Meta’s Sanzaru Games released a new look at Asgard’s Wrath 2 in a developer diary video that, in addition to showing off more of the upcoming action RPG, teases an opportunity to put your combat skills to the test against other players.
The studio says that in addition to its main narrative-driven quest, Asgard’s Wrath 2 is going to feature an “asynchronously social dungeon-crawling mode” where you as the Cosmic Guardian will “take part in an ongoing battle that evolves over time,” the studio says in a blogpost.
We’re due to learn more about the newly teased dungeon mode in the game’s next deep dive video, where the studio says it will further explore the so-called ‘Uncharted Rifts’.
Announced during the Quest Gaming Showcase in June, the Asgard’s Wrath sequel is headed exclusively to the Quest platform, which includes Quest 2, Quest Pro, and the upcoming Quest 3 headset.
In it, you travel across the realms in pursuit of the trickster god Loki, taking on the role of four mortal heroes with various weapons and playstyles. Like the first, which was a Rift exclusive, the new Quest-only title is said to be packed with creatures, quests, puzzles, and the ability to convert loyal animals into fierce warrior companions. The studio says we can expect “60 hours of exploration [and] viscous combat” when the game launches in Winter 2023.
You can also now pre-order the game, priced at $60. Pre-orders include exclusive in-game weapon and armor set, a free download of Asgard’s Wrath 1 on PC, a Meta Quest home environment, and an exclusive Asgard’s Wrath 2 character bundle for battle royale shooter POPULATION: ONE.
During Meta’s Connect 2023 developer conference today the company revealed the hotly awaited sequel to Asgard’s Wrath, the single-player adventure which launched on Rift in 2019, is coming to Quest 2 and the fully unveiled Quest 3 on December 15th.
Update (September 27th, 2023): Now we know precisely when to set our calendars for the release of Asgard’s Wrath 2: December 15th, 2023.
Additionally, Meta announced that users who buy Quest 3, either the 128GB variant for $500 or the 512GB for $650, is getting Asgard’s Wrath 2 for free, which will be otherwise priced at $60. The original article announcing Asgard’s Wrath 2 follows below:
Original Article (June 1st, 2023): Called Asgard’s Wrath 2, the game is slated to launch on Quest 2 and Quest Pro in Winter 2023. Picking up where it last left off, the sequel suddenly thrusts you into a battle with a creature from an Ancient Egypt-inspired realm. There, you encounter the ‘Weavers of Fate’ who set you on a mission to find and stop a certain trickster god.
Meta-owned studio Sanzaru Games says the sequel includes a host of new realms to explore, including Asgardian realms in addition to vast desert expanses of ancient Egypt. You’ll be able to battle and puzzle your way through temples, caves, and dungeons, where you’re encounter monsters, main quests, sidequests, crafting resources, mini-games and more.
Like the first, you’ll have access to a cast of warrior-followers to help you solve puzzles and help you take on enemies. God-scale perspective
Asgard’s Wrath 2 includes an updated combat system that departs from the last, which previously required you to block and parry hits, destroy shields and armor, then kill the enemy itself. Now you’ll be able to hack away at defenses naturally in addition to parrying for opportune melee windows. It also includes elemental types and a wider variety of enemies in addition to physics-based melee. Upgradeable abilities and weapons extend beyond the player, as companions also have their own skill trees.
Enemies are said to scale to user level and ability, giving them access to better moves and defensive measures. In addition to the main game, there’s also set to be an infinite dungeon crawling mode to help you bone up on tactics.
Welcome to another VR Job Hub where every weekend gmw3 gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industries, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.
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 gmw3 at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
MARVEL Powers United VR (2018) and other Oculus Rift exclusives developed by Sanzaru Games are officially going offline next March.
Marvel Powers United VR, Ripcoil (2016), and VR Sports Challenge (2016) are no longer available for purchase or download, however Oculus says current owners can continue playing through March 1st, 2021.
