VR Game Libraries

[BrynS]

With the Black Friday deals announced for both the Vive and Rift I'm looking to make a purchase this weekend but am still bouncing back and forth between the systems. It seems like both platforms are pushing their own digital shop fronts (Viveport and Home?) with exclusives on both sides and a bunch of games also available on a more neutral platform like Steam and/or accessible by the other system via stuff like ReVive.

For current Vive and Rift owners I would be interested to hear what the current breakdown in your VR library is like in rough percentages, eg:

Rift
Titles bought on Home: ? %
Titles bought on Steam: ? %

Vive
Titles bought on Viveport: ? %
Titles bought on Steam: ? %

Also, for Vive owners would you say that a Viveport subscription is mandatory or do you just tend to buy individual titles as needed?

 

[Wrinkly]

Rift owner and refusing to buy through Oculus Home until they officially open it up to OpenVR(Steam) as well. No point buying from a shop that can restrict access to titles you have bought if/when you change hardware vendor.

Rift
Titles bought on Home: 0%
Titles bought on Steam: 100% (19 titles)

 

[BrynS]

Are all the Rift titles on Home also available via Steam or are some being restricted or priced more competitively on Home to encourage purchase there?

 

[Wrinkly]

Are all the Rift titles on Home also available via Steam or are some being restricted or priced more competitively on Home to encourage purchase there?

Not all are available. Oculus has some exclusives which they fund, some are timed exclusives such as Killing Floor: Incursion. Oculus supports OpenVR which is SteamVR. Some Titles on Steam support Oculus driectly. Others that do not list Oculus still work, but the controls may be a little awkward as they default to the Vive wand setup. So far I have not had any issues.

OpenVR headsets (Vive/Windows MR) can access Oculus Home with a 3rd party hack allowing them to play Robo Recall for example. Oculus could block that hack at any time though.

 

[lokiss]

The only thing HTC related beyond the hardware worth any note is the fantastic steam home environment they created (driftwood). I think I speak for 99% of Vive owners in saying, it's steam all the way. Viveport came after the event, and everything related drops on steam anyhow. HTC funded/backed products are nowhere near the level of quality of the oculus exclusives, and wouldn't be worth subbing to VP were they exclusive.

Very much the appeal of the Vive is Steam and Valves backing.

 

[Sc00p007]

As im not much bothered about the risk of backwards compatibility. I dont tend to revisit games of old (dont think I ever used backwards compat on any console o owned), I buy on home rather than stramvr.
As lovely as steamvr is visually with its tool, it just seems very buggy (janky) for me. Plus the same games on home just seem to be smoother experiences, maybe the oculus software is better when your pc gets stressed with asw etc.

 

[DONOHUE07]

Rift owner here, I buy my games on oculus home, I prefer it over SteamVR, and oculus dash looks amazing, can’t wait for that to come out, so it will only get better. I have a few games on SteamVR that arnt available on oculus home, Pavlov and BAM etc. I realise I have basically locked my self into Oculus Rifts eco system for future headsets, but I’m comftorble with that because oculus really are pushing VR the hardest, some of the best VR games are funded by oculus studio’s

 

[Ravenger]

Mine is about 60/40 Oculus/Steam depending on a) Availability, and B) Price. Some companies will supply you with an Oculus key on request if you buy the Steam version too.

I've got issues with some games not installing correctly via the Oculus store which I've not found a solution for yet which is a pain. (The games work fine if you run their executables directly.) Steam VR works fine, but of course means you're running two VR clients at the same time.

 

[GBRusty]

Vive owner:

100% steam
0% viveport

Don't let any of the stats on this page make your decision for you. This is such early days for VR, I hope it ends up like andriod mobile phones with lots of handsets to choose from and easy to migrate between brands.
So you're sort of jumping in before all the big battles have been fought and many new players are entering the arena. No-one knows who will win so go with the one that suits you now.

 

[BrynS]

Thanks for the feedback and advice, guys!

I have to say this has been the most agonising gaming hardware decision I've had to make in a long time since I've been looking at the Vive and Rift more closely in recent months with a view to buying into VR. Both systems have so many pros and cons...while not completely analogous its feels a bit like the 3D graphics market just before 3dfx began to falter and their early Glide dominance gave way to OpenGL and ultimately DirectX. Numerous times I've checked off one particular VR system as the preferred option only to unearth some minor quirk about it that makes me reconsider!

 

[andybird123]

Vive, steam 100%

 

[TallPaul1878]

I've just bought an Oculus Rift. The price is the reason I chose it. I'll be continuing to buy games through Steam so that if I change then I'll still have my games.

Oculus store I intend to use just for exclusives

 

[xGBHxPegasus]

Vive owner:

100% steam
0% viveport

I did buy the Vive Subscription for £30 for a year though, tbh looking at it there not many games I would play but for less than an AAA game for 60 games I can "try" I thought it was worth a go. Wouldn't buy it if it was £80...

 

[ArmitageShanks]

Vive owner, 100% Steam.

If I got a different headset (like the Pimax next year), I'm at least covered.

 

[famas]

Vive here and 100% steam as well.

 

[ROSSInHD]

Rift
Titles bought on Home: 4 (I actually wanted two games and it just so happened they were cheaper in a bundle with 2 others)
Titles bought on Steam: 5 (3 of which are non VR games that now have VR support)

 

[maonayze]

Only had my Rift for about a month now and I think I have bought a few more on Steam than on Oculus. To be honest it never occurred to me at the time that If I one day change headsets, my Oculus games wouldnt be playable. Opps!

Oh well, as someone else said I probably would'nt play older games after a few years anyway. Especially as VR is so young, the old games will probably suffer even more. Have thoroughly enjoyed the Rift though and haven't played any games apart from VR for over a month. Surprisingly a lot of good titles out there now too. Quite tempted by some of those ' complete your collection' packs on Oculus. Some good stuff in them.

 

[Sc00p007]

One thing i like about the oculus store, is that they seem to pump my money back into it by funding games that otherwise wouldn't have been developed = higher standard of polished games available.
I have games on both, but tend to find my more polished higher budget games are from oculus.

 

[Ravenger]

One thing i like about the oculus store, is that they seem to pump my money back into it by funding games that otherwise wouldn't have been developed = higher standard of polished games available.
I have games on both, but tend to find my more polished higher budget games are from oculus.

On one level I hate exclusive games - I'd love to play Skyrim VR right now on the Rift for example. But as you say Oculus are putting serious money into developing high quality original VR titles, and really pushing the envelope as to what can be achieved in VR.

The good news is there's a push to build new VR standard called OpenXR where any headset can access games from any VR store. https://www.khronos.org/openxr

 

[Lozgreen]

Vive - 100% Steam