battle royale

‘Contractors Showdown’ Battle Royale Coming to All Major VR Platforms Next Year

battle royale, contractors battle royale, contractors showdown, contractors vr, News, vr battle royale, VR Game / Ryan Harris / June 16, 2023

Caveman Studios, the team behind the tactical VR shooter Contractors (2018), announced a new competitive battle royale called Contractors Showdown.

As first shared during UploadVR’s Summer Showcase, the game is set to launch on all major VR platforms in 2024, which is also slated to include crossplay.

Here’s how Caveman Studios describes the action:

Explore the uninhabited, rugged land that has remained ungoverned for decades. Survive, loot, upgrade, engage, and use your tactics against relentless enemies and dangers on the desolate island. Enter the combat solo or engage with allies to fight against all odds as a team.

The game’s map is said to span a 4km x 4km area, which you’ll tackle with your tactical PDA in hand for both a map and ability to call in support. Contractors Showdown also promises weapon customization, gear upgrades, damage indicators, and more. It’s not certain how many players will be able to jump in, however the studio calls it “a large number of teams of contractors.”

Long-requested features, such as progression, matchmaking, and daily quests, will also be included, the studio says. Unlike the original tactical shooter, Contractors Showdown won’t be supporting mods at release, however the studio says they will prioritize crossplay.

In the meantime, the studio says it will continuously update the original Contractors to version 1.0 as promised.

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Hit Battle Royale ‘POPULATION: ONE’ is Going Free-to-Play on Quest in March

battle royale, big box, bigbox, bigbox vr, News, pop1, population 1, population: one, vr battle royale, VR Game, vr shooter / Ryan Harris / March 1, 2023

POPULATION: ONE, the hit battle royale shooter from BigBox VR, is going free-to-play next month on the Quest platform.

Initially released in late 2020, Population: One has essentially become VR’s de facto battle royale, bringing large-scale cross-platform battles to Quest and SteamVR headsets.

Now Meta-owned studio BigBox VR says it’s going free-to-play on Quest 2 and Quest Pro starting on March 9th, which will also include a host of new goodies to previous owners of the game, coming in addition to an update which will include new content.

Notably, it’s not going free-to-play on PC VR platforms; both the Oculus Rift and Steam version of the game will be priced at $20 starting March 9th, which is a $10 discount from the original price.

Those PC versions will include 1,200 ($20) worth of the in-game currency Bureau Gold (BG), something the studio says is being done to prevent potential cheaters from easily making a new account on Steam/Rift platforms.

All owners of the game before the March 9th at 10AM PT free-to-play update will get a bundle, called the ‘Original Banana Bundle Rewards’, which the studio estimates at an $80 value. This includes:

Legendary “PJ Potassium” Character Skin
Legendary “Prestige” Character Skins (4)
Rare “Prestige” Full Gun Set (14)
Exclusive Title: “Original Banana”
Exclusive Calling Card: “Celebration”
Exclusive Spray: “I Was Here”
1,000 Bureau Gold
Full Access to the Level Progression Track

There’s also a host of new content coming to the game to kick off the free-to-play update on March 9th, including a new single player mode with dynamic bots and in-game rewards, new player lobbies, a larger sandbox limit of 12 and 24 players, and an all-new shop featuring over 100 new character and weapon skin. You can check out the full changelog in the Meta blogpost.

As for the upcoming roadmap, BigBox VR says both a Sandbox Battle Royale Mode and Sandbox Battle Royale Playlist are slated to arrive on March 30th. The studio says we should also expect new weapons, updates on the Evolving Map, Sandbox features & modes, and matchmaking improvements in the near future.

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VR’s Most Popular Battle Royale is Getting Sandbox Creation Tools This Week

battle royale, big box, News, pop one, pop1, population: one, VR Game, vr shooter / Mike M. / December 14, 2022

Population: One has been a pretty big hit on Quest and PC VR headsets since it first released two years ago, easily making it VR’s most popular battle royale. Now Meta-owned developer BigBox VR is getting ready to launch a set of maker tools in the game’s long-awaited sandbox level creator.

Population: One’s sandbox is heading into early access tomorrow, December 14th, and is set to bring a ton of user-generated maps and modes to the game. At launch, BigBox says there will be “more than 1,000 community-built games” available to explore.

According to an interview with Shacknews, the new tool will include a number of world templates to get you started building, including:

Foothills Template: This template is more flat, predominantly grass and has the closest lighting and setting to our Battle Royale game.
Snow Template: This template has a snow aesthetic and a main mountain feature for players to build on.
Moon Template: This template takes place on the Moon, in space. It’s the perfect environment to try out the new low gravity settings!

Coming as a free update to the base game, sandbox joins a host of other battle modes, including Battle Royale, Team Deathmatch with customizable loadouts, War mode (12v12), Legions mode (6v6v6v6), Metro Arena (3v3v3v3), Co-Op Bot Battle, Training Park practice, and a social hub.

Population: One is available on Steam and the Meta platform for Rift, Quest, Quest 2, and Quest Pro, priced at $30.