Meta news & General VR News

I love what Meta have done to push forward VR originally and to decrease the cost, and increase the player base, but I do think they are dropping the ball on the gaming side now. It's obvious they want to own the AR glasses ecosystem, and that's where they're putting all their efforts.
 
Another reason for going Steam Frame, at least modding will be way easier which should keep VR gaming going. Hopefully we'll get all the Dr Beef ports moved across with better graphics and performance.
 
Ravenger said:
kotaku.com

Deadpool Studio And More Closed As Meta Chases AI Instead Of Gaming [Update]

Twisted Pixel, Armature, and Sanzaru Games have been gutted according to laid off employees
kotaku.com kotaku.com
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Sad to hear. VR is screwed if Meta leave it.

If the Steam Frame is over £900 that's not going to save VR either.

EDIT: Just jumped over to Reddit to see what the reaction is to the latest news. Very surprised by how rational most of the comments are. I think this has cut through a lot of a of the BS and cut to the sobering reality, that these are worrying times for VR.
 
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Meta apparently from what i saw are cutting people to focus on VR but will see.

its a long term play really its not a short term return.
we're all the early adoptors and advertisers. the next gen(s) are the cash cows really
 
Meta are now rivalling EA for the number of top studios they closed. Twisted Pixel produced Wilson's Heart, which was one of the best early Rift PC adventure games, and which is still a great game today. Looks amazing on modern headsets.

I wish these early Oculus VR PC games were not stuck on the neglected Meta PC store, and had a Steam release.
 
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yeah, its a pity, but VR just doesn't have the critical mass required for multiple AAA game developement.

I sold my quest 3 around a year ago (had quest and quest 2 previously), having had great fun with Alyx, HL2 VR mods, asgards wrath, and for a long while Elite:dangerous.

But I haven't desperately missed it since selling it.
 
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LostCorpse said:
not meta specific
but highlights some truths
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Interesting Video. Never saw his channel before, must give some more of his videos a look.

He didn't mention one thing though. VR gaming doesn't exist in a bubble. Gaming, as a whole, has been decimated since Covid ended. Record number of layoffs and studio closures in the last 3 years. And since VR is such a niche, it doesn't have the player base built up to support any kind of downturn. So bad times effect VR even more.

The other thing he said about VR stores not targeting the right games at the right section of the market, aiming the premium games at those willing to pay and the f2p games at kids etc. I think the stores probably do that already. The problem in VR is that a headsets are bought by one person in a family and used by everyone. Generally speaking only enthusiasts and those with a bit of tech knowledge bother to setup multiple accounts. And even if people do bother to setup accounts it's usually for family members so they can access the games without paying for them. So how does the store know what games to recommend based on a few different people using the same headset?

To give you an example, my brother has a Quest 2 headset. The age range of the people mainly using it are 13 years old, 24 years old and 49 years old. With the 13 year old the biggest user. But they all use the one account. So when my brother goes into the Meta store he gets a lot of F2P game recommendations and a lot of Horizon stuff listed. To compare that with me. I am the only person who uses the headset and have only been horizon worlds a few times. I rarely play any of the F2p play stuff like Gorilla Tag. The last time I played Rec Room was with you guys ages ago. So my recommendations are a lot different. Very few F2p games or Horizon worlds. Outside of the "most Popular games" and "top Selling" lists, I rarely see any of that stuff.

Now consider my brother and Steam and consoles. They all have their own Steam accounts and separate accounts on the PS/Xbox. So they all get recommended different games based on what they play.

I do agree with him that all the stores could do a lot better curating games, in Meta's case, and pushing VR games, in Steam's case. For all these stores, the same thing applies, you really need to know the name of the game you are looking for.
 
It's not good news is it. Afaik (because I got an email about it this morning) they are still trying to encourage small studio's / solo devs etc with their Horizon Start scheme, that's going ahead later this year like its done for several years previously (thousands of $ in prizes for apps they like etc).
 
The issue is Meta are sending the message that they are abandoning AAA VR gaming.

It's good to encourage independent developers but with a few exceptions the games will be much smaller in scope and not as good technically.

I guess our best hope now lies in conversions of flat games for AAA releases, either via mods or by studios like Flat2VR.
 
No doubt they are abandoning AAA games, no dispute there, I'm hoping that what I posted above remains true, so at least there's some new content. I don't really care about missing 1 or 2 major AAA game releases a year to be honest, most of my purchases aren't these (there aren't many anyway).

I do fear if it's something more substantial though, they really could be abandoning VR, not saying they are but it's possible. OK they only sacked 10% of the VR staff but I wonder if that 90% remaining are still working on VR or on the AR glasses or whatever. My hunch is though it's just a big money saving exercise and the Quest 4 will happen in 2027 (I'm on the hopium tbh)
 
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