Facebook made some big announcements yesterday regarding its Oculus Quest platform and how well some developers were doing. Over 60 titles have managed to exceed the $1 million USD marker with the company naming several of them. Since that announcement, studios have taken to Twitter to confirm which of them had managed to be part of this coveted group.
Some weren’t that surprising like nDreams’ stealth shooter Phantom: Covert Ops. Available on both Oculus Quest and Rift, it launched in June last year and only a month later had achieved over $1m in gross revenue from both platforms. The studio Tweeted that Oculus Quest revenue has exceeded $1 million on its own.
Fitness titles OhShape and Synth Riders are also part of that list. The Synth Ridersteam also confirmed to VRFocus in an email that since the release of the Oculus Quest 2 monthly active players had tripled and that monthly revenue showed a 9x increase.
This type of jump in figures was echoed by others in the community. Hrafn Thorisson, CEO and co-founder of Aldin Dynamics – the studio behind Waltz of the Wizard – Tweeted: “Our sales on December 25th 2020 were 5x greater than on December 25th in 2019. January 2021 was our biggest sales month on Quest to date. More than 4x greater than January 2020.”
Good news all around then, with some of these managing to make their way even higher up the revenue pile. It’s important to note that while Facebook might be using $1 million as a positive marker, for long term videogame development that figure is a drop in the ocean. For further updates on the health of Oculus Quest’s ecosystem, keep reading VRFocus.
Just before Christmas Kluge Interactive announced that it would be bringing British rockers Muse to rhythm action title Synth Riders. That DLC arrives today, alongside free songs as well as a unique visual experience for Muse’s Algorithm.
Kluge Interactive has revealed the five songs from Muse which are all paid DLC content and the three free songs released as an update. The first two Muse tracks come from the band’s synthwave-inspired album Simulation Theory.
“Empire of Steel” (MASKED Remix) – Essenger (feat. Scandroid)
“Automatic Call” – NINA
“We have been wanting to make a true audio-visual Synth Riders “experience” for a while now, and I’m incredibly happy with how “Algorithm” turned out, this has opened the doors for us to continue to keep putting music at the foreground of VR!” said Abraham Aguero Benzecri, Kluge Interactive’s Creative Director in a statement.
Released back in 2018, Synth Riders‘ music library has now expanded 67 songs (52 free and 15 paid). Plus there’s official custom song support so players can add their own.
The Synthwave Essentials 2 music pack will be available today with the five DLC tracks purchased individually for $1.99 USD or bundled together with a 20% discount. The core Synth Riders videogame supports Oculus Quest, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Oculus Rift (cross-buy supported on Oculus Store). As further updates are released for Synth Riders, VRFocus will keep you updated.
Virtual reality rhythm game Synth Riders (2019) is getting a new music pack tomorrow called ‘Synthwave Essentials 2′ which is set to feature the heavy-hitting English rock band Muse. Now, developers Kluge Interactive have unveiled the full tracklist for its upcoming DLC in a Road to VR exclusive, and also sat down to talk about some of the finer points of grooving to the infectious electric beat of synthwave in VR.
Synth Riders is all about freestyle dancing, and getting into flow state as you hit incoming orbs to the beat. A unique rail system gets you stretching in every direction; it feels a bit like the neon-soaked lovechild between Thumper (2016) and Kung Fu.
Launching tomorrow, January 14th, Synth Riders Synthwave Essentials 2 Music Pack will include five paid songs, which will be available for purchase for $1.99 each, or as a bundle for $7.96 (-20%).
The game is also getting three free songs, which will arrive in an update tomorrow for all supported platforms. Synth Riders is available on SteamVR headsets via Steam and Viveport, and cross-buy with Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest. PSVR support is also coming sometime this year. More on that below.
Headlining Synthwave Essentials 2 is “Algorithm”, Muse’s title track from their acclaimed 2018 album Simulation Theory. For the song, the studio created a new immersive level that synchronizes the game’s patently ’80s-inspired visuals to the beat, something Kluge Interactive CEO Arturo Perez told us results in “the blending of sight, sound, and movement together into a transformative VR experience.” Check out the video here:
‘Synthwave Essentials 2’ Paid Tracks
“Algorithm” (Alternate Reality Version) – Muse: The title track of Muse’s “Simulation Theory” is given an atmospheric, darkly symphonic treatment and combines with the included Synth Riders Experience to explore the song’s concept that we are caged in simulation.
