will include two specific ‘main’ missions that encompass about two hours story content. This latest Nostos Beta will also include a larger map, more gameplay elements like a motorbike you can ride, and new side missions not seen before. It will also include more graphical effects such as rain and snow, more ancillary details like clouds and grass, and more optimization fixes.

Gameplay Screenshots from Non-VR PC Version:

To play the Nostos Beta on the highest settings they recommend at least an i7 9700k with 16GB of RAM and a 1080Ti GPU. Release date is still a bit confusing because the official Nostos Twitter account says “Q3 of 2019” still, which means this month technically, but then at China Joy previously this year they stated a Q4 2019 release date. Maybe a surprise announcement is in store soon.

We’ll be playing in the Nostos Beta today and are planning to livestream it over on your YouTube, so keep an eye out for that in a few hours or you can watch the archived gameplay afterward. The beta will last until September 9th.

nostos beta test september info image

Let us know what you think of Nostos down in the comments below!

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Nostos now Accepting Applications for September Closed Beta

NetEase Games’ Nostos could potentially be one of the biggest virtual reality (VR) titles to launch in 2019, a vast post-apocalyptic survival MMO offering hundreds of hours of gameplay. If you’ve been following news of the videogame diligently then you’ll certainly want to have a go at signing up for the closed beta test which is scheduled to take place next week.

Nostos 02 Fight Against Ogen [Screenshot]

The Nostos closed beta will be held from 5th – 9th September 2019 for select applicants. To be in with a chance of playing the videogame well ahead of launch all you need to do is visit the official Nostos Twitter or Facebook pages and share the pinned posts along with the hashtag #NostosBetaTest. Players who share the post with the hashtag will be chosen at random to participate.

In the beta, you’ll be able to play through two main storyline missions offering around two hours of gameplay. New side missions will appear at random for every tester, plus an expanded map will give you a chance to explore the various terrains Nostos has to offer.

With a launch now planned for Q4 2019 on Viveport first followed by Oculus Home for Oculus Rift/Rift S and Quest, Nostos will also be made available on Steam for those with Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets as well as standard monitor support.

Nostos in Summer [Screenshot]

The world of Nostos features open grasslands, arid deserts, snow-covered mountains and ancient crumbling cities. There will be day and night cycles as well as four seasons, with dynamic weather such as rain, snow, and lightning. With a story set 1,000 years after the collapse of humanity, the ravenous Coral Sea now presents the biggest danger to life on land, slowly corroding it with its toxic waters.

NetEase Games has previously said that each Nostos World will home up to 20 players at any given point, with no limit of the number of worlds available. Players will be able to collect, craft, build and explore this seamless world to their heart’s content. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Nostos as the launch window draws near, reporting back with the latest updates and announcements.

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Gorgeous VR MMO Nostos Hosting Extremely Limited Beta Testing Next Month

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from promisingly gorgeous VR MMO, Nostos.

Pretty soon, though, players will get a fresh taste of the NetEase-developed game. Well, 30 of them will.

Nostos will be holding a short beta testing period for the game from September 5 – 9. Access is extremely limited; only 30 players will be chosen for the event, and at random at that. To be in with a chance of getting access, you need to share the below post and follow the instructions within.

#NostosBetaTesterCollection
Sorry for your waiting! Nostos will hold our four-day-long Beta Test on both PC and VR…

Posted by Nostos on Wednesday, 14 August 2019

As NetEase says, the beta will feature two missions taking about two hours to complete. Players will also be able to explore the game world and use a motorbike. The beta test follows an open alpha period that ran for the game earlier this year.

We’ve been following Nostos with cautious optimism for some time now. The game’s making big promises, aiming to bring players a stunning open world to explore, but there’s still a lot to learn in terms of how it plays.

Oh and NetEase shared the minimum specs your PC will need to take part in the beta. Those are below. Currently the game is due for launch on Q4 of this year on Steam and Viveport. We’re looking forward to finding out more.

