Fans of a certain resource-swapping, road-building, settlement-establishing game just got some very exciting news. Namely, the hit board game Settlers of Catan is going to get a virtual reality remake, courtesy of video game studio Experiment 7.
A video teasing the upcoming VR version of the game was released on Friday, showing Catan creator Klaus Teuber speaking about creating the popular game and his desire to see it grow in new directions. As it stands now, Catan has been translated into more than 30 different languages, and it has reportedly sold more than 15 million copies since its release in 1995.
“When I developed Catan, I had no idea it would be so successful,” Teuber said. “I just wanted to make an exciting, social game that would bring friends or family together.”
Teuber’s son Benjamin also appears in the video, handing his father a pair of VR glasses to show off, presumably, whatever the inside of the new Catan VR software looks like. The teaser trailer doesn’t include any actual gameplay footage just yet, but it reportedly won’t be too long before the game is released. It’s due out sometime this holiday season.
The game will first be released on the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, according to Experiment 7, and then expanded to additional VR platforms.
While it’s not yet clear how Catan gameplay will look in virtual reality―but who wouldn’t want to be fully immersed in the world while desperately haggling for a few pieces of ore to keep a fading empire alive, right?―it’s not a stretch to think this is going to whip up plenty of enthusiasm. Even now, more than 20 years after it was first released to the public, Settlers of Catan remains one of Amazon’s best-selling board games, so it figures to be well-positioned for this new, high-tech step forward.