“The Dark Side” – Muse:The second track of Muse’s “Simulation Theory” continues to explore the struggle to escape from a dystopia with controlling technologies, from our own anxieties and from the Dark Side.
“Days of Thunder” – The Midnight: Like something straight out of an ’80s movie, this melodic synthwave track comes complete with a saxophone player in the back seat as you cruise along the Pacific highway.
“Tech Noir” (Carpenter Brut Remix)– Gunship: Taken from Gunship’s 2015 self-titled first album, this synthwave classic is given a new funk-driven uptempo push by French synthwave artist Carpenter Brut.
“Running In The Night”– FM-84 & Ollie Wride: A massive synthwave hit for producer Col Bennett, better known as FM-84, which pairs sparkling synths with the incredible vocals of long time collaborator Ollie Wride resulting in a modern-yet-classic ’80s soundscape.
Free Songs Arriving Jan. 14th
“Abyss” (Gancher & Ruin Remix) – 3FORCE (feat. Scandroid): Gancher & Ruin takes the synthwave epic from 3FORCE featuring Scandroid and twists it into a relentless EDM track that will have you moving.
“Empire of Steel” (MASKED Remix) – Essenger (feat. Scandroid): Essenger and Scandroid join forces in “Empire of Steel” in this remix by MASKED that takes early 80s synth pop and gives it a harder, modern EDM-and-guitars edge, all set in a cyberpunk future.
“Automatic Call” – NINA: With a strong bassline and shimmering synths all topped with Nina’s beautiful vocals this is a breakup song you’ll always come back to.
We also got a chance to virtually sit down with Arturo Perez, CEO and partner at Kluge Interactive, to learn a little more about what makes the studio’s love letter to synthwave tick.
Founded in 2007, Kluge Interactive is a Los Angeles-based creative agency which builds interactive experiences for a number of sectors including healthcare, B2B, and the public sector. The studio created and published Synth Riders in 2018, making it their first VR game for consumers.
You seem pretty excited about the upcoming DLC. What’s all the hubbub?
Arturo Perez, CEO of Kluge Interactive: We are very excited indeed! Synthwave was our creative inspiration in making Synth Riders to begin with, and we have seen a lot of requests for a follow-up. When we were making the game, synthwave was more of a niche, and we can’t believe how much it’s grown since then. We are proud to release a pack with classic artists such as FM-84 & Ollie Wride, The Midnight, Gunship, and Scandroid, who are all legends to us. And then there is Muse, who pulled off some legendary songs of their own in “Simulation Theory,” and we couldn’t be happier to feature two songs from that album on this pack.
This pack is special for us for one more reason. For the first time, we are launching a dedicated, playable experience for one of the songs in the pack, “Algorithm” by Muse. Rather than a stage that could be used with any song, this is a unique, artistically-driven, immersive visual feast, perfectly synchronized with the song, that results in the blending of sight, sound, and movement together into a transformative VR experience. The final effect went beyond our expectations and we hope that the “Algorithm” Experience will blow the minds of many VR newcomers and let the veterans relive the “wow” factor of VR one more time.
You can really burn some serious calories playing just about any track in Synth Riders. When you set out to make the game, were you specifically targeting fitness, or was that more of a happy side effect?
Our main inspiration for the game was Thumper (2016), so the initial idea was all about making a good music game for us – VR Fitness was nowhere in our periphery. Once we had a prototype, we did realize this game could work great for dancers and fitness enthusiasts. I remember this came up in an audience exercise we did internally. But it wasn’t until our community confirmed this that we got intentional about it.
Today, we are lucky to have someone like our Product Manager Wirrel in our team, who comes with 20 years of fitness experience. We have gotten more intentional about the movements we guide our players to do, and especially in making sure that these movements are good for their bodies. For example, we know that ongoing repetition is bad for you, so we are always intentionally mixing dance and fitness patterns we insert into each song, in a way that it won’t have negative repercussions. We are also constantly QA’ing with how it feels for the body. We are thrilled that the game is widely used for fitness and dancing; what started off as a happy accident has become core to how we bring new features to the game.
Developers seem to be experiencing significant upticks in both installs and user engagement thanks to Quest 2. Is this also the case for Synth Riders?
Absolutely. The weeks before the Quest 2 seemed to be lower-than-usual for everyone we spoke to. Our numbers immediately spiked 5x the day it came out. And we are seeing another interesting spike with the new year too; it’s clear that there are more and more new headsets out there. The percentage of Quest buyers over every other platform we are on continues to grow and widen over time.
