(Update: Now Available) 'Raw Data' Heads To Oculus With New Content, Cross-Platform Multiplayer

Update, 03/16/2017, 1:45pm PT: Survios released Raw Data on the Oculus Store today. The developer simultaneously released version 0.6 on the Steam platform.

Original article, 2/27/17, 2:35pm PT:

The next update to Raw Data will include updated characters, a new map, and a larger player base for multiplayer. Thanks to the Oculus Touch controllers, Survios is bringing its active VR first-person shooter to the Rift platform.

Survios is a relatively new developer, but it quickly made waves when it popped onto the scene at VRLA in January 2016 with Raw Data, an action-packed first-person shooter. The game garnered a lot of attention, and the hype around it built to a fever pitch before it even launched. Raw Data hit Steam Early Access in July 2016, and by September the developer revealed that it hit a big milestone: Survios CEO Nathan Burba told Fast Company that Raw Data was the first VR title to generate $1 million in a month.

Survios achieved the million-dollar mark while supporting one platform (HTC's Vive) and focusing primarily on creating an active VR game that made you get up and move. Until Oculus launched the Touch controllers, it wasn’t possible to bring Raw Data to the Rift. Now that Touch is on the market, and Oculus is taking its experimental tracking configurations seriously, Survios is embracing the platform.

Survios is bringing Raw Data to Oculus Home next month when it publishes Update 0.6 to Steam Early Access, and both versions of the game will be compatible with each other. Survios is committed to embracing cross-platform gameplay going forward.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the Oculus player community to Raw Data,” said Survios chief creative officer James Iliff. “With VR still a young, niche industry, it’s crucial right now for the entire community to be united regardless of platform. We believe VR is ultimately going to be a platform-agnostic medium, and we’re showing our support for that shift with Raw Data’s new, cross-platform compatibility—and that’s just the beginning. We’re going to do everything we can to create content for the entire VR community.”

But the new update isn’t just about Rift support and embracing the wider VR community. Survios also adjusted two of the three player characters, Saija and Boss, in response to user feedback. They will get new abilities to adjust the balance of the game.

Update 0.6 also includes a new mission called “Cataclysm,” which sounds much more frightening than my experience with zombie-like robot torsos coming at me in the dark. The new mission puts you on an elevator descending into the depths of Eden Corp’s Data Chamber as you fend off waves of the corporation’s androids.

Survios didn’t give an exact release date for the next Raw Data update, but it said we could expect it in March. In the mean time, the developer is attending GDC and showing off cross-platform co-op at its booth. If you’re attending GDC, you can find the team at booth #944 in the South Hall.