‘Echo Arena’, the popular zero-G arena mini-game that’s part of Echo VR, was set to launch on Quest this year but has been delayed into 2020.
Update (November 6th, 2019): In a short announcement on the official Echo VR blog today, developer Ready at Dawn announced that ‘Echo Arena’ won’t launch on Quest until 2020:
To release the highest quality game possible, we’ve decided to delay Echo Arena’s launch on Quest until 2020. We’re excited to bring Echo Arena, and all of its zero-g glory, to Quest soon! Thank you all for your patience and continued support.
This follows Lone Echo II which was also delayed from 2019 to Q1 2020.
The original article continues below, updated with the delayed release date.
Original Article (October 4th, 2019): The latest version of Echo VR, patch 25.0, launched this week and brought with it a number of enhancements ahead of the game’s Quest release. Perhaps the biggest is that ‘Echo Arena’, the zero-G ultimate frisbee game, is getting AI opponents so that for the first time players can play against (or with) computer-controlled players. Users will be able to queue up AI matches at the matchmaking podium. You’ll be able to join with friends to play against AI too, and choose between three levels of difficulty. Players will earn the usual experience and rewards from AI matches though at a slightly reduced rate.
In addition to AI opponents, the update also adds an enhanced ‘New Player Experience’ which tutorializes the game (especially useful for upcoming Quest players who won’t have the benefit of learning how everything works from Echo VR’s sibling single player title Lone Echo). The new player experience will show players the basics like how to use the arm-computer and how to queue up for a match. It’ll also run them through a practice ‘Echo Arena’ match that must be completed before they can dive into public matches.
The update also brings a host of optimizations to the game. Developer Ready at Dawn says that while these optimizations were intended to help the game run on Quest, some have also carried into the Rift version for improved performance.
Echo VR Cross-platform Multiplayer Confirmed
This was expected, but now it has been explicitly confirmed: Quest and Rift players of Echo VR will share the same lobby space and be able to queue for ‘Echo Arena’ matches together. Unfortunately it seems like ‘Echo Combat’ will remain Rift-only.
It’s great to know that players will share the same lobby no matter if they are on Quest or Rift because floating around and playing with the various toys and activities in the lobby is half the fun.
Echo VR Quest Release Date and Price
The Echo VR release date for Quest is delayed to 2020, but a specific release date hasn’t been specified. However, Oculus has confirmed the game will be free on Quest just like on Rift.