lone echo 2 — Image courtesy Ready at Dawn

‘Lone Echo II’ Coming to Oculus PC in August, Original ‘Lone Echo’ Discounted to $10

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Jul 20, 2021

The long-awaited sequel to Ready At Dawn’s space adventure Lone Echo (2017) is delayed again. Lone Echo II was set to arrive on August 24th, but now it’s coming “later this year,” likely making it one of the last PC-only games funded by Facebook to arrive on the Oculus Store.

Update (August 13th, 2021): Lone Echo II has been delayed to “later this year.” Check out the full message from the devs here.

Lone Echo II has been delayed multiple times since it was originally slated to arrive in 2019, but the wait is almost over. The game, which launches on the Oculus Store for Rift and Quest via either Link or Air Link next month, will be priced at $40.

In a bid to get more people interested in the now four year-old game, the original Lone Echo is getting a steep cut from its regular price of $40, bringing the game to just $10 for a limited time.

Lone Echo follows the exploits of Captain Olivia Rhodes and an artificial intelligence named Jack (that’s you) who look after an advanced mining facility around the rings of Saturn. As Jack, you use futuristic tools, solve puzzles, and fly around still one of the most detailed and immersive VR games to hit the Oculus platform.

Image courtesy Ready at Dawn, Facebook

Since you’re a consciousness backed up on local servers, getting killed isn’t nearly the same corporeal drama as it might be for your companion Captain Rhodes. You simply wake back up in a new artificial body and continue with the narrative adventure.

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No spoilers here, but in Lone Echo II you reprise the role of Jack as you embark on new adventures with Captain Rhodes. Although it’s possible things have changed over the past two years, a 15-minute gameplay video gives us the best look of a new mystery and a few puzzling challenges Jack must overcome.

Ready at Dawn, which has since been acquired by Facebook, says that anyone who purchases Lone Echo II will also receive a free chassis for their Echo VR avatar, which matches Jack’s new chassis (seen above). Echo VR is the studio’s sportier cross-platform little brother, which is kind of like a zero-gravity version of ultimate frisbee.

3872Orcs

F you Facebook for making exclusives on PC that otherwise could have helped growing the VR market as a whole! Just imagine if their exclusives was available for all headsets and what effect that could have had on sales across all systems. The road to VR would have been a little less steep.
- Adrian Meredith
  
  Ever heard of revive??? This will work fine on any headset
- Spider
  
  I agree, though I was able to play it with my Vive via ReVive. Great game, too bad about the BS “exclusive” paradigm FB is pushing. Nobody wants to have to buy multiple VR headsets, and trying to force us into buying theirs by throwing up a walled garden is pretty much admitting they don’t have confidence that their hardware is good enough to sell itself.
  - Jeremy Kins
    
    Yes, they do have confidence. They utilize software sales to subsidize the costs of their hardware. This incentives exclusivity for future hardware releases.
  - shadow9d9
    
    Which is exactly how consoles have done it for 30 years.
    - Kunakai
      
      And people have complained about it for 30 years.
      
      The odd part is that hardware is often sold at a reported loss yet companies are still determined to lock individuals into their respective ecosystems while locking others out of content.
      
      Personally, I find it odd how often people defend the practice given how unfriendly it is to consumers.
      - Sky Castle
        
        People don’t look at VR headsets as consoles though as it’s more of a peripheral. So locking exclusives on a PC that has enjoyed the freedom of never experiencing it up till Facebook is not something easy for them to except.
        
        Of all the many headsets released over the years only Facebook’s Rift headset have exclusives which makes them look even worst as a company.
        
        As for consoles, they sell so many units they can afford to take a lose, because the more units they sell the more profit they can make off their exclusive games. Like Sony making back all their money from their games that they make themselves (God of War, Ratchet & Clank, etc). Microsoft makes money off Halo games. And Nintendo has Zelda, Mario, and many others as their bread and butter. You can’t say this about any VR headset.
      - Kunakai
        
        I don’t think people should accept it. (The Quest isn’t a PC and doesn’t require one yet you’ll see many are vocally irritated by RE4’s Quest exclusivity)
        
        Of the four people I know who have bought an Oculus headset, none bought one due to exclusive software.
        
