Escape Simulator 2 Is Playable in VR Right Now, and the Full Update Will Be Free

Escape Simulator 2 has a new option in its Steam beta menu called open_beta. Pick it, and the download that follows turns Pine Studio's co-op escape room sequel into a VR game. Every official room is playable, the full VR update is planned as a free release by the end of the year, and the preview costs nothing beyond owning the game.

The announcement went up on July 31 and took a few days to travel, which fits how Pine ships things. No separate SKU, no paid VR edition. A beta branch, which on Steam is just an alternate build of a game you already own, is the entire distribution mechanism. If you have the game, you have the preview.

Getting in takes about a minute. You find Escape Simulator 2 in your Steam library, right-click it, open Properties, then the Betas tab, and choose open_beta from the participation menu. Steam pulls down version v21790 or newer. Launch with your headset connected and you are in. Switching back is the same trip in reverse, select None and the standard build reinstalls itself.

Pine is upfront about what is missing, which is worth more than any feature list. Visible player hands are not in yet. Neither are character models. Community-made rooms are unsupported and, in the studio's own words, may be completely broken, and small objects can still rotate awkwardly in your grip. The settings menu already carries a wide spread of movement, comfort and interaction options, and the studio wants reports on all of it through the #ES2_VR_Preview channel on its Discord or by email, with your headset model and PC specs attached.

The studio that keeps giving VR away

There is a track record here. The original Escape Simulator launched in October 2021, sold two million copies inside seven months, and built up more than 3,000 community rooms through its editor and the Steam Workshop. When Pine added VR to it in April 2024, the mode arrived as a free update to the base game, and VR players could share a session with flatscreen players in the same room.

Escape Simulator 2 looks set to repeat that. The sequel shipped on October 27, 2025 at $19.99, holds a Very Positive rating on Steam from more than 1,800 reviews, and supports co-op for up to eight players. Pine says it has been working on VR support for quite some time. It is now planned as a free update for everyone who owns the game, with this preview as the test bed.

Physics-first puzzle games are an unusually good fit for headsets. You pick things up, turn them over, look underneath, hold a clue next to a lock while you work out what it opens. Flat Escape Simulator already plays like a mime of VR interactions, so the direction of this port is natural. The harder part is what Pine is testing now, whether grabbing, rotating and reading small objects feels right through controllers, and whether the comfort options cover enough playstyles.

One more detail from the same patch: the build carries a stack of Room Editor fixes made ahead of an upcoming Build-a-Room competition. Community rooms may be broken in VR today, but the editor pipeline is clearly part of the plan. An escape room game where thousands of user-built rooms eventually work in a headset is a bigger deal than any official room list.

If you try the preview, back up your saves and room files first. It is a beta, and Pine says features may change before the full release. That release is targeted for the end of 2026, free, added to a game that costs less than most VR-native puzzle titles ship for. Easy math.