Star Wars Vader Immortal is a three-episode experience that’s not only one of Quest’s best immersive narrative experiences, but also an awesome introduction to VR for any Star Wars fan. While you’ll soon be able to pick up the trilogy at a steep discount, it’s a real shame the series isn’t tapping Quest 3’s potential.

With Star Wars Day (‘May the 4th’) fast approaching, Meta shared an interview with one of the developers behind the Vader Immortal games, and confirmed the trilogy is getting huge 66% discount from May 4th through the end of May 5th. If you’ve ever considered playing the series, this is the moment! You’ll be able to get all three episodes basically for the price of just one—the best discount the series has seen.

Even without any visual upgrades that are specific to Quest 3, the Vader Immortal games are still among the best looking titles on the platform. That’s no doubt thanks to the work of ILM Immersive, the interactive entertainment division of Lucasfilm, which has a high bar for authenticity when it comes to Star Wars content—not to mention access to the vast archives of assets that have made the franchise’s works so iconic.

The Vader Immortal series—consisting of a trio of hour-long-ish episodes—looks, sounds, and feels like Star Wars. Rather than the typical ‘run, gun, rinse-and-repeat’ games you’ll often find on Quest, the narrative is really infused into the experience. The games do a great job of creating moments that are both fun and intuitive, making the series an excellent introduction to VR for Star Wars fans, even for people who wouldn’t consider themselves gamers.

And it’s for exactly those reasons that it’s a serious shame the Vader Immortal games haven’t been given a proper Quest 3 upgrade.

Quest 3 not only has much more power than its predecessor, it also has a generational leap in clarity thanks to higher resolution and incredible lenses. But very few Quest games are visually matching the headset’s potential.

Because the Vader Immortal games basically run thinking they’re still on a Quest 2, it’s easy to see that the game hasn’t been optimized for these improvements. Textures and text clearly aren’t as sharp as they should be, and the game isn’t using any advanced graphical effects that would be possible with Quest 3’s extra processing power.

Not having these optimizations for the newest headset isn’t a deal breaker; Vader Immortal is still worth playing. But now that Quest 3 has the potential to make these detailed worlds and characters look even better, it’s starting to feel like these gems have been left to dull, despite still being some of the most polished content on the platform.

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It’s especially strange that we haven’t seen a Quest 3 upgrade for Vader Immortal considering there’s already PSVR and PC VR versions of the game with improved visuals. Leaning on those improved assets and visual effects would make a Quest 3 upgrade much easier than doing things from scratch.

But there’s a hundred possible reasons why the games haven’t gotten a Quest 3 upgrade yet. Maybe Meta doesn’t want to pay for it. Maybe ILM Immersive doesn’t see the value proposition in it. Maybe the teams that originally built the Vader Immortal games have gone on to bigger things, and familiarizing new people with the game’s code base and asset pipeline would be too costly. Maybe ILM Immersive’s team is busy working on a newer VR project and simply doesn’t have bandwidth even if everyone wanted to give Vader Immortal the Quest 3 upgrade it deserves.

If there was going to be a proper Quest 3 upgrade for Vader Immortal, the interview Meta shared with the developer seemingly would have been the time to announce it; as mentioned, May 21st will be the five year anniversary of the first episode of Vader Immortal. Alas, while the text has some interesting behind-the-scenes development tidbits, there’s not even a tease that the games could one day see an upgrade for Quest 3, let alone even an acknowledgement that such an upgrade would be desirable.

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The Best Quest 3 Accessories: Quest 3 is a great headset but there's a few areas where accessoires can really improve the experience, especially the headstrap!

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Essential Quest Tips, Tricks, and Settings: If you're just diving into VR as a new Quest owner, you should absolutely check out our Quest Tips & Tricks Guide for a heap of useful tricks and settings everyone should know about.

Fitness and Fun on Quest: For fitness in VR that's as fun as it is physical, check out our suggestion for a VR Workout Routine.

Relaxing in VR: Are you less of a competitive gamer and more interested in how you can use VR to chill out? We have a great list of VR Games for Relaxation and Meditation.

