Video Games Deluxe, the Australia-based studio behind Rockstar's L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files release of 2019, has claimed that the Grand Theft Auto makers are working on an AAA-level, open-world virtual reality game.
In a hiring advertisement on the small studio's LinkedIn page, they posted: "Having finished the critically well received L.A.Noire: The V.R. Case Files we are now gearing up for a new project, a AAA open-world title in VR for Rockstar. 2020 marks our 7th year of working exclusively for Rockstar in Sydney and we are excited to taking on this ground breaking project."
No additional details are mentioned, beyond the studio's need for filling a few empty roles for the project - including senior programmers, and engine programmer, designer and an animator. As noted by VG247, none of these individual ads specify that these are roles on a Rockstar project.
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With L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files being a VR spin-off of a larger Rockstar game, could it be that Video Games Deluxe is going to be working on another, similarly scaled project? Perhaps a VR offshoot of Red Dead Redemption 2, now that said game is on PC as well as consoles?
It's unlikely, surely, that Rockstar would be putting too many of its eggs into the VR basket right now, what with Grand Theft Auto 6 (or whatever it ends up being called) being its primary development focus. But another neat little twist on an existing product? That could work. Personally, I'd be up for seeing the first-person perspective of RDR2 adapted into a VR experience. That'd get me back on the horse, for sure.
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PC modders already made Grand Theft Auto V fully playable in VR, so I'm not expecting this project to have anything to do with that now-seven-year-old game. I think RDR2 is the one, and that's more than okay by me. Not as the whole game in VR - more a selection of missions from it, slightly remade to work best in VR. The Micah jail-break shootout in Strawberry, for example.
VR gaming hasn't quite made the impression some within the industry would have hoped for - but as new releases like the PSVR-exclusive Iron Man VR show us, major players are still prepared to take the occasional punt on it. And with PSVR supported by the PlayStation 5, a new VR experience based on a big-hit Rockstar game wouldn't hurt the sales of said headset alongside a new console launch, as well as those that are compatible with PCs.
Featured Image Credit: Sony, Rockstar GamesTopics: Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar, PlayStation, PC, Grand Theft Auto