Ubisoft’s VR Space Sim ‘AGOS: A Game of Space’ Launches Today

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Oct 28, 2020

Ubisoft is today launching its latest VR title, AGOS: A Game of Space. The made-for-VR space sim is set to support PC VR headsets across Steam and the Oculus Store.

Update (October 28th, 2020): With seemingly little fanfare, Ubisoft is today launching AGOS: A Game of Space on Steam and the Oculus Store for Rift. Through Steam, the game supports all major SteamVR headsets, including Valve Index, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows VR headsets.

We have a review copy in hand, however we haven’t had enough time between receiving it and playing it for our review. Stay tuned for more as we make our way through Ubisoft’s latest stab at multiplayer VR. The original article announcing the game follows below:

Original article (September 10th, 2020): In AGOS: A Game of Space Ubisoft says that players will embark on “an interstellar journey to reach a new habitable planet. Players will become the AI operating the last ship to leave a condemned Earth, guiding a group of survivors across eight unique stellar systems to find a new home.”

The AGOS announcement trailer shows players customizing modular probes for various tasks, though it isn’t quite clear if the probes are controlled in first or third person. Players can expect to “explore, scavenge resources, unlock new technologies, and face the perils of space to maintain life on board your ship during this extraordinary journey to save humankind.”

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Despite only just being announced, AGOS: A Game of Space has a release date of October 28th (little more than a month away). The game is exclusive to VR headsets, and will be available on Oculus PC (Rift, Quest via Link) and SteamVR.

'FRENZIES' Quest Preview – Another Very Promising VR Arena Shooter Testing the Waters

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Some may recall news last year that Ubisoft was spinning up production of a new AAA VR game, with some reports suggesting that the company had signed a deal to develop Oculus-exclusive VR games based on Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed. Given the scope of AGOS, and its lack of existing IP, this seems likely to be another project altogether.

While most major game development studios haven’t yet committed significant resources to making VR games, Ubisoft has done pioneering work in the VR space with five titles already released to in-home VR users. Additionally the company’s Ubisoft Escape Games brand has also developed several out-of-home VR escape rooms.

Surprisingly, considering the studio’s pedigree, Ubisoft’s VR titles so far have largely fallen short of achieving ‘must-play’ status, and their focus on multiplayer has left many of the games to languish without a stable population of players. AGOS appears to be a single-player game, so perhaps Ubisoft has finally learned the risks that come with multiplayer-only VR games.

3872Orcs

Oh wow! This game seems to be made for me! I’m a huge fan of hard-sci fi. I’ve read a bunch of stories with this as a theme and now I get to experience this myself in VR! Amazing! Please don’t mess this up Ubisoft!
- Ad
  
  If you’re a sci fi fan, you should search the tag on steam, there is quite a lot of content there for you.
  - 3872Orcs
    
    Not just any sci-fi fan. I like mainly hard-sci fi and then some particular genres like 4X/Grand Strategy games, non exist for VR sadly :( Hopefully though when the medium grows more of my favorite publishers and developers that has yet to make anything for VR start to develop something interesting. I’d love to see Paradox or Firaxis make something.
    - Ad
      
      Paradox refuses to make a game because low comfort means they can’t imagine someone sitting in a headset for very long. And the last Quest and this one will both make that situation even worse.
      - 3872Orcs
        
        The Quest is the least comfortable headset I’ve owned. It’s uncomfortable to wear and the low 72hz refresh rate often makes me sick. Index is much better on comfort, playing for hours in it is no problem at all.
        
