Sanzaru Games, the minds behind Marvel Powers United VR (2018) and VR Sports Challenge (2016), is apparently teaming up with Oculus again to develop another VR game. More details about the upcoming game are expected on Tuesday.

Update (February 2nd, 2019): The official Sanzaru community Discord server has a ‘Project Forge’ chat channel where Oculus has been teasing the community about the upcoming game. On Thursday last week, Oculus’ Mike Doran (who works closely with with Sanzaru) posted a brief video tease where he ‘snuck into a top secret room’ at the studio, in which some of the game’s developers (clearly in on the bit) were playing something on a Rift headset but quickly hurried Doran out of the room scolding, “I told you Tuesday! Not today, we’re not showing this content now, get out of here!”

Given the tease, we expect to hear more about the project this Tuesday. An initial announcement seems likely, with some details probably being held for GDC 2019 in March, an event where Oculus usually makes a big show of its upcoming titles.

The original article continues below.

Original Article (January 30th, 2019): Oculus teased the upcoming title in a tweet yesterday, which features a gif of a flaming gate.

Popping into Oculus Home, you’ll find the gate in your inventory under the name ‘Runic Door’—possibly meaning the game with have a Nordic flair. While the gate itself is devoid of any actual runes, the world tree from Norse mythology (Yggdrasil) is pretty unmistakable.

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An Oculus spokesperson says in a Reddit post that users will “be impressed by the visual quality of this game. Also, the door asset is a simplified model and texture so it fits within the requirements of Oculus Home.”

Sanzaru tweeted out the word “Soon!” in response to Oculus; the studio has since setup a Discord channel (invite) named ‘Project Forge’, possibly a code name for the game.

While the studios haven’t confirmed anything beyond this, it’s safe to say this will be an Oculus Rift exclusive. The next big venue for Oculus is undoubtedly GDC 2019, which takes place between March 18th – 22nd in San Francisco, so it’s possible we’ll find out more in the coming weeks.


Additional reporting by Ben Lang

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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.
  • JesuSaveSouls

    Another monumental achievement for oculus.

    • Rogue Transfer

      Let’s not let the imagination get carried away about a non-gameplay tease showing a door portal to Nordic gods’ & goddesses’ realms. We’ve yet to see if the game is a ‘monumental achievement’ or just another repetitive shooting spree with some snazzy graphics and animations.

  • NooYawker

    I uninstalled Revive, I just refuse to support this bullshit. A device attached to a PC should never have “exclusives” Their stand alone devices can do whatever they want.

    This is an old argument but I’ve had it with this bullshit. I bought a couple of games from oculus store but never again.

    • daveinpublic

      Yes I’m tired of exclusives, but it’s the way the world turns. Every console has exclusives, too.

      • NooYawker

        Consoles are different, that’s 100% their hardware. You just attach a screen.

        • daveinpublic

          Consoles use your existing TV/monitor, which is hardware, and you buy the computer hardware. Headsets use the existing computer hardware, and you buy the headset/monitor… and because of the newness of the medium, the tracking equipment, etc, it cost about the same or more for the hardware for a VR setup than for a console.

        • Jerald Doerr

          “Consoles are different, that’s 100% their hardware. You just attach a screen”

          You could not be more wrong…
          Quoted…. You happy?

          • NooYawker

            Wow that’s so moronic! Because they don’t use their own chips it’s not their hardware?? You’re are dumber than you seem.

          • Jerald Doerr

            No… Moronic is you saying Oculus is not there own hardware yet saying a PS4 is Sonys own hardware… daaaaa daaaaa hello… Is anyone in there?

    • care package

      ” A device attached to a PC should never have “exclusives”
      Says who? This has never been an established rule. It’s what we’ve been used to is all. Now game stores (epic) are getting exclusivity. It’s a developers choice, they don’t owe you anything.

      • NooYawker

        They don’t owe me anything. And I choose not to use their product. That’s my choice. I don’t know why my choice has your panties in a bunch.

        • care package

          Oh ya hit a nerve with me. Could be worse though. I could have rage uninstalled followed up with an ‘I’m done with this bullshit’.

          • NooYawker

            Oh yea, I decided to no longer give money to a company I think is shit. Crazy huh???

          • care package

            My reply was first about your silly claim about the PC platform. Second was in response to your hypocrisy. Ignoring all that now you seem to think I care what choice you make as a consumer. I should have never replied. My bad. Pretend I never did.