After that date, the company tells Road to VR that it’s making the entirety of Marvel Powers United VR and Ripcoil inaccessible, which also includes any single-player content. Oculus suggests uninstalling the games afterwards “to avoid dead space taken up on your device.” It’s uncertain if the same is true for VR Sports Challenge, as it’s a single-player collection of minigames with no online play component.
If you purchased any of those games, it’s important to note that refunds are not automatic. Users need to reach out to Oculus Customer Support to specifically request a refund for the games.
Marvel Powers United VR was no doubt one of the most expensive games to secure as a Rift exclusive—it was featured in the original Rift’s first retail bundle back in 2018—so the decision to take it offline and refund its users couldn’t have been an easy one to make. Considering how the game was rated at launch though, having received middling scores across Metacritic and the Oculus Store itself, it seems the game suffered from the same ailment as all mediocre online VR games, namely inconsistent concurrent user numbers. You could chalk it up to its overall gameplay loop; it was essentially just a super hero-flavored wave shooter.
And like a self-fulfilling prophecy, when user numbers are consistently low, people tend to not stick around for long before writing off a game entirely. It’s notoriously tough to lure players back once the damage is done and initial opinions are formed, even after multiple updates and rebalances.
Ripcoil was one of Sanzaru’s first VR games, arriving alongside VR Sports Challenge (2016) for the launch of Oculus Touch back in December 2016. Ripcoil is a futuristic VR sports game that is a bit like Pong, albeit it in the first person. It’s been long criticized in user reviews as being essentially dead though, and also features a questionably uncomfortable sliding locomotion scheme which may have turned off a good percentage of players from the get-go.
It also appears that VR Sports Challenge was removed from direct store access too, although since it’s a single-player game with no online component, it’s possible existing users may be able to play after the March 1st cutoff date.
In any case, it seems Facebook is cleaning house somewhat following the company’s decision to sunset the Rift hardware platform entirely. Sanzaru Games was acquired by Facebook earlier this year, so purging underperforming first-party Rift content may simply be a cost-savings measure moving forward to a near future dominated by the company’s second standalone headset, Oculus Quest 2.
Until January 31st, 2021 anyone that purchases an Oculus Quest 2 and then connects it to a PC via Oculus Link will receive a copy of PC VR-exclusive action-adventure Asgard’s Wrath for free. Asgard’s Wrath currently sells for $40 on the Oculus Store for PC.
Facebook is running the promotion as a way to celebrate the first anniversary of the Oculus Link technology that allows you to connect a Quest to your PC and play PC VR games directly on the headset as if it were a Rift. Link recently exited beta and is now “officially” supported. This promotion is one of the first signs that Oculus is fully and publicly marketing and promoting the Quest 2 as a legitimate PC VR headset rather than as a standalone device. Of course, it’s always been capable of doing both.
This post was originally published on November 20th but updated on November 23rd (and the publish date changed) to reflect a change to Oculus policy which would give the game to anyone who purchased Quest 2 from September 16th onward. Facebook originally limited the promotion to purchases made after the November 20th announcement.
Thank you to everyone who shared concerns about the Quest 2 Asgard’s Wrath promotion timing. Your candid feedback, support, and enthusiasm are what make this platform a success. The promotion is now available to those who purchased a Quest 2 between Sept 16 and Nov 20, 2020.
Asgard’s Wrath is still, personally, my favorite VR game. I’m a massive fan of games like Zelda, The Elder Scrolls, and generally any type of fantasy setting so getting to play through a massive 30+ hour RPG full of custom-crafted levels, dungeons, puzzles, enemy encounters, and more, all tied together by a sweeping narrative that spans the entirety of Norse mythology, was pretty incredible. It won our Game of the Year award for 2019.
You can also play Asgard’s Wrath wirelessly on Quest if you use Virtual Desktop to stream the game to your standalone headset, although depending on the quality of your router and home network there may be noticeable latency this way which makes the twitchy reaction-based parrying combat quite difficult.
It’s already been an entire year since Asgard’s Wrath first released exclusively on the Oculus Rift and won our Best VR Game of the Year award for 2019. We dove back into Sanzaru Games’ action RPG epic and were delighted to find that it remains just as impressive as we remember.
