Vacation Simulator

Vacation Simulator
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Owlchemy Labs
Publisher	Owlchemy Labs
Platform	SteamVR, Oculus Rift, Meta Quest, PlayStation VR, PlayStation VR2, Pico, Apple Vision Pro
Device	Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 2, Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, PlayStation VR, PlayStation VR2, Pico 4, Apple Vision Pro
Operating System	Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, visionOS
Type	Game
Genre	Simulation, Comedy, Adventure
Input Device	Tracked motion controllers; hand tracking (Apple Vision Pro)
Play Area	Standing, Roomscale, optional seated
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	PC VR (Steam / Oculus Rift) - April 9, 2019; PlayStation VR - Summer 2019; Oculus Quest - December 12, 2019; PlayStation VR2 - February 22, 2023; Pico 4 - July 27, 2023; Apple Vision Pro - May 28, 2024
Price	US $29.99
App Store	Steam, Meta Quest Store, PlayStation Store, PICO Store, Apple App Store
Website	https://owlchemylabs.com/games/vacation-simulator/

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Vacation Simulator is a 2019 virtual reality simulation and comedy game developed and published by Owlchemy Labs. It is a sequel to the studio's 2016 title Job Simulator and is set in the same fictional future in which robots reconstruct human activities from historical records. In Vacation Simulator the bots have moved on from approximating work to approximating leisure, and the player explores a recreational area called Vacation Island.

The game first launched on PC VR through Steam and the Oculus Rift store on April 9, 2019, and later expanded to nearly every major consumer VR platform. Owlchemy Labs, which was acquired by Google in 2017, designed Vacation Simulator with the same emphasis on accessible, hand-driven object interaction that defined Job Simulator. By November 2023 the game had sold more than one million copies, making it Owlchemy's second VR title to pass that figure after Job Simulator.

Gameplay

Vacation Simulator places the player inside a simulated holiday resort run by robot characters, referred to as Bots, who guide the player through approximations of human vacation activities. The game is divided into three destinations: Vacation Beach, Vacation Forest, and Vacation Mountain, each populated by roughly a dozen Bots offering distinct tasks. Activities include swimming, yoga, shopping, sandcastle building, painting, fishing, ice sculpting, snowball fights, and cooking.

Progression is structured around collecting "memories," which the player earns by completing activities. Reaching a set number of memories across the three locations unlocks further content, with the main story running to roughly thirty memories and about three and a half hours of play. As in Job Simulator, interaction is built around grabbing, throwing, and manipulating physical objects with tracked motion controllers, and the player can customize a personal avatar and communicate with Bots through a non-verbal selfie-and-emoji system.

Owlchemy emphasized accessibility in the design. The game supports one-handed play, adjustable table heights, and a world-resizing option so that seated or shorter players can reach in-game objects. Reviewing the PC VR version, Road to VR noted strong comfort options but observed that the original two-sensor Oculus Rift setup lacked a dedicated snap-turn option at launch.

Development

Owlchemy Labs developed Vacation Simulator as a follow-up to Job Simulator, its launch-window VR hit from 2016. Google acquired the studio in May 2017, and the company continued to operate as a VR-focused developer afterward. The studio announced the title in 2017 and revealed the three vacation destinations and the April 2019 launch window in the lead-up to release, describing the project as larger in scope than its previous games.

On September 10, 2020, Owlchemy released a free expansion titled Vacation Simulator: Back to Job for PC VR and Oculus Quest, with the PlayStation VR version following in October 2020. The expansion folds the work-themed mechanics of Job Simulator into Vacation Island: the premise is that the Bots have themselves gone on vacation, leaving the human player to take jobs in an on-demand "gig economy" across the existing beach, forest, and mountain areas. Owlchemy later issued platform-specific technical updates, including real-time shadows for the Meta Quest 3 version in November 2023.

Release

Vacation Simulator launched first on PC VR before expanding to standalone, console, and mixed-reality headsets over several years. The PlayStation VR2 and Apple Vision Pro versions added platform features such as headset and controller haptics, higher-resolution rendering, and hand tracking.

Platform	Release date	Notes
Steam (SteamVR) and Oculus Rift	April 9, 2019	Initial PC VR release at US $29.99
PlayStation VR	Summer 2019	Console release for PlayStation 4
Oculus Quest	December 12, 2019	First standalone version
PlayStation VR2	February 22, 2023	Launch-window title; added headset and controller haptics, 4K rendering at 90fps, and reduced load times; free upgrade for PS VR owners
Pico 4	July 27, 2023	Released on global and Chinese PICO stores at US $29.99, including the Back to Job expansion
Apple Vision Pro	May 28, 2024	Optimized for the headset's hand- and eye-tracking; priced at US $29.99

Reception

Vacation Simulator received generally favorable reviews. On Metacritic the PC version holds a score of 77 from eight critics, and the PlayStation 4 version holds 75 from six critics. OpenCritic lists a Top Critic Average of 80 with a "Strong" rating tier and 50 percent of critics recommending the game.

Road to VR scored the game 8.8 out of 10, praising its object interaction and comfort options while writing that the humor was quirky rather than consistently laugh-out-loud. UploadVR later named it a nominee in its Best of 2019 awards, citing the breadth of activities and a design approach that keeps players oriented and comfortable.

Commercially, Owlchemy announced in November 2023 that Vacation Simulator had sold more than one million copies. The studio's CEO, Andrew Eiche, said the milestone made Owlchemy the first studio with multiple platinum-selling VR titles, after Job Simulator passed one million in 2020 and later exceeded two million.