In the Echo Arena update this week a blocked off section of the new lobby says ‘Echo Combat – Under Construction’, suggesting that the upcoming zero-G VR FPS would remain an expansion of Echo Arena rather than a separate game. Oculus has indeed affirmed this is the case, and says to expect more details at E3 in June.
Echo Arena is one of the Rift’s most acclaimed multiplayer games, and fans have been anticipating the upcoming Echo Combat, which is planned to be an FPS take on Echo Arena’s signature zero-G locomotion. Oculus first teased Echo Combat in October 2017, but has remained tight lipped since.
An update to Echo Arena launched earlier this week totally revamped the game’s social lobby, and also included a huge new section that’s currently cordoned off with a sign that reads: ‘Echo Arena – Under Construction.’
While Oculus had described Echo Combat as an “expansion” of Echo Arena when it was first announced, it wasn’t until the next month that news broke that Echo Arena would become permanently free, at which point it became unclear if Echo Combat would would remain as an expansion (and thus free), or if it would be made into its own paid experience as an offshoot of Echo Arena.
An Oculus spokesperson today told Road to VR that Echo Combat will indeed remain as an expansion to Echo Arena and players will launch into matches from the shared lobby space. That’s good news because it means that players are almost certain to be getting that new content for free, thanks to Echo Arena having been made free back in November.
The spokesperson also said that players can expect to hear more about Echo Combat at E3, the annual games industry event held this year from June 12th–14th. Road to VR will be on the scene.
Back during the 2017 announcement of Echo Combat, Oculus had also teased that developer Ready at Dawn is working on the next chapter of Lone Echo, the critically acclaimed single-player sibling of Echo Arena. At the time the company said to “wait for a big announcement shortly,” but more than six months later there’s been no followup. Thus, we’re expecting to also hear more about what’s next for Lone Echo at E3 in June.