          • Wild Dog

            Would you say you’re anti-opinion? Reading your replies, it appears your only gripe was with him expressing frustration.

          • care package

            You could try reading. Just a thought

          • Wild Dog

            Would you say you’re anti-cooperation too? You might help with a quote otherwise.

          • care package

            Would you say you’re anti-reading comprehension? Ya, here’s a quote: “start with understanding, before seeking to be understoid”

          • Wild Dog

            No, but thank you for asking. Are you?

            You seem to have given me a completely unrelated quote to what I asked about.

          • care package

            No, but thank you for asking. Go back to the start and read down

          • Wild Dog

            I’m afraid I just did, could you oblige me with a quote?

          • Jerald Doerr

            You’re ridiculous…

          • Wild Dog

            I’d like a quote on that, please.

          • Jerald Doerr

            “” All of the above…. Unlike other people here I don’t have time to explain or point you in the direction of “why” Figure it out yourself… Stop begging for quotes..

          • Wild Dog

            But I’ve read all the comments… Are you saying I should break the fourth wall or something?

        • MosBen

          Obviously, you do you, and that’s fine. But something that I found myself thinking about is that while game stores didn’t exactly have exclusive games, there is a pretty long tradition of them having exclusive offers to entice people to buy a particular game from them. As brick and mortar stores die out, or become less relevant to gaming, it makes a certain amount of sense that we’d see competing stores that use exclusive content to bring over customers, and that some of that content might be totally exclusive games.

          I certainly don’t like it, but I understand why it’s happening and that it’s probably what the future is going to look like.

          • Wild Dog

            I can’t help but notice that you haven’t mentioned any pros or cons to this happening.

          • MosBen

            I mean, I said that I don’t like it, so at least at some level I’m saying that I think that whatever the individual pros and cons, I think that on balance it’s not a good thing. But it’s also not something that I think can be avoided, nor do I think that it’s so objectionable that I’m worked up over it.

          • Wild Dog

            So you’re just telling this poor man to suck it up because you don’t think him posting an opinion will cause a revolution or something? Do you have something against people who get worked up a little easier?

            I don’t think Captain America would do that.

          • MosBen

            I know that we’re all used to seeing comments that are spoiling for a fight, but I think that if you read my comments you’ll see that I’m not telling him to do anything. I acknowledged that he was entitled to feel differently about it, but explained why it was an issue that I understood why it happened and also didn’t bother me a ton.

          • Wild Dog

            “it was an issue that I understood why it happened and also didn’t bother me a ton.”

            Can you reword this? Are you saying it’s problematic that he “let” it bother him?

          • MosBen

            I don’t see the words “he” or “problematic” in that quote, nor anything in my posts criticizing NewYawker for how he felt about the issue.

          • Wild Dog

            I didn’t say you were criticizing him for how he felt, but if your posts weren’t criticizing that he felt and expressed that feeling, I see no point to any of your comments.

          • MosBen

            You don’t see any point to comments which express a difference of opinion and an explanation for why I came to that conclusion while respecting that other people might feel differently? Really?

          • Wild Dog

            Your only opinion was doomsaying that expressing his frustration wouldn’t make anything change and there was no real explanation for it. Quote yourself if I’m wrong, but I read through.

          • MosBen

            He explained why something bothered him. I explained why it didn’t bother me. Neither of us has to be right in this instance, nor every interaction online need to be about criticizing what someone else has said. I can see why it would bother him, but I don’t feel the same way and it’s fine.

          • Wild Dog

            Well, why did you comment it if it doesn’t bother you?

          • MosBen

            Because it’s possible to have a conversation with someone who holds a different opinion from you in order to learn about other people’s perspective. He voiced his view, and I voiced mine. Neither needs to be proven correct for the exchange to be valuable, even if the only result is a pleasant conversation.

            It’s perplexing to me that you seem to believe that it is only worth engaging in a discussion if the point is to criticize other people; that a comment which doesn’t try to criticize someone for holding a certain perspective is somehow pointless.

          • Wild Dog

            Maybe you’re right. I guess there’s a chance I’ve just become overly sensitive to comments that I thought just existed to detract from a topic without actually engaging in it. Or something like that.