        My point in regards to the loss on consoles is that there are few or no examples of a console manufacturer going out of business due to lack of exclusives while there are examples of companies making a healthy profit by liberating exclusives (look into Sony’s previous financial brief).
        
        MS recently started releasing most of their titles on PC and don’t seem to be selling fewer consoles as a result.
        
        Further: A large proportion of profits from consoles isn’t from first party games but third party.
        
        Regardless, people certainly shouldn’t think it’s cool for any platform to hold the keys.
        
        Interestingly, we don’t hear too many complain about the fact that Valve aren’t selling HL: Alyx on competing stores (Granted, Steam supports all HMD’s while Oculus only suppport their own)
      - Sky Castle
        
        There’s also more to selling consoles at a lose than just profit though it is a huge part of it. Pride plays a big role as well. When you’re rich what do you want more of? To be better than everyone else.
        
        I think selling at a lose is a win for all of us. We get the consoles at the cheapest prices. Nobody likes exclusives but excepts it because competition ensures the best quality product for consumers. Personally I think it would be boring if we only had one console or many consoles all selling the same games. At the end of the day exclusives are really just part of the competition.
        
        MS going PC is a smart move but make no mistake they are not moving away from exclusives having just bought out a major 3rd party developer recently themselves. Their new focus is monthly service with their game pass which I’m liking as they offer day 1 release games.
        
        The difference between HL Alyx exclusive and RE4 is that’s Valves game. RE4 is not Facebook, it’s a 3rd party game. A company making a game for themselves is more exceptable than a company buying out exclusive rights from an existing game made by another developer. So the right to be angry at Facebook is more justified.
        
        Edit: Also forgot to say even if Sony makes more money from 3rd parties, that’s even more incentives to have exclusives to sell more consoles to make more money from these 3rd party games.
      - Kunakai
        
        Enjoy having to buy three/four machines to play those exclusives and feel better than everyone else I guess?
      - Sky Castle
        
        Actually do own every system and handheld console since Atari 2600 and now a gaming pc with most of the major vr headsets (Vive, Rift 1, 2, Quest 1,2, and Index). And I do feel fortunate when people fight over which console is better because they only could afford one.
  - Kunakai
    
    “admitting they don’t have confidence that their hardware is good enough to sell itself”
    
    An odd sentiment given more units are sold year on year?
- Jeremy Kins
  
  Good lord, man. Take it easy. Just imagine? In what world would YOU fund something’s development and then give it to other platforms for free, disincentivizing purchases of your own hardware? Just because you want or think something doesn’t mean it makes sense for a business to do so. And besides, play it with Revive or something. I dislike Facebook as much as anyone but it’s hard to get mad about a first-party funded title being exclusive to their platform.
  - Kunakai
    
    “In what world would YOU fund something’s development and then give it to other platforms for free”
    
    The people who made the OS the quest uses did just that?
    
    There is a difference, nobody is asking for it to be free. The issue is that you can’t even pay for the software on another platform. Oculus/PS would likely make more of a profit from making titles more widely availible.
- shadow9d9
  
  They are the only big money outside of sony who is funding vr game development. Both have exclusives.
Rosko

Not too excited by it, first game was boring, second one will be exactly the same game.
- Kunakai
  
  When I’m not interested in something, I tend to think others will only be disinterested in my lack of interest.
  
  I have no idea why you’d believe anyone cares what you enjoy?
johann jensson

Only the singleplayer, ma’am, only the singleplayer. This Echo VR thing sounds boring.
GR1M

Looks like I’ll finally play lone echo. RAD, please put combat on quest.
Sky Castle

Can’t believe it’s taken so long to make a short game. I know it’s going to be short because well..$40. That’s why I hate games with multiplayer co op. They take away so much time from single player development.

I know larger companies have 2 teams working on each project, but this is not a large company. And even then, I’ve worked for large companies before as a tester and seen delays after delays because their pvp team is holding back the game release.
david vincent

Amazing, time to redo the first one.
TonyVT SkarredGhost

The Duke Nukem Forever of VR is finally being released!