Flex Your Creativity in VR: And last but not least, if you're a creative type looking to express yourself in VR, our list of Tools for Painting, Modeling, Designing & Animating in VR offers a huge range of artful activities, with something for everyone from fiddlers to professionals.
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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."

  • No upgrade???
    THERE’S NOTHING AT ALL FOR QUEST 3 FROM IMLI!!!
    []^ (

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    Possible causes:

    – Vader Immortal was a Quest 1 launch title from an extremely valuable brand for an unproven HMD in the struggling VR market. Meta possibly payed for (parts of) the development.

    – The game came out in May 2019, “The Mandalorian” and “The Rise of Skywalker” in Nov/Dec, so it promoted important Star Wars releases. In 2017 (“The Last Jedi”) Disney partnered with Lenovo on “Star Wars: Jedi Challenges” for the Mirage AR HMD with custom light saber controller, and their 2019 “MARVEL Dimension of Heroes” for Mirage released shortly before “Avenger: Endgames”.

    – The game engine used is now five years old. Using current features might require switching to a recent version, which can be a lot of effort/expensive if e.g. the rendering has changed. A simple, cheaper refresh is often possible and fine for Job Simulator, but not a good idea for a game praised for its visuals, from a franchise paranoid about brand image.

    – Quest 3 launch quarter estimates were “1.5mn units or (much) less”. Quest 2 has a ~20mn install base (~7mn still in use), and saw ~2.5x the sales of Quest 3 in 2023-Q4. Many Quest 3 were upgrades by existing users that might already own Vader Immortal, limiting new sales further.

    The main motivation for Vader Immortal was probably free franchise promotion from excited reactions on a new VR HMD. Quest 3 as an upgrade selling in lower numbers isn’t creating the same headlines, making updating the app less attractive for ILMxLAB both financially and regarding PR value.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      And on top of that: i think that most Q3 buyers that would be interested in the Q3 version had a Q2 and Vader immortal on that one, so improving the graphics would make people happy, but not result in a lot of extra sales. However, there may be light at the end of tunnel: if the Q3 light is a success, particularly amongst 1 time buyers, the economics of making a Q3 version would look a lot better…

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        Quest 3 lite will trigger more Quest 3 updates only if it provides the same graphics performance by using an XR2 Gen 2. Which I still consider to be impossible at the rumored price of USD 200, as that SoC alone would cost more than half of that. SoC and lenses should be the most expensive Quest 3 components, and only dropping pancakes and using cheaper displays won’t save USD 300.

        My guess is still a (now cheaper) XR2(+) Gen 1 using Fresnel, but adding color passthrough. A Quest 2 refresh, gaining the “Quest 3” label due to being usable for MR apps, the main feature Meta wants to push with this generation. A rebranding ensures new users that support won’t be dropped anytime soon, and that all (3rd gen) HMDs run the same apps, with “lite” trading reduced performance/optics/features for a 60% price cut.

        This would get developers to create more MR apps, but not necessarily help with apps taking advantage of Quest 3 graphics improvements. It would also push the lifespan of Quest 2 performance serving as the baseline targeted by games closer to that of consoles, helping both developers and Meta by keeping the large number of sold Quest 2 in play. Literally.

        • Arno van Wingerde

          I hope you are wrong on this one… prolonging the dominance of the Q2 would block progress for Q3/Q4. I hope that Qualcom drops the price of the XR2 gen2…

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I wrongly expected Quest 2 to use an older/cheaper SoC, but was spot on saying Horizon Workrooms lacked a Pro conferencing HMD with an EULA allowing commercial use without Facebook login, based on “Quest for business” prices at USD 1000+. So far by looking mostly at market and price vs components cost, my odds are 50/50.