          • MosBen

            The internet certainly has put people on edge. It seems like every comments section, regardless of the subject, is now the battleground of two or more camps and every subject is a life or death fight to the finish. Consoles vs PC. Republicans vs Democrats. Patriots vs every other fan of sport. And there are definitely times when someone is right and other people are wrong, and the distinction is one worth arguing over.

            And I certainly do that plenty here and elsewhere. But I also try to reign my argumentative instincts in, especially in an instance like this where it’s really just a question of whether something bothers you or not. I totally get how an issue like exclusives could really annoy someone, it just doesn’t happen to annoy me for a variety of reasons. But while it can be interesting to talk about, and it’s certainly not impossible that someone could change their mind, it’s also one of those times where it can be ok if we just end up in a spot where we explain our thought process and respect that other people might come to different conclusions.

            The internet is a nasty enough place without me needing to add to it unnecessarily, so I try to keep it positive where I can.

          • Wild Dog

            I don’t think you’ve actually gone into the reasons. Are there any topics you don’t avoid arguing in?

          • MosBen

            Sure. There are plenty of areas where I think that there’s either a definite correct answer or position and people who hold contrary positions are simply wrong, or areas in which there are important moral or philosophical principles in play, and while the answers aren’t as simple as right or wrong, there are still important values at stake that affect people and their lives. So, for example, I’ll argue with climate change deniers or anti-vaxers because they’re simply, factually, incorrect, and I’ll argue about politics, because certain values are worth fighting for. This just doesn’t happen to be one of those areas.

          • Wild Dog

            Do you ever do it out of interest? And can you give the reasons I mentioned before?

          • MosBen

            I’m sorry, I’ve probably missed something over the course of our discussion. Apologies. Do I ever do what out of interest, and what do you mean? I can’t think of an instance where I’ve gotten involved in a conversation where I wasn’t at least somewhat interested in the topic.

            And the reasons for what? Do you mean the reasons why I dislike exclusive deals but am not particularly bothered by them?

          • Wild Dog

            Do you ever argue for Interest in the argument itself rather than just who’s right?

            And the reasons of “I totally get how an issue like exclusives could really annoy someone, it just doesn’t happen to annoy me for a variety of reasons. “

          • MosBen

            If by “interest in the argument itself” you mean the substance of the issue (e.g., climate change), then yes, in almost every case I’m interested in the argument itself. If you mean just debating for the sake of debating, then no, hardly ever. That would be something that I would think was pointless. There are times when someone is simply presenting incorrect factual information, and that should be corrected, primarily because it may mislead someone that reads it, but also in hopes that the person who stated the incorrect information didn’t do it intentionally and will present the correct information in the future. Other times, someone is making a moral argument with which I disagree. And in some of those cases they’re making the further argument that public policy should be made in line with their moral argument. In those instances it is important to present a counter argument, not because there’s a factual error that needs to be corrected, but because deciding what kind of values society holds and how that should influence public policy is important in a democratic society. Also, the outcome of those sorts of policy discussions tend to have consequences for real people’s lives, sometimes really bad consequences. In other cases, a discussion isn’t about arguing a side, it’s just about presenting one’s thoughts on an issue and then comparing them to other people’s thoughts. There’s no objectively right answer for who the greatest rock band of all time is, but it’s interesting to talk about with other people because other people are interesting and have interesting ideas.

            As for the second paragraph, I believe that I did discuss this a bit previously, but I can add to it. I don’t have nearly enough time in my life to enjoy all of the things that I would like to if my time was infinite. I’ll never see all of the movies or read all of the books or comics that I want to read, so if some of the ones that I’d like to get to are behind some kind of barrier to entry, well, that’s kind of annoying, but I don’t lack for things to do. I’d love to play the PS4 Spider-Man game, but I don’t have a PS4 and I’m not going to buy one. But while that’s kind of a bummer, between my PC, Xbox One, and Switch I have literally hundreds of games that I already own that I haven’t had time to get to, and probably never will. I understand why having exclusive games on a system makes business sense for a company, whether it’s Sony or Oculus, but ultimately it’s not really something that impacts my buying decisions (for consoles it’s which system my friends decide to buy, and with VR it’s about the HMD hardware/design). I don’t begrudge them their business plans and attempts to woo people to their platform instead of some other platform; it’s competition, I get it. I also have other things in this life that I feel are more worth my emotional energy to get worked up over (climate change, politics generally), so a game not being available to me because it’s on a platform that I don’t own really doesn’t rate much. But, of course, people feel differently, which is ok.