Nostos Beta Test supported devices (Minimum)：
High Quality
VR：i7 9700K + 16G + 1080 (HTC Vive & Vive Pro)
PC：i7 9700K + 8G + 1080
Medium Quality
VR：i5 8400K + 16G + 1060 (HTC Vive & Vive Pro)
PC：i5 8400K + 16G + 1080
Low Quality
VR：i5 4590K + 8G + 1050 (HTC Vive & Vive Pro)
PC：i5 4590K + 8G + 1060

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PuzzlAR: World Tour is the First ARCore Experience Live in China

Western companies generally tend to struggle to break into the lucrative Chinese market for a number of reasons, which is why they’re inclined to find a home-grown partner to help facilitate the process. These first steps can be small and innocuous, such as Google’s ARCore arrival, helped by a videogame called PuzzlAR: World Tour.

PuzzlAR: World Tour image1

A 3D jigsaw puzzle videogame, PuzzlAR: World Tour first arrived for iOS in 2017 followed by Android devices in 2018. It uses landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty or the Taj Mahal and creates digital puzzles out of them. As is commonplace with most augmented reality (AR) titles you scan a flat surface to place the puzzle on, with all the pieces floating around you needing to be grabbed a put in place.

Developed by ONTOP Studios, its arrival in China is thanks to a collaboration with Chinese publisher NetEase (Nostos, Stay Silent), making the puzzle experience the very first ARCore compatible videogame available to the massive Chinese consumer market.

It’s not just mobile AR that ONTOP Studios has been interested in. PuzzlAR: World Tour also went live for the Magic Leap One headset last month, the first app supported by Magic Leap’s Independent Creator Program to do so. The program launched last year, seeing 31 companies chosen out of a pool of 6,500. Other successful applicants included Funktronic Labs (Starbear: Taxi, Cosmic Trip), Metanaut (Gadgeteer); Within, Felix & Paul Studios (Marshall from Detroit, Traveling While Black) and Resolution Games (Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs).

“When I first discovered Magic Leap, I immediately knew this was a company with the vision and means to create technology that can make the future come to life, and I knew entertainment will soon change forever,” said ONTOP Studios’ Creative Director Nun Holhadela in a statement.

Mobile gaming is a massive market in China and one many AR developers like ONTOP Studios are keen to exploit, valved at $30.8 billion in 2018 and expected to rise to $41.5 billion in 2023 according to a report by Niko. Magic Leap doesn’t have quite the same mass-market appeal due to the cost of the device, but it’s encouraging more content on its platform, like the recently announced BBC Earth – Micro Kingdoms: Senses. As the AR market continues to develop, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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NetEase Open-World RPG Nostos Slips to Q4 2019 Release Window

From what’s been shown so far, NetEase Games’ open-world role-playing game (RPG) Nostos certainly seems ambitious. First appearing at Gamescom in 2018, the studio announced several months ago that it was planning a Q3 2019 launch for the title. However, a statement during ChinaJoy 2019 last week now pushes that schedule into Q4 this year.

Nostos 09 Say Hi to Friends [Screenshot]

HTC Vive revealed that Nostos would be launching on Viveport in Q4 2019 so there hasn’t been any official reason given by NetEase as to slip in date. There’s also been no further word on the beta which was originally timetabled for this summer, a window which is rapidly closing. It’s more than likely that the current lack of a beta has had a knock-on effect, with the team requiring more time than initially expected.

Nostos has garnered plenty of interest since its unveiling, promising players a massive world to explore in virtual reality (VR). From open grasslands, arid deserts and snow-covered mountains, to ancient crumbling cities, the title will feature day and night cycles as well as four seasons. Set 1,000 years after the collapse of humanity, the Coral Seas are now the biggest danger to life on land, slowly corroding it with its toxic waters.

Compatible with SteamVR headsets such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality and Valve Index, Nostos worlds will support up to 20 players at any given point, with no limit of the number of worlds available.

Nostos 10 Say Hi to Friends [Screenshot]

That’s not the only VR videogame the studio is working on, the other being Stay Silent. Currently, in Steam Early Access for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality headsets, the first-person shooter (FPS) will be coming to Viveport in Q4 2019, indicating a full launch window.

A western-themed multiplayer, Stay Silent puts you in the shoes of a sheriff in an American town in the Wild West of the 1880s. While you would expect to come across some ruthless bandits during this era, NetEase Games has added a further component in the form of a few extra-terrestrial aliens. You can use a trusty six-shooter or up the damage factor by using some of the aliens advanced technology.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Nostos, reporting back with further updates.