            In theory Quest 3 could sell with huge margin, Qualcomm price XR2 much lower than SD8, drop XR2 prices yearly with the matching SD8, post 2020-2023 shortages component prices be much lower, or lite cost more than USD 200. Several avenues to XR2 Gen 2 feasability, and despite recent “Quest 3 only” announcements, lite ≈ Quest 2 would limit progress. But …

            For those who are curious, Quest 2 is going to be in the market for a while – for a long while, and it’s gonna be, you know, I think the best bet for the most accessible way to get into VR and have a great experience. (Andrew Bosworth 2021)

            Quest 3 positioning/pricing/CPU underclocking hint that Meta sees Quest like a console, Quest 2(3 lite)/3 like PS4/PS4 Pro, with “a long while” meaning ~6 years, and only Quest 4 with fast ETFR etc. getting next gen games. We’ll see.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    Still a shame this game didn’t land on Steam too.

    • ApocalypseShadow

      I’m surprised there isn’t a Quest emulator on PC. I’ve seen and used an Android Emulator to play Gemini Rue that I bought but can’t play because the game no longer works on current Android firmware. Quest PC emulator would bring Vader Immortal to PC and probably in an even better quality. Just think how that would look? No dark areas where you can’t even see certain backgrounds.

      • Anonymous

        Should be banned for suggesting piracy.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Who says anything about piracy? One could easily have bought the game in the Meta store and with that a license to use it with a Quest, and with dev access to the headset you can rip the game. So nothing piracy about, and even legal in a lot of countries.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            You’d need an emulator perfectly mimicking a Quest when checking the DRM, which would require extracting encryption keys. That’s what Nintendo recently used to shut down the Yuzu Switch emulator and derivates. They carefully avoid DCMAing anyone with the resources to fight back in court, so whether that argument would hold is still untested.

            EU law allows removing DRM to use legally acquired media on other devices than those licensed by the publisher, even if the publisher disagrees and offers a version for the new device. US law doesn’t. Both don’t allow passing an app with DRM removed to anybody else, not even other legitimate owners. Basically everyone has to remove/circumvent DRM themselves, using their own, potentially ancient hardware, for software they bought.

            A lot of emulator use by people owning the original software therefore legally still counts as piracy, as many/most people avoid the involved hassle, and download a version of the app with copy protection already removed instead. Similar to “right to repair” we still need reasonable “right to use” legislation for purchased software/abandonware that doesn’t make legal video game preservation artificially hard. Having bought the app should be enough.

    • VR5

      That’s the bigger issue really. A Steam release should at least result in more sales. The available Quest versions already are show pieces on their platform.

      Although, if they put a team on a Steam port that team could also enhance the existing versions for more recent hardware while they’re at it. But Steam probably just is too small for VR to warrant a port at this point.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Vader Immortal has always been a cross-buy title for Quest and Rift, the PC version released a month after the one for Quest. Not releasing it on Steam therefore was intentional, keeping it an Oculus exclusive to attract gamers to the platform. Usually that means that Oculus/Meta payed for parts of the development, to compensate the studio for sales lost on Steam.

      In some cases the exclusivity is only for a limited time, but after five years it seems certain that they wanted to keep properly motion tracked first person light saber duels as a unique selling point for themselves. Bad for users, but sort of understandable, given that Steam otherwise has dozens of Star Wars game drawing in fans of the franchise.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Yeah, the Meta headsets have some nice Starwars games. But the last Oculus headset I have is the DK2, so I have no intention to buy a PCVR game on the Meta store, which would require something like Revive (if I’m not mistaken) to play on a non-meta headset.
        Do those older Oculus Rift games even work on a Quest 2/3 via PC streaming?

        • Charles U. Farley

          All Rift games work on Q2/Q3 via PC.

        • Christian Schildwaechter

          They still run and are still sold, only the category they are listed under is now called “Link PC VR” instead of “Rift”.

  • ApocalypseShadow

    It’s pure criminal behavior not updating the game. Lol. PS VR 2 was hit with hate for not having BC with PSVR. But more so for not having updates for the best games that should have been done like Blood and Truth and Astrobot. The best Quest 1 and 2 games should have been updated as well. Just a shame.

    I have this on PSVR and it looked a little better but the majority of what was there is there on Quest 3. First thing I bought when getting the headset was the trilogy. And I’m more a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan. It’s a good game though and the dojo is legit. The haptics aren’t as good a PS Move and the controllers don’t feel as good in the hand as a light saber hilt. But the controllers are good enough.

