PAX Aus 2024 Highlight – Dumb Ways: Free For All

Posted on October 14, 2024

Dumb Ways to Die, the memorable Australian public safety transport campaign that has gone on to spawn a long-running and award-winning video game series, is heading to the Meta Quest 3 VR platform with a new party game called Dumb Ways: Free For All. The game is developed by PlaySide Studios, and was available for demonstration at PAX Aus 2024.

Although this will be the first full VR game in the franchise, the Dumb Ways to Die did have a VR experience back in PAX Aus back in 2018. Dumb Ways: Free For All will include 50 travel-themed minigames at launch for between 1-5 players as they try not to die in dumb ways.

Dumb Ways: Free For All sees your bean character travel across the globe and participate in 50 different minigames. The games are sorted according to different themes, such as Beach, Jungle, Snow and Space. In the demo I was able to experience at PAX Aus 2024, I participated in over-the-top feats such as chopping coconuts with a saber, picking up a gun and shooting coconuts off the back of crabs and yanking fish out of the water and throwing them at targets.

While the crazy scenarios are only sort of tangentially related to the original public safety message of the Dumb Ways to Die franchise, it at least was quite fun. VR is a good platform for these sorts of minigame collections, with the players navigating menus and utilising guns and swords with the Meta Quest 3’s motion controls. Even as someone fairly inexperienced with VR, I found the controls for each minigame quite intuitive and was having a great time after a short adjustment period.

Dumb Ways: Free For All won’t be hurting for content, launching with 50 minigames to play solo or with your friends. Furthermore, PlaySide Studios has confirmed that two free updates will be coming post-launch, providing new locations and a combined 50 additional minigames. As such, we can expect a total of 100 minigames once all of the updates have been released.

Despite the title’s implication, Dumb Ways: Free For All isn’t free-to-play, and will be priced at $20.00 USD at launch according to Meta’s website. For those looking for some multiplayer VR minigame fun, Dumb Ways: Free For All will be released exclusively on the Meta Quest 3 on November 7th 2024.