Frostpoint is a VR multiplayer shooter and InXile’s last non-Microsoft project

InXile Entertainment is announcing Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds, a multiplayer team shooter in virtual reality. It’s a bit of an unexpected announcement, as InXile is finishing up Wasteland 3 for release this fall, along with another unannounced role-playing game. It’s also the Microsoft studio’s final project for another publisher. The game is coming this year for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive VR, and Valve Index.

Frostpoint VR’s publisher is Japan-based Thirdverse. The company published Swords of Gargantua, a multiplayer sword-fighting game that came out in 2019, under the moniker Yomuneco but rebranded to Thirdverse earlier this year “to better align with our mission and focus on the metaverse,” cofounder Kiyoshi Shin said over email. Multiplayer team shooters are a big market, as Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch and Riot Games’ Valorant show. But the genre, like many others, is small in virtual reality. So InXile and Frostpoint see an opportunity there, even with VR’s smaller (but engaged) player base.