          • Wild Dog

            Well, I don’t know what debating for the sake of debating means, but does that mean you don’t enjoy anything about debating besides it being a civil service in your eyes? The qualities, reactions and intricacies of the person debating you, perhaps?

          • MosBen

            I would define “debating for the sake of debating” as viewing a debate or discussion as a sport, where the value is generated purely in the sparring between two opponents. I like having pleasant conversations with pleasant people, and I do think that there’s value in refining and reflecting on your positions through discussion with people who have different positions or ideas, and I can say that I do enjoy a good, productive, debate. But I think that there’s a limit, where you’re not really engaging in furtherance of anything meaningful or in a meaningful way and are just being argumentative or contrarian as a pose, or just to antagonize someone else. And that’s the point where it crosses into just being trolling.

          • Wild Dog

            So do you believe there’s no intellectual value in appreciating sports or sparring?

          • MosBen

            Well, I’m not a big fan of sports, but that’s also not what I said.

          • Wild Dog

            I didn’t say you did, but you also didn’t answer my question. I’ll rephrase it.

            Do you believe that sports or sparring between two opponents is necessarily bereft of intellectal value?

          • MosBen

            I suspect not, but I don’t really know. Not being generally much of a sports fan it’s not something that I’ve thought about. There’s a physical value to sport, and probably an emotional one, but I don’t know about an intellectual one. I’d need to hear some arguments for and against.

          • Wild Dog

            With football, there’s strategy. They say fighting styles are their own language, have you seen the Ip Man series? I loved how it looked like their martial arts were in a world of their own, but then they have go up against a western boxer and he almost gets clobbered. x)

          • Wild Dog

            Still there?

          • MosBen

            Sure. I didn’t have anything to add in response to your last post. One of my absolute worst habits is just writing a post just to say something. I’ve been trying to think about whether I have something worthwhile to explain or add and not writing anything if I don’t.

          • Wild Dog

            Well that’s why I waited four days before checking. May I ask why you don’t have anything to add?

          • MosBen

            Nothing sprang to mind? You had previously asked whether I thought that sports or sparring was necessarily bereft of intellectual value. I responded that I suspected that it was not bereft of intellectual value, but I didn’t know and would need to see arguments for and against. You responded that there is strategy in football, which again, I don’t doubt, though I’m not sure if it’s the same thing as in a discussion like the type we were having before we veered down this rabbit hole.

            But ultimately, I just come back to being somewhat ambivalent on whether or not sports are bereft of intellectual value. I’m not interested in watching most sports, so it’s just not that interesting of an issue to me. And it’s definitely a bit far afield from our original topic, which was why someone would respond to someone else’s online comments in explanation for why I felt differently but without dismissing their feelings on the issue.

          • Wild Dog

            I’m not actually sure about the direction we’re going in, I just thought it was interesting and would like to continue. Do you believe emotional intelligence counts as part of a potential intellectual pursuit in sports?

          • MosBen

            Fair enough. I’m happy to continue to just see where we get to. As for emotional intelligence, I remember reading something about it a long time ago, but I’m not recalling how well established of a concept it is in psychology. But nevertheless, I’d be inclined to say that it’s not the same as intellectual pursuits. Not that it wouldn’t matter, just that it’s probably distinct, though I could be wrong about that.

          • Wild Dog

            What does your inclination consist of?

          • MosBen

            Nothing substantial. Just a vague recollection of having read or learned about emotional intelligence at some forgotten point in time leaving the feeling that it is a real thing, but distinct from intellectual intelligence. But as with many areas, that’s not something that I know much about, so I could be convinced that my vague feeling is wrong if there’s good evidence available.

          • Wild Dog

            Judging by your vague recollection, what definition would you say emotional intelligence has to you?

          • MosBen

            At a guess, I’d say something like “The ability to read and understand emotional cues in others and respond to emotional situations appropriately given the specific situation that you’re in”, but again, that’s off the top of my head. I try not to invest too much guessing into areas where I’m relatively ignorant. As the Dunning-Kruger effect teaches us, at lower levels of expertise we simply don’t know what we don’t know.

          • Wild Dog

            Could I hear some guesses on what else it might branch into?

