Finally, a Desert Bus Sequel Has Been Announced

Penn Jillette, one half of the magician duo Penn & Teller, has announced a virtual reality sequel to Desert Bus is in development. The game is being created with help from Randy Pitchford, head of Borderlands studio Gearbox.

Jillette revealed the game on his podcast, Penn's Sunday School, which was transcribed by Gamasutra.

"I'm working on a game," he said. "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."

Jillette added that Desert Bus 2 is just one of the games in development, and will likely be available on multiple VR devices.

"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."

For those unfamiliar with it, Desert Bus is a mini-game featured in 1995 Sega CD title Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors, which was never actually released. It tasks players with driving a bus from Tuscon, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time, while never exceeding 45 miles per hour.

Very little happens during the journey, the environment remains the same throughout, there are no passengers, or objectives, and the game cannot be paused. It's a completely uneventful, inoffensive 8-hour drive through the desert.

The game has proven to be very popular for charity fundraisers like Desert Bus for Hope, which previously raised thousands of dollars for Child's Play.

A release date for Desert Bus 2 was not specified.

The Oculus Rift VR headset is set for launch on March 28 and will cost $600. As of yet, Sony's PlayStation VR does not have a release date.