Asgard’s Wrath: Still Impressive One Year Later
A lot has happened since Asgard’s Wrath first released, including the announcement and impending release of the Quest 2 as well as revelation that Facebook will start selling its first Oculus Studios first-party game on Steam soon. VR is a very different landscape now. Back when Asgard’s Wrath came out, it was the big title to prove VR could be more than tech demos and two-hour walk-around-and-read stuff adventures. Now, games like Boneworks, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, and Half-Life: Alyx have continued to carry that torch.
I still really, really like Asgard’s Wrath. For more specifics on why you can obviously read my full, lengthy review or watch the video version above, but to put it simply it’s the kind of VR game I’d always wanted. Growing up I was raised on The Legend of Zelda, Lord of the Rings movies, and a fascination with mythology and medieval swordsmanship. In many ways, Asgard’s Wrath is the culmination of all those things into a single, neatly crafted package.
That being said, it would be easy to nitpick and criticize individual elements from Asgard’s Wrath, but it’s much more than just the sum of its parts. Yes, combat relies on pre-made enemy animations heavily rather than the physics-driven combat sandbox of Blade & Sorcery. No, it’s not a true open world that lets you go anywhere or do anything. But within the confines of what it tries to be — essentially, a VR Zelda game complete with epic boss fights, a litany of items and gear, and head-scratching puzzles to mix things up — it knocks it out of the park.
If we take a look at all of the VR RPGs on the market, both those that released before and after Asgard’s Wrath, you’ll see there is still nothing that really compares.
Watch my interview with the Creative Director on the game, Mat Kraemer, right here:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is perhaps the closest comparison, but you’d need to mod the hell out of it to get something that feels like a made-for-VR game and even then it’s still nine-years old. I love The Elder Scrolls as much as anyone and it’s a remarkable open-world RPG, but it doesn’t deliver the same narrative impact with a well-paced adventure through a series of dungeons. Asgard’s Wrath borrows its design more liberally from Zelda than anywhere else, as mentioned before.
Journey of the Gods isn’t bad, but the simplistic art style and much smaller scope (mostly linear levels without real dungeons totaling around 10 hours vs. 30+ hours) puts it in a different ballpark. The Wizards is a fun mage adventure, Vanishing Realms does a good job with what it’s got going for it, but is over pretty soon as well.
To put things into perspective: I don’t think there are many other VR games on the market, even a year later, that offer the amount and variety of content that Asgard’s Wrath does that isn’t procedurally generated. These are hand-crafted assets with full voice acting and wonderful world-building.
Visually, I don’t think Asgard’s Wrath has been topped in my opinion. Half-Life: Alyx nails the decrepit sci-fi dystopia without issue, but Asgard’s Wrath has it beat in terms of scale and variety. Gazing out at the snow-capped mountains of Helheim before facing off against Hela herself, pausing on the edge of a cliff to admire the ocean, or seeing intricate, ornate structures as tall as the eye can see in Asgard is all magnificent.
I’m still holding out hope for a full-on sequel of some kind after the cliffhanger ending we got at the conclusion of the story, or at least some kind of DLC to keep things going, so hopefully an announcement of some kind isn’t too far off. Now that Facebook owns Sanzaru Games you can guarantee they’re hard at work on whatever is next in VR.
Asgard’s Wrath clocks in at around 130GB on PC, so a Quest port seems unlikely, but maybe a spin-off of some kind could work. That being said, I’ve played it on the Oculus Quest 2 using Virtual Desktop and with Oculus Link and it plays great on both. The Quest 2’s sharp screen and 90Hz refresh rate in Virtual Desktop looks excellent if you’ve got a beefy enough PC and strong WiFi network.
However, you really need to have ultra-precise reaction times here and any latency, such as over wireless Virtual Desktop streaming, can make combat difficult at times. I’ll also say that this is not the best game to put down for a full year and then suddenly pick up again. It’s very complex with a wide range of companion characters, weapons, and features that I honestly spent a solid 20 minutes just trying to jog up the muscle memory. It’s a doozy — but it’s so worth it. And if you’re playing for the first time then no worries.
