Joy Way, the studio behind parkour action-shooter STRIDE (2022), announced that high-flying follow-up STRIDE: Fates is coming to Quest next month as a “full-fledged sequel” to Stride.

Update (October 23rd, 2023): Joy Way announced that Stride: Fates is coming to Quest on November 9th. In addition to launching pre-orders, the studio also tossed out a new trailer, showing off more of the game’s story, embedded below:

Original Article (September 14th, 2023): In addition to throwing out a new gameplay trailer, the studio also released more info on the game’s narrative:

Step into the shoes of a parkour spec-ops officer. Traverse and shoot your way through the rooftops and basements of dystopian Airon City – from slums to affluent skyscrapers. Deal with power shifts in gangs, dirty family feuds, corporate secrets, forbidden tech and other obstacles to understand your past. Enhancing everything players love about STRIDE, the full-fledged sequel ‘Fates’ pushes the parkour action formula even further with new gameplay and a story-driven campaign.

The studio also included a list of promised features:

  • Blockbuster-level narrative.
  • Climb buildings, vault through windows, and slide down cables with lightning speed.
  • Explore open-world locations under the watch of snipers and drones.
  • Feel the thrill of close-quarters combat with tactical shooter mechanics.
  • Use your gadgets and hacking skills to outwit thugs and corporates.
  • Meet a motley cast of characters to shape your Fate.
  • Puzzles, collectibles and more cool stuff that will be announced later.
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Image courtesy Joy Way
Image courtesy Joy Way
Image courtesy Joy Way

Originally set to be a relatively short story mode offered as free DLC to the base game, STRIDE: Fates is now being pitched as a “full-fledged separate game,” Joy Way tells Road to VR.

“Instead of an hour of gameplay, we made a separate game, better in every aspect, with new content, mechanics and 5-8 hours of story campaign (depending on side quests and time spent in open world locations),” the studio says.

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Joy Way maintains the decision to make it a separate game and not free DLC was also based on avoiding technical limitations inherent to the base game. STRIDE: Fates is said to use a new engine, which offers improved graphics and interactivity for standalone VR, enhancing aspects like shooting, enemy AI, and more.

“At some point, after fruitless attempts to upgrade the existing engine, we had to restart the project and basically re-do almost all the code from scratch, and now the new engine is incompatible with the original STRIDE.”

STRIDE: Fates is coming first to Quest, slated to arrive on the Meta Quest Store sometime this holiday season, which could be as soon as November, the studio says. The game is also headed to SteamVR headsets sometime in 2024. Joy Way says it’s also considering a release on PSVR 2 and Pico headsets “later in 2024,” however that’s still being decided.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • shadow9d9

    This company releases prealphas with no content, releases a handful of barely updates, and then abandons them for the next cash grab.

    • ViRGiN

      Concept games.
      Just like Ghost of Tabor.

    • Bender

      Like most companies in the VR market. For a small studio they have good games and Fates looks decent. (I’ve been playing stride since 2020)

      • Dead Hook is a very fun game, they hit it out of the park with that one, but this move is bullcrap

      • ViRGiN

        Small studio?
        I think I’ve seen them boasting 100+ employees before. Small teams, large number of employees, working on several titles for concept games.

      • Jonathan Winters III

        No, their worse than other companies. Repeat offender, several times.

  • Paul Bellino

    I smell Rip Off it was supposed to come included with STRIDE. That’s the only reason I bought the original game. We were told there would be a single player game.

    • shadow9d9

      People need to stop supporting barebone early access releases.

      • ViRGiN

        * People need to stop supporting barebone early access releases.

        • JanO

          ** People need to stop supporting Joy Way.

        • NL_VR

          There is no problem supporting early access titles as long as you understand what you get and there is a chance you expectations will not be met.

          • ViRGiN

            I’m against the system where “early access” can last longer than 12 months.
            It normalized selling games that are nowhere near ready, and that label creates cult following of people who enjoy the concept of such game, and any criticism from people who aren’t as dedicated to it is considered invalid “because it’s early access”.

            I can name only a handful of games that got out of early access – Beat Saber, Contractors.

