Skip to main content

Desert Bus sequel in the works, "probably" for Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR

A game nobody wants to play after the first 5 minutes is getting a sequel, and all in the name of charity.

desert_bus

Penn Jillette of magicians Penn & Teller has made a surprising announcement.

Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, as reported by Gamasutra, Jilette said he's collaborating with Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford on a sequel to Dester Bus.

"This is a big, big deal. We’re going to do a new Desert Bus and it’s going to be just for charities, so charities can use it to raise money," he said.

"We're doing a couple other games. It’ll be a bundle; we’re talking to a bunch of people. It'll probably be agnostic in terms of platform, and it’ll probably be for the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR."

The original Desert Bus was part of Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors, an unreleased compilation of joke mini-games for Sega Mega CD. It simulates driving between Tucson and Las Vegas in real-time, and is (deliberately) such an awful experience that enduring its agonies has allowed Desert Bus for Hope to raise over $3 million in the course of nine marathons.

The not-entirely-unexpected death of the Sega Mega CD scotched the compilation, which is a shame - it seemed like a really clever use of the strengths of a medium, something like Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends video. It's cool to think the concept's finally getting another chance to shine, especially on the VR frontier.

Read this next