PSVR users have been waiting patiently for Synth Riders. When can we expect to start grooving on PSVR?
We are very excited to finally be coming out with PSVR this year. We don’t have an exact date yet but we can confirm that after a number of false starts, we do now have it solidly in the roadmap. Our conversations with the Playstation team have been very encouraging and we look forward to making some exciting announcements about our PSVR release in the short future.
The game’s Mario Kart-style multiplayer power-ups are my personal favorite addition as of late. Across all available modes, where do you find users spending most of their time? Why is that?
Thank you! We love power-ups, and we are continuing to work on them thanks to precious community feedback. We are having a LOT of fun with it as we believe Synth Riders is first and foremost about having fun, and even though we do have a competitive side to the game, we felt the need to bring this Kart-style approach in order to get people engaged with each other, regardless of where they are at in the game.
One of our current challenges now is that we do have a lot of different modes, and players are not always aware of them all. According to our stats and the reviews we get, the favorite seems to be Spin Mode, especially because it works across every single song in the game, including the customs, and across all levels of difficulty. Some players like to play 360 wild and some players like 180 mild. We are also especially pleased about the way this update turned out!
The game has grown a great deal since it was first released in Early Access. Any hints at cool features we can look forward to in 2021?
We don’t want to spoil too much but we can say that we are working on our own version of a Campaign mode which will be a pretty significant update for us. We are also thinking of this mode as the one to help us guide our players to really understand all of the different features that the game now has. We launched this game in Early Access in 2018 and we can’t believe how far it’s come; this also means that it’s feature-rich and we hope Campaign Mode will be a great introduction to the world of Synth Riders.
The other feature we are very excited about is “Experiences,” something we had in mind for a long time but only came to fruition with Muse’s “Algorithm” which is our first visual-to-song unique experience. We are thinking about how to allow our Community to make even more experiences for themselves, and also about the kind of music we want to work with to get even more official experiences onto the game. We can’t wait to see what we can do here, but for now, we just see a lot of exciting potential.
Final question: any favorite experiments with Synth Riders that just didn’t work out?
A lot hasn’t worked! At one point in 2019, we tried to bring additional mechanics to the game, including a way to play more with your elbows and of course with the feet. We also thought of ways to bring in shooters, something you see a little bit with our “Space Invaders” power-up. It’s not like we’ve discarded any of it, but we decided to stay focused on what really worked; primarily around a great rail experience and versatility in the way we can design patterns around our regular notes and their specials. The community has been critical for us, they keep us focused and grounded on what makes this game so special for everyone. We really try to listen to them and make it a game that is created by both of us. While at the same time we are constantly thinking of ways to push boundaries and bring our own flavor and approach to the rhythm genre.
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Synth Riders is available for $25 on SteamVR headsets via Steam and Viveport, and features cross-buy with Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest. You’ll find the new DLC on all platforms starting tomorrow, January 14th.
The developers behind Synth Riders revealed a brand new update and announced that songs from the popular English rock band Muse will be coming to the game in its upcoming third music pack.
Update 01/14/21: The Essential 2 DLC is available, featuring the following tracks:
“Empire of Steel” (MASKED Remix) – Essenger (feat. Scandroid)
“Automatic Call” – NINA
The original story from 12/16/20 and a new trailer is below.
The Muse announcement comes alongside the new Power-Ups update, available now across all platforms, which adds new features to the rhythm game’s multiplayer mode. The developers describe power-ups as “kart racer-style boosts and attacks that you can use against other players to turn the tide of the battle.” There’s 9 different power-ups, each with their own effects — the ‘warp’ effect will speed up notes to an impossible speed, for example, while the “embiggen” power-up will turn them all into beach balls.
You can see some of those power-ups in action in the new mixed reality trailer, embedded below.
As the power-ups are designed to affect other players, they’re a multiplayer-exclusive feature.
However, perhaps the bigger news is the announcement of the “Synthwave Essentials 2” music pack. This will be the game’s third music pack and will feature tracks from English rock band Muse. The music pack will be available early next year on January 14.
While no specific tracks were announced yet, if we had to guess, we think we might see some songs from the band’s latest album, Simulation Theory, which came out in 2018. The album had a science-fiction aesthetic and sound to it, incorporating 80s synthesizers and influences from 80s pop culture. Those tracks would probably be a perfect fit for Synth Riders.
