Millions of fans the world over can at least let out a collective sigh of relief. At long last Desert Bus has a sequel on its way. Desert Bus 2 will be developed by Gearbox Software and will be a VR game purely for charities, according to magician Penn Jillette.
For the uninitiated, Desert Bus is one of several games for an unreleased 1995 title for the Sega CD called “Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors”. In Desert Bus, players are tasked with driving from Tuscon, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time. This feat takes 8 hours and features nothing but desert. Players cannot leave the game running on idle, since the bus will slowly steer to the right, offroading, and requiring a tow truck back to Tuscon (also in real time).
The game is also played as a charity marathon event every year, which raised over $600,000 last year. Penn Jillette was so inspired by the event, that he was prompted to work with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford on a sequel, just for charity:
“I’m working on a game. I’m working with Randy Pitchford, and we’re going to do – and 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,”
Mr Jillette seemed uncertain of exactly what platform it would be on, but described the platform as “agnostic”, and said it would “probably be for the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR”.