Fox’s interactive entertainment division has announced plans to develop a free-roaming multiplayer virtual reality game based on iconic sci-fi horror franchise Alien.

FoxNext – made up of FoxNext Games, FoxNext VR Studio and the newly-rebranded FoxNext Destinations (formerly known as Twentieth Century Fox Location Based Entertainment) – unveiled the concept, which will put users directly in the Alien world.

The site’s location is yet to be revealed, but Fox says the 2,000sq ft (185sq m) free-roam experience will be open to the public before the end of 2017.

Utilising haptic effects, including heat, mist and motion platforms, the four-player experience is being developed by tech company iP2 Entertainment and its sister company, VR content creator Pure Imagination Studios.

Fox is currently developing a number of its IPs as attractions ahead of the launch of Fox World Malaysia, which has a pencilled opening date of 2018. In addition to utilising the Alien franchise, IPs such as Predator, Ice Age and Planet of the Apes are also being adapted for use in attractions.

Plans for the 101,000sq m (1,087,155sq ft) Malaysia park included 25 movie-inspired rides, representing characters and stories from Fox properties. Experiences will include a mix of media-based rides, thrill rides, dark rides, children’s rides and water rides. There will be also be associated shops and themed outlets.

Also scheduled to open in 2018, Fox World Dubai will be the next piece of the puzzle in Fox’s global expansion of its theme park division. Speaking to Attractions Management in 2015, Greg Lombardo, the man heading up Fox’s new theme park ventures worldwide, called Dubai a “gateway” to a crowded european market, praising the area as a new emerging hub for the attractions market.