    What’s even more criminal is not that it wasn’t updating graphically, and I’ve said this before, it’s that Vader Immortal on Quest 3 should have had a mixed reality mode added to the game with the dojo. Having Vader, Storm Troopers, other enemies right there in your real space would be awesome. But wait… There’s more.

    Should also have more characters to fight or practice against from Obi Wan, Qui Gon Jinn, Darth Maul, Yoda, The Emperor, Grievous, Ren, Luke, Boba Fett, etc in the dojo. Not only that, but dojo modification mode where you fight along side Vader or Luke or what character you choose against other opponents. Seeing them in mixed reality would throw it over the top …

    But that’s not happening is it? Just wasted potential like the Super Hot team not doing anything for their game either. Are these developers even gamers? How come we can think this stuff up better than the developers? How come Zuckerberg isn’t thinking along these lines and making it happen? If they are willing to lose billions to corner the market, spend a few billion more making these things come to the platform. Like Iron Man on Quest 3? Where’s the update for that too?

    • VR5

      The dev teams of these games are likely busy with other projects. It’s hardly criminal to not go back to old games and keep working on them, there’s no law against that and there shouldn’t be either.

      Do PC games (non GAAS) get updated every year because new CPUs and GPUs release? Most of the raytracing patches fo example are done by fans (mods) or GPU makers (who want to sell their hardware).

      Capcom did update their RE engine games but that was probably because a new RE engine game release coincided with raytracing GPUs being available and their implementation of it being “easy” to bring to the other games. Still that patch broke a lot of other stuff.

      Do mobile games get updated when a new iPhone game releases? BC is great but that means you can play old games as they were. If you want better quality for old games, expect to pay for it as a remaster.

      • ApocalypseShadow

        I was joking on being criminal. Hence the laugh. I’m aware they would be doing some other project. Or no projects at this time. Like Batman being made after Iron Man by Camouflaj. While ILM has no game projects.

        When something is good, you’d hope they would keep it going and give you more. Super Hot Team didn’t add more or make a sequel. They just rode the train and now we’re hoping this new indie guy who’s making a Super Hot type game with blue characters, keeps the style and fun going because we wanted more.

        • VR5

          Superhot Team was disbanded I guess but they live on in SOMETHING RANDOM who are developing Toy Trains VR.

          • ApocalypseShadow

            No way! I need to look that up. The last I seen was when they stripped out the part of shooting yourself in an update. I turned off updates on PS4 to keep that part in. They caved to SJW nonsense.

          • VR5

            I wasn’t a fan of that removal either but apparently in the original flat game (which I never played) there was more context to why you’re doing that. I can see why they feel responsible for how some players might experience that situation, when it is virtually real as opposed to some make believe in a moving picture. It still sucks from a customer’s perspective that apparently a trigger warning was not enough.

            Experiencing “death” in VR can be very unpleasant. Goes to show how Last Labyrinth, a game that I guess started as a 3DOF game and literally binds you to a wheel chair, can be so effective as VR, where you’re glad that when you have to die the same way again you can “escape” to a control room and see yourself killed on a screen. It very effectively demonstrates how real this tech feels, and how safe the distance of the screen makes the same subject matter.

            RE7’s Kitchen demo also was intense.

            For people who have suicidal tendencies that part of Superhot might really have been dangerous so again, I understand that they feel responsible.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Are these developers even gamers? How come we can think this stuff up better than the developers? How come Zuckerberg isn’t thinking along these lines and making it happen?

      That’s such a bizarre take. Of course the developers are gamers, of course they care about their games, and you can bet that they came up with many more ideas than the ones you listed. It’s just that they are also humans and need to eat and pay rent and have to deal with the day only having 24h. So if some extra feature isn’t implemented, or a game isn’t getting a sequel or update, the reason is usually very simple: it wouldn’t pay to do this, so the developers have to focus on projects that will.