        And yes I’ve been on the paradox forums and seen the conversation on VR. It’s damn hard to convince anyone over there of the perks of VR and bringing the 4X genre to medium. I think many severely lacks imagination or they’ve never tired good VR. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/virtual-reality-is-advancing-leaps-and-bounds.1295174/
        
        I can easily imagine a 4X for VR based on many of the existing games I’ve played. Though I also think we need some further improvements to the tech for it to make even more sense, like eye tracking to solve UI and interaction. I also think a 4X game needs to be a sit down experience and not standing. I have many ideas on this and I would imagine talented game designers would as well.
      - Ad
        
        You should try TTS if you haven’t, I think it gives some clues at least.
    - david vincent
      
      ‘X Rebirth VR Edition’ is a 4X game in VR but the controls don’t look very good.
      - 3872Orcs
        
        Oh shit you’re right! That game is sort of a 4X game. I’ve owned it for a long time but only played it a bit when it first came out and then I totally forgot about it. I wonder how it’ll run on the Index and my better hardware since then. Downloading right now!
brubble

Might be interesting.
Ad

It would awful if their game was a Facebook exclusive. What a freaking waste.
- Alextended
  
  Steam is in the trailer, dummy.
  - Ad
    
    This isn’t the AAA game, they mention an unannounced AAA game in Splinter Cell or Assassins Creed.
- VR5
  
  Agos looks interesting and although Splinter Cell would be a big win for Facebook (and VR as a whole) I’m more interested in Agos. I don’t really care for Splinter Cell personally.
  
  Ubisoft has given VR great support with many AA (and location based) games over the years. But they don’t seem to want to take the risk of funding a VR exclusive AAA just yet. If FB is the one to fund it, that’s just like it is. Wouldn’t exist otherwise.
  
  But if Splinter Cell VR is successful, a sequel could come to all platforms. Once Ubisoft feels it makes sense to support VR with such a budget. For that VR needs to grow.
  - Ad
    
    Rather they hold off then.
    - VR5
      
      You mean Ubisoft? Why would they, when they can get a big hit in a new and rising medium?
      
      Or Facebook? Obviously they fund exclusives to become the top in what they believe will be the next big medium.
      
      If you can’t play it, no one should? Ubisoft and Facebook can do whatever they want, unless it’s illegal.
      - Ad
        
        It’s pretty gross how you just act like every conversation about what a disaster facebook is for this industry didn’t happen.
      - VR5
        
        How is FB a disaster to VR? All that money invested in tech and games is bad for VR?
        
        Or do you actually think FB involved in VR keeps an audience out? That doesn’t make any sense given how there is plenty other good VR hardware and software not made by FB.
        
        You don’t have to buy FB VR products. They don’t hurt the medium. In fact, they help it by attracting an audience.
        
        People who don’t like FB can get their VR elsewhere. Diversity is good. It increases growth. Different streams of VR still build towards one hype for how it is awesome.
      - Ad
        
        Bringing in more consumers with a mass market headset isn’t automatically good for VR. And again, you’re being a child, those conversations were about real issues but you just ignore them because you don’t care about the real world, you can about a random product you want. They’re a disaster for the entire industry, turning VR into one for the public at large, and there is no opting out of that.
      - VR5
        
        You’re doing a terrible job of arguing your case.
        
        “more consumers not automatically good”? How is it bad then? You don’t say. And good luck getting AAA titles like Splinter Cell without Sony or FB funding if the player base remains small.
        
        “being a child” Name calling. Doesn’t help anything. You also in no way say how I’m supposed to be a child.
        
        “those conversations” What conversations? What did you say?
        
        “turning VR into a disaster for the public at large” The public at large doesn’t know nor care about VR.
        
        “keep pushing the Quest as the future of everything” ?!? I didn’t even mention the Quest here. It is but one of many headsets. I did argue that it gives VR exposure and makes it mass market compatible. That is a good thing in my book.
        
        You’re going to have to do better to make a convincing case. Right now you seem to be hallucinating.
      - Ad
        
        More consumers is not good if the only way they’re coming in is a captured monopoly platform by Facebook. That’s a lose for them, it’s a lose for the public getting their privacy and activities locked into this platform by a dangerous company, it’s a lose for developers who are at their mercy and can only make what fits into the terms of the facebook controlled market. You’re being a child because you are blind to all of that, you only care about flashy games, that is literally taking a general medium that is a complicated issue and making it just about whether you get a AAA game. The conversations are not by me, they’re by Devs, journalists, privacy advocates, and many others who are raising the alarm about facebook taking over VR. If the Quest gets too much market share as you and many others have suggested (“7.8 billion potential consumers,” still the most noxious and mindless thing I’ve seen on here) then Facebook and the quest platform will dominate VR development and design, which again just drives things more and more in their direction. This is a disaster for everyone, and you’re just a facebook fanboy.
      - david vincent
        
