The company's VR gaming studio internal division has become bigger.
Meta is adding three new virtual reality game developers to its growing Oculus Studios division, an internal creative team responsible for seeking developers to develop new software for VR devices. The acquisitions were announced as part of the company’s keynote during the Meta Connect conference.
joins Meta's internal development roster including Iron Man VR developer Camouflaj, Wilson's Heart developer Twisted Pixel and Armature Studio, the latter is a team that successfully ported Capcom " Resident Evil 4" for Meta Quest 2.
While Meta has been paying external developers for developing games for its helmets in the early years after its acquisition of Oculus, the company has begun to acquire more of these studios and give these teams resources to create new games. This spending frenzy began in 2019, when Meta acquired Beat Games, a developer of Beat Saber.
Meta followed up with Asgard's Wrath developer Sanzaru Games in 2020, Lone Echo developer Ready at Dawn in the same year, Onward developer Downpour Interactive in 2021, Population: One developer BigBox VR in 2021, and Supernatural developer Within Unlimited last fall. Given that Meta has about 90% of the market share of the VR headset market, aggressive acquisition strategies in just two years have led critics to question whether Meta has had an anti-competitive impact on the VR software market.
In July this year, the Federal Trade Commission sued Meta for stopping its acquisition of Within, saying the deal would limit competition and give Meta a monopoly on VR fitness apps. (Supernatural is marketed as a gamified VR fitness app, and many Beat Saber fans also use the game as aerobic exercise). The FTC slimmed its complaints last week by removing some allegations, but the case is still ongoing.
In addition to the new studio acquisition, Meta also announced that Camouflaj's "Iron Man VR", originally released in 2020 for the competitive VR platform of Sony , and will arrive on Quest 2 on November 3. The popular indie game Between Us will also release a VR variant on Quest 2 on November 10. Consumers have spent more than $1.5 billion in Quest stores so far, according to Meta data
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