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Sword Art Online-Style Open World VR MMO Nostos Due To Release In Q4 2019

Today, at ChinaJoy 2019, HTC revealed Nostos is releasing in Q4 of 2019 and is confirmed for Viveport. The VR MMO is also coming to Steam.

Now to be clear, it’s coming to Steam as well with support for all major PC VR headsets including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows MR devices, and the Valve Index and as far as we can tell there is not going to be an exclusivity period with Viveport, but that could change by the time it comes out. Either way, it is coming to Steam too — the page has been live for months, it just doesn’t have a date there at the moment.

We got the news about Nostos coming to Viveport in Q4 of 2019 by way of a press release directly from HTC, which does imply a partnership of some kind. The press release states:

“Nostos, an open-world role-playing game (RPG) from the Chinese tech giant, NetEase, is going to launch on VIVEPORT in Q4 2019. It will have a massive world that allows multiple players to explore, fight, and build in an abundance of biomes, from open grasslands to mysterious coral seas.”

Nostos did have an Open Alpha period a few months ago, but other than that NetEase has been relatively tight-lopped about the upcoming open-world VR MMORPG. Additionally, NetEase continues to describe it as an “open-world online RPG” rather than an MMORPG, but from what we can tell all of the typical RPG features are included — albeit they may be on a smaller scale.

As of now OrbusVR is still the only real VR MMO on the market, other than perhaps social VR titles such as Rec Room, VRChat, and High Fidelity. But those are more focused on social hubs than delivering mass-scale gaming experiences. Zenith is a new one we’ve learned about recently, which will feature Beat Saber style slashing combat. No Man’s Sky VR, which is coming on August 14th, could arguably qualify as an MMO as well.

Let us know if you plan on jumping into Nostos when it releases later this year!

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GDC 2019: Nreal AR Sunglasses Target Gamers With NetEase Partnership

GDC 2019: Nreal AR Sunglasses Target Gamers With NetEase Partnership

Having showcased its promising hardware at CES and MWC already, Nreal is targetting gamers at GDC 2019.

The company today announced a partnership with NetEase to showcase content on its AR sunglasses, Nreal Light. Nreal offers a pair of light sunglasses that connect to an external processing unit, be it either a dedicated device or a Snapdragon 855-powered smartphone. The glasses then produce virtual images in the real world, much like Magic Leap One or HoloLens 2. I was surprised by just how well the experience worked when I tried it at MWC. That said, I didn’t get to sample any truly interactive content.

That changes at GDC, where Nreal is showing NetEase AR’s YuME. It’s a puzzle game in which players explore a series of fantastical landscapes and objects. Puzzles rely on optical illusions, getting players to utilize six degrees of freedom (6DOF) tracking to solve them. Nreal Light supports a 3DOF motion controller, which we assume you use to interact with the game.

Nreal hopes to show developers at GDC that it has a viable platform for AR game development. Current AR gaming is largely confined to smartphone-based AR on Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore. Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 is an enterprise-level device that isn’t concerned with entertainment. Magic Leap One does feature plenty of games, but at $2,295, it’s too expensive for many gamers to really consider.

We don’t yet know when Nreal Light will release, nor how much it will cost. But, weighing in at just 85g, we have high hopes that this could be an AR ‘headset’ that really catches on.

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Open-World Online VR RPG Nostos Global Alpha Test Coming This April

Open-World Online VR RPG Nostos Global Alpha Test Coming This April

It’s rare that a game can so entirely capture my attention purely from its art style alone, but that’s what happened with Nostos. Announced back at Gamescom 2018 by Netease, Nostos employs a gorgeously colorful anime-inspired art style and features some of the most captivating art work I’ve seen yet for a VR game. Even just the way the website evolves and changes images as you scroll is amazing.

We got the chance to try it out at Gamescom very, very briefly and came away with more questions than answers, but it’s still pretty high on my list of anticipated games for the year. And since it’s coming to both PC VR headsets like Rift and Vive, as well as non-VR PC users with cross-platform multiplayer (similar to VR Chat) hopefully that means player population won’t be as big of an issue.