            Giga-hits like pavlov, blade and sorcery, onward and more – they all remain EA for ~half a decade. That’s not normal, and we shouldn’t encourage this. These games made millions, and many never even update their EA description. Pavlov to this day says it will be EA for 6-12 months… since 2017 lmao

          • NL_VR

            Yes never getting out of EA os not good.
            Still people enjoy and that’s what’s important, you shouldn’t get your mind stuck on labels to much.
            There are games that clearly still EA but releases on Quest and Sony official stores with no such mark.

          • ViRGiN

            The only game on Quest that has “early access” title (and that was inside the game and not on the store page) was Onward, which is mindblowing, given it’s owned by Meta and they said they won’t allow EA shit.
            But the reason the same goes out on other platforms without EA label, while they stay there on Steam is exactly for the average steam fanboy who loves to defend “the small guy”.

            Just get rid of it already. Game is either ready or not.
            Selling EA should illegal.

          • NL_VR

            Just dont buy EA games it isnt harder than that.

          • ViRGiN

            Oh really?
            And if you want to support EA, just buy them. Obvious stuff. Why even discuss this?

          • NL_VR

            yes easy peasy

      • Paul Bellino

        I will probably get it anyway, (I am a VR whore) But Fuck Them. What a stupid thing to do.

        • JanO

          Talking about stupid things to do…

          If you buy it, you actuelly encourage their use of the deception scheme you were a victim of… How sad is that..!!?

          This company wouldn’t last long if people had a spine and stood for the right thing. Be a man.

      • Jonathan Winters III

        This!!!

    • NL_VR

      Thats the reason i waited go buy the game because we were hold the singleplayer campaign was coming later, as I was not interested in time trials etc.

    • Jonathan Winters III

      I’ve been warning everyone on here for years about Joy Way. They have always been a studio to promise, take your money, then screw you. This russian studio has done it with nearly ALL their games so far – Wave Circles, Time Hacker, etc, and now Stride.

  • Octogod

    Nice trailer.

    It should be noted that this is captured from PC.

    • neodraig

      Those are the usual photoshopped pictures that developers feed us, I’m not even sure that the PC version will look as good.
      Those shadows and volumetric lights on the second photo, there’s no way the Quest will get that, but I’m not even convinced it’ll be in the PC version.

      • Octogod

        I’d agree.

        Realtime reflections and volumetrics are easy to flow in for a video capture, but I doubt they’ll be in the PC version. Quest won’t look anywhere like this.

  • Ok, this is the one time with Joyway IM FREAKING MAD. I paid for STRIDE, expecting a decent arena mode with eventually a variety of enemies, and eventually a story mode… and the STORY IS A SEPARATE TITLE NOW?!?!?! COME ON

    • NL_VR

      You need to understand the risks of buying early access titles.
      Not defending here butnits not the first or past time this happens

    • Gonzax

      A separate title that you’ll get for free if you bought the original, two games for the price of one, what’s the big deal?

      • Jonathan Winters III

        You don’t get it for free unless you bought it in a certain time period. And that’s only after massive outrage from the community – otherwise Joy Way was planning to shaft all their buyers of Stride by charging for the campaign.

  • Max-Dmg

    Trailer looks like a normal day of my life.

    • ViRGiN

      IGNORANT TROLL ALERT!!!!!

    • Kenny Thompson

      Reminds me of my walk to work.

  • Iggy Pop

    Lmao wtf vr market is just getting sadder
    Unreal injector here we come

  • Dragon Marble

    I see a lot of greed in the VR market. It’s not from the developers; it’s from the consumers. They feel cheated when they spend $20 and don’t get Mirror’s Edge, or spend $30 and don’t get Call of Duty. Or maybe it’s just willful ignorance. They refuse to acknowledge a simple fact: since there are 10 times more flat gamers sharing the price, a VR game of same quality should really cost 10 times more. We are lucky that’s somehow not the case.

    • shadow9d9

      Nah, early access that gets abandoned and then having the devs lie about adding content to a contentless game and spinning off the actual content to a second alpha should not be supported.

