Rovio’s Angry Birds defined the early days of mobile games. Now, the studio has set their sights on consumer VR with their next installment of their incredibly popular pig-smashing title. Called Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs, the game is set to debut early next year on “all major VR platforms,” the studio says.

The made-for-VR game is currently under development by Rovio and VR/AR studio Resolution Games, the minds behind VR titles such as Wonderglade and the Bait! series.

While we don’t know much about gameplay mechanics yet, it’s possible the Magic Leap One release of Angry Birds: FPS – First Person Slingshot may hold some answers. Resolution Games was also involved in its making, a title that does away with the standard side-scrolling gameplay for a more immersive first-person experience of physically shooting a slingshot at the 3D piggy fort.

Here’s Rovio and Resolution’s description of Angry Birds VR:

“Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs will allow fans of the incredibly popular franchise to swoop in on a remote island to take on the infamous green pigs with the help of their favorite Angry Birds characters.”

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Surprisingly enough, this isn’t the first time Rovio has jumped into virtual reality with some flavor of Angry Birds for VR. The company demoed a first-person prototype on Gear VR as far back as 2015 at the Rock in Rio festival that summer, although it never saw public release afterwards. The studio is also working on an upcoming VR arcade experience for its the release of The Angry Birds Movie 2 film.

Angry Birds VR is slated to arrive in early 2019 on “all major VR platforms.” The studios are staying mum on exactly which platforms these will be, although we’d expect to see at very least a respective versions for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and PlayStation VR, and possibly also mobile VR platforms such as Oculus Go, Google Daydream, and maybe even Oculus Quest when it launches next year.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • impurekind

    Good.

    After seeing Angry Birds for AR, I was totally surprised that there wasn’t already a VR version in that case. I mean, let’s get honest here for a second, AR is generally utter crap like now compared to VR, and Angry Birds AR really does nothing that wouldn’t be even cooler in a fully realised VR world as far as I’m concerned.

    I think this could actually be a really fun game, and I imagine the whole look and feel of Angry Birds in 3D will absolutely shine in VR.

    Also, it’s a great thing to see such a hugely popular casual game coming to VR as it may just get even more people to try it out–and pretty much everyone gets how genuinely revolutionary VR is once they finally get to actually try it themselves.

    So, basically, this is all good imo.

    • STKFF

      Well the genre already exists in VR through the title “VR Furballs – Demolition” (released first in January 2018, and available on Steam and Oculus, with a FREE DEMO to try it out).

      The gameplay is fresh and takes a complete new dimention in VR (plus it adds a lot more like Mini-Games, other Tools, a Level Editor and a Party Mode). But most probably haven’t heard of it because what’s interesting seems to be the brand more than the actual game (it never made it to “Road to VR” for example).

      But as you said, it’s always good to have big names coming to VR. It kind of proves VR is taken seriously by the big names of the video game.

  • NooYawker

    It’s funny, I was thinking of Rovio the other day on how they parlayed one game into a small empire and then it all went away. But I guess they’re hanging on.

    But yea, I’d get this.

    • Jorge Gustavo

      They still are huge and the Angry Birds brand is a very solid one. It never “went away”. They have movies (Pixar style) , toys, games in almost every platform. Sure, Angry Birds is no more the number 01 in the apps stores but… the business goes on.

  • Atul Salgaonkar

    Enabling Angry Birds in a 3DoF stand-alone device like Oculus Go is theoretically possible (with voice commands etc) but realistically the game needs hand-held controller input which may fit well with Lenovo Mirage Solo w Daydream and upcoming Oculus Quest.

  • MW

    Another simple mobile casual cheap game, created for quick entertainment and easy money. VR as a medium had a very bad luck because it appeared in a very bad period, when everything mainstream is focused on simplification and fast earnings. Pity.

  • Another franchise that will help a bit VR in becoming widespread