The Power-Ups update is available for Synth Riders now and the Synthwave Essentials 2 pack featuring Muse will release January 14.
Synth Riders (2019), the VR rhythm game for PC VR and Quest, is getting a new music pack soon that will feature British rock band Muse. Starting today, the game also includes a new update that brings some more competitive features to its multiplayer mode.
The game’s DLC featuring Muse will arrive in the ‘Synthwave Essentials 2′ music pack, scheduled to arrive on all platforms January 14th, 2021.
Today, developers Kluge Interactive also launched its free ‘Power-Ups’ update, bringing Mario Kart-style boosts and attacks to Synth Rider’s multiplayer mode, which lets up to 10 players virtually dance-off with built-in voice chat.
Launched in 2019, Synth Riders combines freestyle dancing with a Beat Saber-style game mechanic; instead of chopping blocks to the beat, you hit colored orbs and follow long chains of notes.
Now with ‘Power-Ups’, you’ll be able to use special effects to either help your progression through the song, or foil another player as they encounter seven stackable attacks. Attacks include:
Embiggen – turn the notes into beach balls
Warp – make competitors approach at an impossible speed
Invaders – flying aliens target the player with projectiles
“Power-Ups made our whole team smile and laugh during testing and we are excited to finally share them with our entire community,” said creative director Abraham Aguero Benzecri. “We hope our players will have lots of laughs and unforgettable moments playing Synth Riders multiplayer with their friends and family.”
‘Power-Ups’ is available for free on all supported platforms starting today, which includes cross-platform play via Steam, Oculus Quest (cross-buy with Rift), and Viveport.
When it comes to rhythm-action videogames winning over fans, they need to have a combination of addictive gameplay and stellar tunes to enjoy. Today, Kluge Interactive has announced a ‘Power-Ups’ update is rolling out for Synth Riders whilst a new music pack is soon to arrive featuring alternative rock band Muse.
The ‘Power-Ups’ update is a free multiplayer addition, enhancing the mode with racer-style boosts and attacks. With the multiplayer mode supporting up to 10-players, they’ll now be able to access an arsenal consisting of two boosts and seven attacks to send to each other, trying to win the match in the process.
Some of these power-ups include “Embiggen” turning notes into beach balls, “Warp” will suddenly make the notes approach at a ludicrous speed and then there’s the “Invaders” attack where spaceships target an opponent with projectiles.
“Power-Ups made our whole team smile and laugh during testing and we are excited to finally share them with our entire community! We hope our players will have lots of laughs and unforgettable moments playing Synth Riders multiplayer with their friends and family,” said Abraham Aguero Benzecri – Creative Director in a statement.
As for new music, Kluge Interactive will be releasing its third DLC music pack, Synthwave Essentials 2, on 14th January 2020. At the moment only Muse has been confirmed, no details yet regarding which of their songs have been licensed. The last music pack Cyberpunk Essentials arrived back in August with a total of 10 songs.
Synth Riders isn’t the only VR title trying to attract players with big-name bands. Rival Beat Saber has been doing this for a while, adding the likes of K-pop band BTS, rock band Linkin Park and Timbaland to its roster in 2020.
Synth Riders is available for Oculus Quest as well as PC VR headsets like HTC Vive, Valve Index and Oculus Rift, with the ‘Power-Ups’ update available on them all. As further updates are released for Synth Riders, VRFocus will keep you updated.
Kluge Interactive’s Synth Riders is the latest game to get the Quest 2 enhanced treatment.
The VR rhythm game, which recently celebrated its first anniversary, just got better visuals and other tweaks for Facebook’s new headset. Specifically, a Reddit post confirms the game has higher texture quality, improved anti-aliasing, better particle effects and no foveated rendering on Quest 2. Some of these improvements have been made on the original headset too.
Synth Riders Quest 2 Update Out Now
Not only that but Synth Riders has also been prepped to support 90Hz just as soon as Facebook unlocks the feature for developers. You can already play the game this way using a sneaky workaround in Developer Mode, though.
Elsewhere, Kluge confirmed that the game will still support custom songs on the new headset, too. Synth Riders is a little like Beat Saber with your hands – notes approach you to the beat of a given track and you need to hit them with your hands. Some notes require you to hold your hand in a certain place, too, making this a slightly groovier take on the formula.
Over on PC, meanwhile, Synth Riders was just included in a new bundle of VR games named Perfect Hit VR, including Eleven Table Tennis VR and Thrill of the Fight.