        “You’re being a child”, “you’re just a facebook fanboy”
        Calling names and downvoting people is sure not childish…
      - Ad
        
        I don’t think fanboyism is name calling, but fine.
      - VR5
        
        Calling someone a fanboy is name calling. Because fanboy is a name for a concept. And a derrogative one at that.
      - Ad
        
        You’re still an incredibly sad individual.
      - VR5
        
        Yeah, makes me sad when people try to oppress my opinion by misusing spam reporting and the like to censor a discussion.
      - Ad
        
        I’ve never reported your comments.
      - VR5
        
        Don’t know who did but my last long reply to one of your comments (https://www.roadtovr.com/ubisoft-agos-game-of-space-release-date-trailer/#comment-5067331949) is currently hidden because it was marked as spam. I challenged that, hopefully it will be back soon.
      - VR5
        
        Paragraph your posts please. That wall of text is terrible. Not the first time you did this either.
        
        I’ll reply to some of your points:
        
        “More consumers is not good if the only way they’re coming in is a captured monopoly platform by Facebook.”
        
        You can use every Oculus headset to play Steam content. So how is it bad for Steam or any other PCVR store front if people buy Oculus?
        
        You’re saying it is bad for the customers, because they give up their data. That is their choice. They could buy another headset.
        
        Success also invites more purchases. A hot product is bought because others are buying it. Oculus succeeding does also help other VR brands.
        
        “it’s a lose for developers who are at their mercy and can only make what fits into the terms of the facebook controlled market.”
        “If the Quest gets too much market share as you and many others have suggested (“7.8 billion potential consumers,” still the most noxious and mindless thing I’ve seen on here) then Facebook and the quest platform will dominate VR development and design, which again just drives things more and more in their direction. This is a disaster for everyone”
        
        There’s still Steam and itch.io, and Playstation. You have that idea that only one player can succeed. That any competition will result in all but one getting wiped out. That says a lot about your world view but in reality, diversity is a fact and many individuals coexist.
        
        Niches are great. Everyone can find what they like. That some dominate and some genres and play styles abound does in no way mean that other styles cannot also exist.
        
        It seems to me you want to force certain paradigms on everyone (or at least everyone in a closed circle of a niche), instead of allowing the market and consumer interests to play out, and all forms of enjoyable VR to prosper.
        
        I told you before that you shouldn’t feel threatened by expanded markets. Smart device gaming eclipsed traditional gaming but traditional gaming hasn’t gone away. In fact, Switch brings a lot of smart device gamers into an eco system of traditional games. It’s an example of gaming as a whole growing by it becoming more diverse.
        
        “You’re being a child because you are blind to all of that, you only care about flashy games, that is literally taking a general medium that is a complicated issue and making it just about whether you get a AAA game.”
        “you’re just a facebook fanboy.”
        
        I would prefer you stopped making assumptions about me. And stop your ad hominem attacks. Keep it objective and we can have a productive discourse, maybe.
        
        “The conversations are not by me, they’re by Devs, journalists, privacy advocates, and many others who are raising the alarm about facebook taking over VR.”
        
        If those conversations include points you agree with, you should quote those points, or just paraphrase their content. Refering to unspecified conversations, which I might or might not be ignoring is just vague.
        
        Do the work. Don’t pretend it’s already done for you and it is my fault for not seeing what you have a vague feeling about what I should be seeing.
        
        Argue your points.
        