      With the VR market being small, the Quest 3 only making up a small percentage of the Quest install base, and app updates being distributed for free, this is an even bigger problem. And the answer to everything isn’t “let Meta pay for it with Facebook and Instagram ad money”. It is unfortunate that VR so far didn’t see the much wider adaption we thing it absolutely deserves. But we should at least acknowledge that software development actually costs money, and that occasionally the numbers just don’t add up, instead of accusing developers of not being gamers interested in their own product, or lacking the imagination to even come up with ideas.

      • ApocalypseShadow

        Eat and pay rent and all that other nonsense? Come on Chris.

        Wouldn’t pay to do this? The game sold well. So did the Super Hot Game. If we’re getting information from sites like this that indie developers are doing well on the Quest platform by making these smaller games than big AAA games, they could add a little more to their games and some of them already do and for free to add to their games. And some of the updates are paid dlc.

        So your take doesn’t make any sense to what I said.

        I’m aware they play games. But I sure came up with more content quite easily while some of these developers just drop their games and move on our do nothing like a sequel. You should be aware of that.

        • Christian Schildwaechter

          You simply assume VI being well received for a Quest game (VI 1/2/3/AVG with 15.5K/5.3K/7K/~9.3K reviews) must mean a financial success for ILMxLAB. Without knowing actual development team size, time or cost, revenue split (if Meta partly payed for it) or how much Disney gets for the Star Wars license. It sold less on Quest than other, not Quest exclusive launch titles like Superhot or Job Simulator from much smaller (=cheaper) teams, regularly offered at discounts increasing sales while lowering revenue. I payed EUR 15 for all three. Sure, some smaller companies made lots on Quest (DLC), but the lack of AAA engagement and VR studios dying hint that “good for a VR title” isn’t necessarily enough, and usually worth much less than e.g. “good for console/PC”.

          I do not doubt that companies could do more. I just seriously doubt that your “game did well -> financial success -> update/extension/sequel would make money -> game developers not doing it are lazy/stupid/ignorant/negligent” deduction holds up. You simply reject a lack of financial viability being the most common/likely reason for a lack of development, arguing that some people having made money implies this can’t be the issue (“So your take doesn’t make any sense to what I said.”), and therefore it basically must be about character flaws.

          IMHO your premise is already wrong. And I promise you that most (game) developers have drawers filled with more ideas than they could ever realize. Many therefore don’t even want to hear more game ideas from fans, partly because people tend to seriously overestimate the relevance of ideas compared to development realities. Google “Ideas are worthless, execution is everything.”

    • Charles U. Farley

      REEEEEEEEEEE GIMME GAME REEEEEEEEEE I’M A GAMER REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE NO ONE UNDERSTANDS MY NEEDS REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WHY WON’T THE DEVELOPERS JUST GIVE ME WHAT I SPECIFICALLY WANT AS A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

      • ApocalypseShadow

        Ridiculous. Way to add to the discussion. Your insight was so informative.

        If you think other gamers wouldn’t want more content, then you’re delusional.

  • Adrian Meredith

    The problem with this game was it was far too short. Each game introduces it’s own mechanics (light sabre, force powers, guns) but by the time it introduces then it’s practically over.

    My other memory was just how awful the oled screen on the quest was. People used to bang on about oled being better but the truth was it was a greyish smeary mess in dark areas

    • Hussain X

      “greyish smeary mess in dark areas”

      That was my experience on OLED CV1 too.

    • ApocalypseShadow

      Now this guy makes sense. It could have been much more but the game was short. Not that it wasn’t good. You just expect more from a Star Wars game training you on the saber and force powers but you don’t get to use it that much before it’s over.

      And with many developers adding to their game post launch to give their game longevity, it’s not within reason to want more content. They delivered Galaxy’s Edge. But it’s not as good and more time could have been spent adding to Vader Immortal.

  • Hussain X

    I put a huge lot of effort in the dojos to collect the figurines to display on my Rift home shelves, for it (home) to one day disappear without warning.

  • ViRGiN

    So, PCVR version (dead platform so I keep saying) gets graphical updates, Quest 3 (I have a shrine for the box I have for it) doesn’t. What do I have to say about that I wonder?

    Whatever it is, it’ll be after I’ve had sex. With a real women I might add.