nDreams Studio Orbital

nDreams Studio Orbital was an internal game development studio established by nDreams to create free-to-play and live-service virtual reality games. Announced on July 28, 2021, it marked nDreams' first internal studio expansion beyond its original development team. Its remit centred on building ongoing VR experiences rather than conventional standalone releases.

The studio's work encompassed game systems design, live-operations design, rapid gameplay prototyping and full-cycle VR development. Its development activity included multiplayer concepts and multi-year live-service architectures for VR headsets, including Meta Quest and PlayStation VR2. Orbital worked on unannounced projects during its active period, but no standalone retail game launched under its name before it closed.

Orbital operated as a fully remote development team, with developers distributed across the United Kingdom and continental Europe. This model distinguished it from nDreams' original development operation and enabled the studio to assemble a distributed team around its specialist live-service remit.

Restructuring and closure

Orbital remained an internal division of nDreams rather than a separately incorporated company. Its broader ownership changed when Aonic Group acquired nDreams in November 2023.

In September 2024, nDreams began a corporate restructuring amid commercial pressures in the VR games market. On February 6, 2025, the company confirmed the closure of Studio Orbital and changes that prevented the original nDreams Studio from continuing in its existing form. Some personnel from the affected teams joined the newly formed Compass studio, while others were made redundant. Compass was a subsequent internal operation; Orbital's own development activity had ended.