    • Iggy Pop

      Shut up douche

    • JanO

      It’s not about money. It’s about what developpers promise VS what they actually deliver to consumers who bought the game in good faith. Joy Way has the worst track record of all and for this reason, they managed to turn me and many others from buyers to haters.

      • Dragon Marble

        Fair enough. Joy Way may not be the best candidate to rally some sympathy for developers. But people are also calling Crossfire developers “deceptive” because a $30 game is somehow supposed to be Call of Duty VR.

        • Charles U. Farley

          NOBODY SAID Stride was supposed to be CoD … why are you so hung up on that analogy?

    • Charles U. Farley

      You have no clue what’s happening. Fates was promised to us as a FREE DLC before we even paid any money for Stride. Nobody was expecting Call of Duty. We just want what we were promised.

  • Paul Bellino

    I will buy it but I want a refund on Stride first. Why are not all the youtubers talking about this shitting on their loyal customers by Joy way

    • JanO

      I also wonder why this concern isn’t part of RTVR’s coverage. It’s not the first time they give visibility and a positive spin on what is essentially a deception scheme… Scott, just take a look at the comments. Your audience knows better and deserves better.

      At this point, I’d appreciate a response from RTVR… Don’t get me wrong, I think you guys usually do a great job, but not this time… If you have any links with Joy Way, you should disclose it.

      • ViRGiN

        Did you notice that once someone rents an ad space here, like Contractors, they will never ever cover the game again unless they pay again?

        They accepted advertising from Vail, despite it being a scam game, they never said a single word of their own.

  • Yeshaya

    “early adopters who got the original STRIDE in Early Access on Steam will get a huge discount on Fates at launch.”
    I wonder how much that will be. A 90% discount would certainly take some some of the sting off

    • Keith Valdez

      Unless it’s like 90% of the total price, like you’re saying, it’s not worth it. They get to kiss my ass, not take my money.

      • Gonzax

        See above!

    • Gonzax

      The game will be free for those who bought the game between the 4th of september 2020 and 10th of june 2022 .

      • Yeshaya

        Good to know, thank you. I was considering getting it as part of a recent Humble Bundle, with the intent that I’d play it until Strides came out then buy that at a discount. Glad I waited

  • Keith Valdez

    I’m definitely not buying this game. Or anything else JoyWay puts out. After that deal with OUTLIER, they’re never getting my money again. Now this? It was supposed to be an update to the current game, that is what they promised. Joyway is a ‘nickel and dime’ you, RIPOFF company.

    • CrusaderCaracal

      Ok?

    • Gonzax

      They’re giving the new game away to those people, what’s the problem with that? I don’t get it.

      • Charles U. Farley

        No, they’re not. If you bought Stride on Oculus, you do not get Fates for free. Everyone who bought Stride on Oculus is FUCKED by NoJoyWay.

        • Gonzax

          Ouch, not good then!

        • NL_VR

          Then why did you buy the game in the first place ?

        • Gonzax

          They’re called NoJoy for a reason…. Sorry, bad joke, I know.

  • shadow9d9

    This company puts out concept games with no content, give a few tiny updates, and then abandon them for the next cash in. Do not support them.

  • Gonzax

    I’ll buy it when it’s out for PCVR unless it’s crossbuy on Oculus which I don’t think it will be the case.

    • Charles U. Farley

      Free to those who bought it on Steam. Not anyone else.

      • Gonzax

        I didn’t know that. I could be worse but yes, that sucks

  • JanO

    NOT BUYING anything from JoyWay ever again.

  • Charles U. Farley

    No way in HELL am I ever giving Joy Way another penny.

  • CrusaderCaracal

    Once again R2VR reuploads articles

    • Andrew Jakobs

      That’s exactly what I wanted to say, it’s very annoying to an old article again.

    • Charles U. Farley

      Articles get updated, not reuploaded. But maybe you’re too young to understand deep concepts like that.

      • CrusaderCaracal

        Charles U Farted

        • Charles U. Farley

          Wow, that’s an adult comeback.

          • CrusaderCaracal

            Charles U Farted