When I first watched the trailer the first thing I thought of was Sword Art Online. Rarely do we see a VR game trailer that’s so focused on the atmosphere of its world rather than the interactivity and physicality of being in VR, so that was a bit refreshing to me. Initially I thought it was an MMO because of the SpatialOS integration, but that’s not really the case even though it is an open-world online RPG.

We heard from a representative at Netease that the Alpha Test is slated for mid-to-late April and will run through Steam. There won’t be an NDA so you can expect to see footage and coverage of what we think once that kicks off. You can register at the site right now.

With OrbusVR Reborn on the horizon and now this, things are looking quite appealing for fans of VR and MMO-style games. Let us know what you think of this one so far down in the comments below!

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Improbable announces New London Headquarters

Immersive simulation company Improbable are probably best known for the creation of SpatialOS, its cloud computing platform for videogame creation. The company has now announced that is is moving its UK headquarters to a new location in London.

The move from Farringdon to a new, larger office in Spitalfields is part of the expansion of the company, which follows on from a strategic investment from Chinese technology company NetEase and the opening of a new North American office and the upcoming release of new Game Development Kits for its SpatialOS platform.

SpatialOS allows a collection of game engines, running in the cloud to work together to create a simulated world that is capable of supporting a complex virtual environment, with richer immersive experiences and capable of supporting more players than a single game engine alone.

The SpatialOS platform has been employed by several virtual reality (VR) titles already, and is being used to power upcoming open-world VR experience Nostos, providing the bases for its expansive, persistent, multiplayer world.

Herman Narula, Improbable’s CEO and co-founder, says: “We have been working hard to hire the best and have grown a lot in the last few years. Improbable has simply outgrown our first central London office. Our new office will be a place where we can focus on enabling our partners and community to create the next generation of online games and simulations using SpatialOS.”

The company is still experiencing growth and is planning on expanding its London team. The new office space incorporates 58,000 square feet of office space, including meeting rooms and recreation areas, with the capacity for over 500 staff.

Improbable currently employs roughly 320 people at its London office, with other offices located in North American and China.

For future coverage on Improbably and SpatialOS, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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VRFocus Speak With The Producer On Nostos To Learn More About The Beautiful Title

Back at Gamescom 2018 NetEase, a leading Chinese internet technology company revealed a new virtual reality (VR) videogame titled Nostos which immediately caught the attention of many with its beautiful trailer. During the event VRFocus’ Nina Salomons had the chance to talk with ShuiGe, a producer on the title to learn more about the ever changing world of the VR title.

Nostos Trailer

In Nostos, players will need to explore a vast, beautiful but desolate world in which cities have been abandoned for decades and are now crumbling away. Within this rich landscapes and locations are historical sites that hold the remnants of the war that brought about the end that players will need to explore in order to uncover the truth about what happened, all while trying to survive out in this world.

Thanks to the immersive power of VR, players will not only be immersed within the title but also be able to play as themselves, as ShuiGe explains in the below interview noting the power of technology to create these opportunities. Being a multiplayer title, players will encounter other players along their journey but will not only be limited to a single world.

“We designed the multiplayer world in the game to have a maximum of 20 players but we have so many worlds that players can cross to those worlds” ShuiGe noted: “The player can change the world by building something or destroying something to make the ecosystem different, so every world will be different.”

Making the worlds feel unique by the player’s actions not only allows for great gameplay but also creates the chance for players to tell their own stories to each other. Seeing how a town come to be and hearing how the players have had to defend it over time allows for fantastic story telling that is driven by player action. The building system which was shown briefly in the reveal trailer, is send to allow players the chance to build whatever they want. “The build system is piece-by-piece and you can build any kind of house you want and build something functional like a tower, bonfire or a store. You can build anything you want” ShuiGe adds.

One final piece of information that ShuiGe reveals in the interview is that though climbing and driving are already in the title – and seen in the trailer – the team are thinking about adding a system for airships. They want each of the systems to feel great while still offering an easy way to explore the world that is engaging and fun. Given that 20 players will be sharing a world, having airship races would be somewhat exciting.

Nostos is currently in development for the HTC Vive and is planned for a release in Q3 2019. The team have not ruled out a release on Oculus Rift or PlayStation VR but are not committing to anything just yet. For more on Nostos in the future, keep reading VRFocus and you can see the full interview for yourself below.