As for Quest 2, plenty of existing games are getting updates for the platform that add improved visuals, taking advantage of the headset’s improved horsepower. We’ve got a full list of Quest 2 enhanced games right here. Will you be checking out the Oculus Quest 2 update this week? Let us know in the comments below!
OhShape and Synth Riders have teamed up once again to release a second collaboration map, available in both games now.
The new track, called ‘Carry On’, is composed by F.O.O.L, and is fully mapped for both games to suit their separate styles. You can view a trailer below.
The first collaboration between OhShape and Synth Riders launched back in June, with the free track Delight by Jamie Berry. This second collaboration actually aligns with another event, the VR Fitness Summit. The summit is a series of tournaments run by the Virtual Athletics League (VAL) across loads of active VR games.
A joint OhShape and Synth Riders tournament will be held as part of the VR Fitness Summit, where participants will compete in both games across one tournament. The winner will need to have the highest scores in both games — not only will that require a fair bit of skill, but it’ll probably be quite the workout as well. You’ll definitely have your work cut out for you if you choose to enter.
The joint tournament runs this weekend and you can find more details on the OhShape and Synth Riders social accounts. If you’re interested in taking part in a different game, you can look at the selection over on the VR Fitness Summit site.
‘Carry On’ is available in both Synth Riders and OhShape now across all supported platforms. Be sure to also check out the recent Cyberpunk Essentials pack for Synth Rider, half of which is available to download for free.
The Synth Riders music catalog just got a little bit bigger with the addition of 10 new EDM tracks as part of the ‘Cyberpunk Essentials’ music pack.
The pack is available on Oculus Quest, Steam and Viveport now and, even better, half of it is free. Developers Kluge Interactive say that the pack includes tracks from both established and emerging electronic dance artists, plus there’s a whole new themed stage included.
The five cyberpunk tracks available for free are:
“Voidwalkers” – Au5
“I’ll Fight Back” – Sullivan King
“Calling Out” – MUZZ (feat. Skyelle & KG)
“Showdown” – F.O.O.L
“Revenger” – F.O.O.L
The additional five tracks that can purchased as DLC are:
“Take That” – RIOT
“Eden” – Au5 & Danyka Nadeau
“TURBO” – Tokyo Machine
“MOSHI” Pegboard Nerds & Tokyo Machine
“New Game” – Nitro Fun
These new additions bring the Synth Riders library to 55 songs total, of which only 10 are paid DLC. The Cyberpunk Essential DLC tracks can be purchased as a slightly discounted bundle for $8.99 or for $1.99 per track.
The cyberpunk tracks also support the ‘Play Together’ mutiplayer feature in the game, which allows a host who owns the DLC to create a room where everyone can play along even if they don’t personally own the paid DLC tracks.
There’s a wealth of rhythm-action videogames for virtual reality (VR) headsets, with Kluge Interactive’s Synth Riders having been available for a couple of years now. Today, the studio has launched its biggest free update yet ‘Spin Mode’, adding a range of options to make each track even more immersive and energetic.
The Spin Mode does exactly what you’d expect, moving the gameplay away from a stationary track set out in front of you to one which encompasses the entire environment. Players can now select 90, 180, 360, and 360-degree overhead spins for every song and difficulty in Synth Riders.
Kluge Interactive has not only ensured the Spin Mode works on all 40 of the title’s original soundtrack but also with players’ favourite custom songs, so you can now have those orbs and walls come from every direction.
There’s more to the update than just the Spin Mode. Play Profiles have been introduced enabling players to easily access their preferred combinations of modifiers, customising the type of experience they want. Alongside custom profiles (which can also be shared), there’s a selection of predefined options such as Dance, Force and Spin. Plus a new free track called Star Fighter from Danish synthwave and retro-electro artist, Wice has been added as well as a new stage Spin City and a Vanish Notes modifier.
“We are excited to let our players experience Spin Mode, which enhances every song currently available in the game. Synth Riders is offering an improved workout potential activating the whole body. It’s also a great addition for the Multiplayer Mode, making it even more entertaining and fun to play when the orbs spin all around the player,” said Abraham Aguero Benzecri, Kluge Interactive Creative Director in a statement.
On top of all of this, Kluge Interactive has teased an upcoming music pack at the end of the below trailer. Called Cyberpunk Essentials, its due for release on 13th August.