Here’s to hoping I can eventually play something else that will make me feel excited to binge a ~30 hour RPG fully in VR. Until then, I can always return to Asgard’s Wrath.
It’s a frightening edition of the VRecap this week, with not one but two new VR horror games to talk about.
We’re not even half a year past Halloween, but Lies Beneath and Cosmophobia already have us in a spooky mood. The former is a new Oculus Studios project from Drifter Entertainment, while the latter is the latest from Dreadhalls studio, White Door Games. Both look so scary we’re not sure we’ll even have to guts to play them.
Elsewhere in the news, we’re talking about Facebook’s acquisition of Sanzaru Games, the maker of Asgard’s Wrath. They join Beat Games in the company’s growing list of owned studios. And then there’s time to touch on Qualcomm’s new VR reference design which does lots of exciting new techy stuff… in headsets you probably won’t see anytime soon.
As for releases, we take a look at Freediver: Triton Down and Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash. Yep, you read that right, the first Space Channel 5 game in a really, really long time!
For our competition this week, we’ve got Freediver codes for Oculus Quest, too. Want to be in with a chance to win? Get involved with the Gleam embed below.
Last year virtual reality (VR) developer Sanzaru Games launched fantasy adventure Asgard’s Wrath, an Oculus Rift exclusive which became one of 2019’s biggest titles. Made in collaboration with the Oculus Studios team, Facebook has now decided to acquire the developer, part of a growing trend within the videogame industry.
While Asgard’s Wrath is the most recent title Sanzaru Games has released its partnership with Oculus Studios stretches back to 2016 and covers four videogames in total; Ripcoil, VR Sports Challengeand MARVEL Powers United VR. Asgard’s Wrath has undoubtedly been the most successful of the bunch, offering a story based on Norse mythology, where you play as both god and mortal.
The purchase will help solidify the partnership between the two companies but also secure Sanazu Games’ talents as a VR developer for further projects on the Oculus platform. Facebook has mentioned that the team will join Oculus Studios as an independently operated studio out of its current offices in the US and Canada.
When it comes to what’s happening next at Sanzaru Games nothing’s being mentioned just yet: “Asgard’s Wrath was a great success and we’ve learned a lot from its development and launch, but we have nothing to announce about future projects at this time,” said Mike Verdu, Director of AR/VR Content at Facebook on the Oculus Blog. “Sanzaru has exciting plans for future VR titles and we hope to bring those experiences to as many people as possible.”
The acquisition may also have been spurred on by the loss of Insomniac Games which joined PlayStation Worldwide Studios last summer. Another developer which had released exclusive titles for Oculus Rift including the very well received Stormland, Insomniac Games did have a long history with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) having recently released Marvel’s Spider-Man as an exclusive on PlayStation 4.
Over the next year, Facebook may even bring more studios under its wing having also purchased Beat Saber developer Beat Games in 2019. “We’re exploring many ways to accelerate VR, and 2020 is going to be an incredible year for VR game launches and announcements. We are thrilled to have Sanzaru joining our team. This is just one of the many amazing VR announcements we have in store this year,” Verdu adds.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Sanzaru Games, reporting back with the latest updates.
Facebook acquired Sanzaru Games, the developer behind a slate of Oculus-funded VR titles including our selection as best VR game of 2019 Asgard’s Wrath.
The development group will join Oculus Studios as an “independently operated studio” out of their current offices in the United States and Canada. They’re the most recent acquisition following Prague-based Beat Games, the studio behind VR’s most popular title Beat Saber, which was acquired by Facebook late last year.
Facebook says it is not disclosing terms of the deal.
We’d speculated such a purchase was likely as Facebook made no secret that it is on a bit of a shopping spree for VR development talent in the build-up against existing gaming giants like Microsoft and Sony. Sanzaru made a lot of sense as a potential acquisition target since they’ve been a long-time partner of Oculus Studios and have released four titles for the Oculus Rift PC platform since 2016 with Ripcoil, VR Sports Challenge, MARVEL Powers United VR and, finally, Asgard’s Wrath, which we rated 5/5 stars and called “VR’s best and most ambitious game yet.”