          • MosBen

            I literally don’t know. Honestly, I’ve appreciated talking to you, and I’d be interested in continuing to do so, but this page is grinding my browser to a halt now, making responding kind of difficult. I suspect that it’s just the big amount of comments. Feel free to hit me up in another thread, or on Twitter. I’m not a heavy Twitter user, but I try to check it. Cheers!

          • Wild Dog

            Unfortunate. I wonder why. Seeya then.

        • SANDVITCH

          100% agreed with you, exclusives games should be boycotted, no matter how good they are, that’s really bad for the gaming community.

      • wheeler

        They are referring to hardware exclusivity. Not store exclusivity.

        • care package

          Dont kid yourself. Look at all the uproar brat drama over Epic right now. It comes from the same core thought, which I’m sure hed also have a say

    • MeowMix

      Sounds like you bought the wrong headset

      • Jerald Doerr

        Lol!!!!! That’s hilarious!!!! Nice one!!! I can’t stop laughing……..

      • NooYawker

        I bought the one that works in a large room for maximum room scale. Not everyone has their computer in the corner of their bedroom or living room. Some of us actually have enough space to move around beyond 10 ft.

  • MosBen

    I never got into Marvel Powers, mostly due to a ton of technical difficulties. Granted, I have an older CPU and 8gb of RAM, but I have a GTX 1070 and can run most VR and gaming stuff just fine. But Marvel Powers would take literally several minutes to load, and when I could even get into the game the performance was bad, the tutorials didn’t really make me feel like I knew what I was doing, and collision detection seemed awful. All for what seemed like just another wave shooter. They obviously spent money on it, and maybe I’ll check back in to see if they’ve made any significant updates, but I haven’t felt much of a desire to go back.

    • Wild Dog

      When I saw footage, it made me think of a skyrim VR mod with an assortment of marvel themed weapons.

      • oompah

        skyrim is so great , it’s code & data should be made free

        • Wild Dog

          Well, if you like Skyrim… There’s another game that’s nearly free but it’s very, very early in development.

          It’s like Warband but with fully physics based combat.

          5 bucks and you get access to development and own the final version.
          https://www.kinstrife.com/

          Keep in mind, there isn’t much to do in it right now, but I think we can all agree we want to see more games like this.

    • benz145

      Sounds like CPU limitation and possibly slow data read — are you using an HDD or SSD?

      • MosBen

        I have an i5 4590, which is the recommended CPU for Marvel Powers United. I do have it installed on an HDD. I built my computer back in 2014, and the 250gb SSD that I could afford at that time isn’t usable for much beyond Windows and a few other pieces of software. I default my game installations to the 1.5TB backup HDD. But while I understand that that’s a potential bottleneck in my system, literally no other game has as much of an issue loading as I’ve had with Marvel Powers, either for flat screen gaming or VR.

        Honestly, I’ve got an itch to build a new system, but I’m not going to sink any money into a new PC until the next generation of PC HMDs get announced, along with their system recommendations.

  • Willem

    I love Norse mythology so i will check this out for sure.
    I got Marvel with my Rift but was done with it after like 15 minutes i found it pretty dull.
    Regret not getting the normal Rift without game would have saved me some bucks..

  • NooYawker

    Your analogy is one of a simpleton, because obviously you think I’m angry at revive. Games I purchased on the oculus store were not “free” gifts, I paid for them. Learn to read son.

    • Jerald Doerr

      Free or paid it does not matter…
      “because obviously, you think I’m angry at revive.”

      Again you’re wrong makes no sense to think that… You said you’re sick of Oculus having exclusives… It’s not Revives fault you don’t understand why Oculus has every right to do so… End of story.

      • NooYawker

        Me: obviously you think I’m angry at revive.
        You: It’s not Revives fault

        Holy shit… I reiterate, learn to read.

        • Jerald Doerr

          Um, no matter where I run in to you… And no matter whether you can read or not you’re still one stupid mother fucker!

          • NooYawker

            That’s one way to change the subject of your inability to read.

          • Jerald Doerr

            Ok dumb shit…. I guess in order for you to understand what I meant.

            Maybe if I said something like…

            Obveiusly its not revives fault…

            So whos left genus? Oculus… Naaa maybe you’re mad at your PC…. I bet that really messes with your child like brain… Hahaha.

            Nowanker… You should really take the time to find friends somewhere else.

  • Very interesting, even if I expected the Marvel game to be better