‘Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom’ Brings the Epic British Gangster Drama to Meta Quest 2 Today

Peaky Blinders is known for its dark and thrilling depiction of the criminal underworld of post-World War I England. And now you have the chance to experience it for yourself—working with the Shelby family, making morally ambiguous choices, and fighting in fast-paced shootouts—in Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom, which is now available for $29.99 USD on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro.

Maze Theory, who previously released Doctor Who: The Edge of Time for the Meta Quest Platform, worked closely with the production team behind Peaky Blinders to faithfully recreate the world and characters from the gritty crime drama. The King’s Ransom has you playing as the newest member of the titular street gang, one who embarks on a mission to retrieve Winston Churchill’s Red Box: a briefcase containing the identities of every British agent around the globe.

You’ll work alongside Peaky Blinders boss Tommy Shelby (actor Cillian Murphy reprises his role for the game), his hot-headed brother Arthur (Paul Anderson), and other familiar characters as enemy factions close in to steal the box for themselves. The King’s Ransom also features several iconic locations from the show that you can freely explore throughout the course of the story.

We sat down with Maze Theory Chief Creative Officer Russ Harding to talk about what it was like to adapt such a beloved TV show to VR and how the team built such an immersive and detailed world on Quest 2.

Russ Harding: We’re passionate fans of the award-winning TV series Peaky Blinders, and the post-World War I Britain that Steven Knight created. As a studio we were looking to explore a new challenge in VR and wanted to work with an IP and genre that would resonate with a gaming audience. The TV series is known for its gritty and violent portrayal of life in the early 20th century, and a VR game would allow players to experience that world in a more visceral way. Overall, we thought the appeal of being a gangster, the setting of a gritty and lawless world, the immersive storytelling, and a time period that players would want to explore would be extremely appealing to the VR audience.

Peaky Blinders already had a large and dedicated fan base, and a VR game can offer a new way for them to engage with the show and its community—we could transport fans and players to the streets of Birmingham and into a world they already loved but couldn't otherwise experience. It’s a unique experience that traditional games or movies can’t provide.

The show's setting allowed us to create a world full of gritty gameplay and extreme moral choices that let players feel the weight of their own decisions, and it’s populated by an amazing cast of both historical and fictional characters. Ultimately, Peaky Blinders created an exciting playground in which to experience wish-fulfilling moments of subversion, narrative intrigue, and dramatic action—a world where players will want to discover how their own story plays out.

RH: You don’t need to be a fan or to have watched the show to enjoy Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom. The game is still hugely enjoyable, offering a detailed and atmospheric world that can be explored and interacted with. The gameplay mechanics are designed to be intuitive and accessible, and players don't need to be familiar with the show's storylines. The characters follow familiar archetypes in the gangster genre and provide a rich source of gameplay mechanics and narrative intrigue. Additionally, the show's focus on dramatic action and tension makes for some exciting gameplay moments that keep players engaged and invested in the experience.

The game's narrative is very self-contained and designed so that you don't need prior knowledge from the previous seasons. But if you’re already a fan of the show, The King’s Ransom is full of hidden easter eggs and deeply embedded narrative links to well-known characters and storylines. The authentically recreated locations—such as the Garrison Pub, Betting Shop, and Charlie's Yard—and fully realized characters deliver wish-fulfilling moments to fans.

RH: It was a tremendous honor that Maze Theory was entrusted in creating Peaky Blinder: The King’s Ransom. Working closely with the showrunners and Steven Knight, who’s been involved in all aspects of the production, gave us great insight into the writing, directing, and overall creative vision of the show.

We deliberately chose to develop our story between seasons four and five, where audiences didn’t have full insight into the timeline. This allowed us to create a unique story in collaboration with the showrunners, ensuring we remained true to the lore and maintained the narrative intrigue that the show is known for.

Working with talent such as Cillian Murphy and Paul Anderson gave us the fantastic opportunity to capture their performances, which are so intrinsic to the show. Cillian, having played Tommy Shelby for the last 10 years, knows the character extensively and so he heavily added to our script. Paul, who plays Arthur Shelby, has such a distinct physical performance that we decided to work with him using motion capture, with sensors and markers attached to his body. We filmed Paul using a special camera rig so that his performance could be translated straight into 3D animation, meaning we could truly bring Arthur to life.

Tragically, Helen McCrory passed away during the production of season six of the TV show, which was incredibly sad news. After much discussion with the showrunners, we decided that her character, Polly, should remain in the game and worked with actress Ruth Gibson to sensitively take on the role and build upon Helen’s legacy of the character she’d created.

RH: Unfortunately, we weren’t able to visit the TV show sets during filming due to the pandemic. But the team spent countless hours researching the era, and studying the show's characters and their motivations. We had access to the archive of set designs, scripts, graphics, costumes, and references to hundreds of props. We did get the opportunity post-lockdown to visit Charlie’s Yard, which is located at the Black Country Living Museum. That trip became a huge resource for reference and inspiration.

RH: When we started the initial development on Doctor Who: The Edge of Time, Meta Quest wasn’t even on our roadmap—in fact, Meta hadn’t released the first Quest yet. So we had to pivot the game’s development to accommodate the new mobile platform, which proved to be a huge challenge with a steep learning curve. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about developing for a mobile VR headset and gained a lot of knowledge on the user experience through feedback.

Though both games share some similarities in terms of gameplay mechanics, exploration, and narrative-driven storytelling, they’re very different. The King's Ransom has built on the lessons learned from Doctor Who in several ways. For example, we improved the game's locomotion system to make movement smoother and more comfortable for players. We’ve added many more interactive elements to the environments, allowing players to interact with objects in more detailed and nuanced ways. The world itself is far more immersive, offering players greater freedom to explore and discover emergent gameplay. We’ve also focused on character development, allowing players to deeply engage with the story—we wanted to create a more immersive and emotionally engaging experience.

RH: Overall, developing a world as detailed as Peaky Blinders on mobile chipsets like the Quest 2's requires a careful balance between performance, graphics quality, and overall user experience. This involved utilizing a number of tips and tricks that we learned on our previous title, the team’s deep knowledge of Unity, researching how to get the best possible experience out of the Quest hardware, and overall making smart decisions about what’s going to be the biggest payoff for the player experience.

One of our biggest technical and creative challenges came through the introduction of characters who drive the player’s objectives and gameplay forward. Our virtual cast had to feel like the characters from the TV show and in some instances carry the performance of the AAA talent that played them, all whilst maintaining the player's suspension of disbelief and making sure that the characters felt believable and responsive to the player’s presence in the game. This was a huge challenge for the animation and development teams. Again, we needed to make smart decisions in predicting where the player focus would be at any given moment of gameplay.

RH: Our vision was quite simple: to do what VR does best. And to allow players to feel as though they’d stepped directly into the show and capture the atmosphere of a gritty criminal underworld. We wanted to push the boundaries of immersive storytelling by creating a unique, engaging, and captivating experience for players. So I sincerely hope that players feel we’ve achieved just that and that we meet the fans’ high expectations for the game.

RH: And now the game is here! I sincerely hope readers take the opportunity to play the game and enjoy it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it. BY ORDER OF THE PEAKY BLINDERS!

Make your own mark in Birmingham’s most notorious gang in Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom for Quest 2 + Pro!