Facebook guards its sales numbers for consumer VR hardware but since the release of Oculus Quest in May 2019 they’ve had trouble keeping the $400 standalone VR headset in stock while adding surprising features to it like the Oculus Link wired PC VR connection and experimental hand tracking.
Facebook also makes the Oculus Rift S PC VR headset priced at $400 which came bundled for a period last year with Asgard’s Wrath — a deep and sprawling role-playing game rooted in Norse mythology.
“We can confirm the vast majority of Sanzaru will be joining the Oculus Studios team,” a statement from Facebook explains. “We’re exploring many ways to accelerate VR, and 2020 is going to be an incredible year for VR game launches and announcements…This is just one of the many amazing VR announcements we have in store this year.”
Those are bold words but Facebook has a lot planned in VR and AR and is spending billions annually on research and development. Developers are building out controller-free hand-tracking support into Oculus Quest apps and Facebook also plans to launch a VR-based social networking service it calls Horizon. The company pulled out of a physical appearance at the Game Developers Conference in March due to Coronavirus concerns but may make announcements in connection with the event. The company also has its F8 developers conference slated for May and for the last six years hosted a VR developer conference called Oculus Connect late in the year.
What do you think of the acquisition? Which studio do you think Facebook might target for acquisition next?
Just a few months after the acquisition of Beat Saber studio Beat Games, Facebook today announced the acquisition of Sanzaru Games, the studio behind the Oculus-exclusive Asgard’s Wrath and a handful of other VR titles. Sanzaru will join Facebook’s VR game division, Oculus Studios, but continue to be run as an “independently operated studio.”
As far as VR studios go, Sanzaru Games is one of the most veteran you’ll find. The studio began working with Facebook’s Oculus before the company even shipped its first consumer headset. Sanzaru’s first VR title was Ripcoil (2016), built as an Oculus Rift launch title back before the headset was bundled with its ‘Touch’ motion controllers.
Sanzaru continued to build Oculus-exclusive titles published by Oculus Studios; there was VR Sports Challenge (2016), a Touch launch title, followed by Sanzaru’s first major production, Marvel Powers United VR (2018). The studio’s crowning achievement, so far, is Asgard’s Wrath (2019), a VR RPG which received wide acclaim, including our 2019 Game of the Year Award.
Over the years, and thanks in large part to development deals from Oculus Studios, Sanzaru Games has honed its talents as a VR developer, one of only a handful of independent studios which has proven it can successfully deliver a project with the scope of Asgard’s Wrath. With few studios equipped to work in VR at this scale, Sanzaru is a valuable asset for any company wanting to ensure the best VR content comes to their platform.
And that’s likely the primary reason behind Facebook’s acquisition of Sanzaru Games; after years of investing in large projects which have honed the studio’s VR chops, Oculus Studios doesn’t want to risk a competitor coming in and snatching up all that talent for their own platform-exclusive content (much like what happened with Stormland developer Insomniac Games, which was acquired by Sony last year).
Before VR, Sanzaru has worked on a handful of non-VR games dating back to 2008. Going forward, the plan is to be fully focused on VR. Facebook didn’t announce the terms of the acquisition, but says that “Sanzaru is joining Facebook to help us pursue a future of rich, immersive, and original VR game content,” and maintains that the studio will be operated “independently” out of its existing offices.
Facebook says it isn’t ready to talk about what projects are next on the docket for Sanzaru, nor whether they will focus on Quest, Rift, or both, but it seems certain from here on out that future VR games from Sanzaru will continue to be Oculus-exclusive.
Are there more VR studio acquisitions to come? Facebook won’t say for now, but teases, “we’re exploring many ways to accelerate VR, and 2020 is going to be an incredible year for VR game launches and announcements. We are thrilled to have Sanzaru joining our team. This is just one of the many amazing VR announcements we have in store this year.”