        And of course there are conversations. Which also include the exact opposite stances you agree with. But I guess if it agrees with you it must be right and vice versa.
TonyVT SkarredGhost

Mah, the trailer looks a bit underwhelming to me. It seems an indie game, not a Ubisoft one
- TechPassion
  
  Exactly. Low quality objects and textures. Looks like Indie game, looks like mobile VR thing. I hope they totally improve it.
  - namekuseijin
    
    in other words, looks like native VR game conscious of real machines used to run VR instead of a big port only a few RTX nuts will run. That sounds like good business to me and that’s something really needed in the VR market.
    
    that said, the game just doesn’t look interesting enough to me, with either good or bad textures…
    - DanDei
      
      just say shitty Quest game when you mean it ;)
      - namekuseijin
        
        Rec Room, Superhot, Tea for God and plenty of other mind-blowing VR games both precede the Quest and use very light graphics to play well in a range of machines and also to concentrate on very good and novel gameplay rather than graphics whoring and fapping
NeoTechni

No PSVR? Odd. They must be waiting for Sony to announce the new VR controllers for PS5
- Andrew Jakobs
  
  what new VR controllers for PS5? don’t expect anything new for at least a year.
  BUT, I do hope they will give out those PS4 camera dongles soon, so we can connect the camera to our PC (without having to cut the cable or create a dongle ourselves (still have the AUX-connectors laying around, but never got around to it))
nasprin

I am actually happy to see that the game looks like an indie project. Hopefully they are concentrating on gameplay and polish – if big developer companies would manage to let their teams sometimes just do smaller, but more interesting projects, everyone would win, including the developers and the companies themselves.
AJ_74

If only VR gaming didn’t require tracked motion-based controls, i.e. body flailing, we might get to play more AAA games in VR.
- antonio mora
  
  completely agree with you
Rosko

Taking on EliteD, I hope it’s good.
Juan Ritz

Oh man, I’m really surprised that several people are underwhelmed after watching the trailer. I’m admittedly quite space obsessed, but this has that certain flavor that hints at the endless possibilities of the journey ahead. Aided by the inimitable scale afforded by VR. It’ll obviously come down to whether they’ve nailed down some fun and varied game mechanics, but I absolutely can’t wait to find out.
3872Orcs

Oooh I nearly forgot about the release of this! So excited! Though as a space nut I’m also the right audience for this game. But I do hope others will find it interesting as well. I do suspect it will not be for everyone and thus will not be a big seller.
DanDei

After this trailer I still have no clue what this game really is. I mean, what are the gameplay mechanics? Does it have a story with characters? Is it a space sandbox? Does it have missions? I am kinda intruiged, but still: What is this?

At least it seems Ubi isn’t focussing on VR multiplayer anymore. That is just the wrong way to go in this small market at the time.
sfmike

Totally underwhelmed by this title. I’ll pass.
Alextended

Tried this for a tiny bit. I dunno what to think
yet. Is it an indie-like love letter to space/hard sci-fi or a really
weird and shallow B team effort? The idea is to gather resources with
your drone to progress through the missions and enable your mobile space
station to travel around the solar system to different points of
interest for more drone missions and eventually get the fuck out of
there with interstellar travel to find a new home for the remaining 5000
strong human population that’s presumably in stasis as it takes years
to go from place to place on the map but the population remains intact
so far. So there are the mission areas where you control the drone, one
of many you can eventually acquire/build or something and the map screen
where you move the whole station around. You can rotate the camera and
zoom in toward and out away from the drone you control. It has semi
realistic newtonian space flight but a very simple interface that
automates a lot of it so you don’t need to do calculations to go from a
to b or anything, it controls very simply and effortlessly to the point I
don’t know where the gameplay will come from, the missions so far are
rigid and just going in the proximity of resources acquired them like
Super Mario coins, the control is simple as said already so, is it gonna
time limit you, is it gonna send you to tighter spaces so you need to
manage your drone more thoroughly, or what exactly, will the map open up
and give you more opportunity to basically do something on your own and
decide things strategically? There’s mining and stuff in the trailers
so perhaps those pose some kind of challenge but so far it’s nothing
like say, learning to control real space station stuff as in a part of
Mission: ISS.
- namekuseijin
  
  sounds like a boring mine and craft game in space sim suit, perhaps released to loathe how they hate VR and want it dead
Walter Sharrow

I really REALLY wish this wasn’t an Ubisoft game, because I am *NEVER* dealing with their game-store-login crap again. They are burned in my eyes, dead to me.