Facebook’s Oculus is running a new sale on the Oculus Store for the Oculus Quest titles, aptly-named ‘The Great Indoors Sale‘.
In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, Oculus is recommending and discounting a variety of Quest titles that will help you get through isolation and social distancing over the next few weeks and months.
The sale features a bunch of popular Quest games like Space Pirate Trainer, Vacation Simulator, The Thrill of the Fight and more. The full list of games and their discounts are as follows:
Space Pirate Trainer – 33% off, $11.99
Vacation Simulator – 15% off, $25.49
Acron: Attack of the Squirrels! – 25% off, $14.99
The Thrill of the Fight – 20% off, $7.99
Drop Dead: Dual Strike Edition – 20% off, $11.99
Death Horizon: Reloaded – 20% off, $15.99
The sale page also lists Bait!, Rec Room and VRChat, but those apps are free (and always have been). While they might fall under good games and apps to use while stuck indoors, they’re not technically on sale and are likely just a recommendation from Oculus.
There’s also two bundles of games on sale – the Beat Your High Score! bundle and the Relax. Recharge. Reflect. bundle, both of which contain two games. The former contains Ninja Legends and Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs, and the latter contains Real VR Fishing and Guided Tai Chi.
The bundles are priced at $22.99 and $19.99 respectively. If you already own one of the games in the bundle, the pricing will be adjusted accordingly to reflect an appropriate discount for the other game by itself.
The Director of Content Ecosystem at Facebook’s Oculus, Chris Pruett, gave details on the Oculus Store curation policy for Oculus Quest in a Twitter thread today, along with teasing a potential official way for distributing Oculus Quest apps outside of the Oculus Store.
The entire thread reads as follows:
Focus on polish & quality for Quest has driven real developer success. We’ve found that honest, actionable feedback requires more than a form letter or a checklist of things to fix—devs are most successful when we have an ongoing relationship over the course of development.
That’s part of the reason we ask first for a concept document, rather than a playable build, for the Concept Approval title on Quest. We want to give early signal before the developer has spent significant resources on a project.
We designed Oculus Start/Launch Pad to incubate and support devs, which is why we sometimes recommend it to concepts we’ve declined. These programs are made to nurture promising devs and to provide support and resources to grow their work. https://developer.oculus.com/oculus-start
We also understand that many devs and enthusiasts are looking for easier ways to access and distribute applications outside of the Oculus Store. This is an area we’re actively thinking about (more to share soon!)
Also, welcome, @diempuntoes to Oculus Start! We’re excited to work with you!
The thread seems to be in response to the recent reaction that surrounded Facebook’s second rejection of Crisis VRigade despite over 72,000 downloads from SideQuest. Crisis VRigade developer Diego Martín noted that the rejection letter from Facebook encouraged the studio to join the Oculus Start program. In his thread, Pruett welcomed Martín to the aforementioned program, which provides “provides qualifying developers with access, support and savings” from Oculus to new developers.
Perhaps the other interesting part of the thread is that Facebook is considering a non-Store route for distributing Oculus Quest applications. At the moment, SideQuest is the best alternative for users who wish to easily sideload non-approved content onto their Quest. The thread from Pruett could be teasing some kind of official SideQuest alternative, allowing developers and enthusiasts to sideload content onto their Quest which has not been approved or been through the Oculus curation policy. Or perhaps we might see the introduction of Early Access apps to the Oculus Store?
Some developers have even released paid content onto the SideQuest store, such as the developers of To The Top. The game, initially published on PC VR, was rejected for Quest but recently published as a paid app on SideQuest. The success of the SideQuest release has since encouraged the developers to continue work on a sequel to To The Top, knowing that there is an alternative to the Oculus Store curation process.
With Facebook now teasing an alternative solution of its own, one big question is what might become of SideQuest.
Stress Level Zero resurrected the classic Tuscany demo from the days of Oculus Rift development kits and launched it as a sandbox environment for Boneworks.
At the time of this writing the rebuilt environment with all of Boneworks physics and sandbox tools is available in the Oculus Store version of the game. That means you can launch it on an Oculus Rift or an Oculus Quest via the Oculus Link. The Steam store version of the game should add the environment in the next major patch which may come in March. You might be able to access it in other headsets from the Oculus Store version via a tool like Revive, but we haven’t tested that method.
A Trip Into VR History
The “Tuscany Demo” was an early Oculus Rift project that introduced many developers as well as their friends and family to VR from about 2013 onward. It features a serene landscape and a Tuscan villa with butterflies fluttering through the air. Now that it is rebuilt by Stress Level Zero, you can move the furniture around and climb up the trees outside. You can even jump the fence and explore the countryside.
The sandbox environment is interesting in the context of how VR hardware and the things people do with it has changed since those early days. The bright environment made the screen door effect impossible to miss on Rift development kits like DK1 and DK2, and Facebook didn’t ship to consumers tracked controllers for hands until late 2016. Still, the environment and hardware was compelling enough to create a sense of “presence” in some people. That’s the feeling of actually being there in the digital environment and for some that feeling hooked them on idea that VR might truly be the next great medium for computing. By now it is a bit of a joke when people reach out and try to touch something in VR without the system tracking controllers or hand movements, but back then it was a sign that a low-cost headset was actually doing what it was designed to do. Experiencing presence in Tuscany helped convince some folks that VR was worth their time and money, and inspired some to realize its vast potential to collapse space and bring faraway people together.
Of course, when I went into Boneworks and tried the sandbox environment this week instead of trying to reach out and touch the butterflies I took out my gun and used them as target practice. Just like the real world, I guess, you don’t have to use the virtual environment that way. That makes the Boneworks version of Tuscany — weapons or no weapons — still a powerful showcase of VR’s power in 2020.
After releasing a major update for Boneworks on Steam this week, virtual reality (VR) developer Stress Level Zero has now brought the videogame to the Oculus Store for Oculus Rift. Adding to the announcements, the studio has confirmed a new version based on Boneworks is in development for Oculus Quest.
Stress Level Zero’s Brandon Laatsch revealed on Oculus Blog that: “We’re working on bringing Boneworks’ mechanics and core systems to Oculus Quest in an all-new project that we will have more to show from as the year goes on.” That’s certainly good news for owners of the standalone headset who don’t have the option of using Oculus Link to play Boneworks via their PC.
No other details have been released at this time so it’ll be interesting to see what route the team take when combining Boneworks’ physics-based gameplay with the processing limitations of Oculus Quest.
Boneworks arrived in December 2019 to much acclaim – it currently has a ‘Very Positive’ rating on Steam. There is a basic storyline where you play a Virtual Security director tasked with delving into deep inner workings of the Monogon Industries’ artificial intelligence operating system; Myth OS. Really though, Boneworks is all about the physical mechanics, how you and the objects around you interact, all made to be as realistic as possible.
“There’s little to no actual game logic, and design relied heavily on the agency players are given through the physics foundation. Players are encouraged to progress through or replay the game as creatively as possible, taking advantage of the physical nature in any way they see fit,” said Creative Director Alex Knoll. “We wanted the game to present our mechanics as a base point for all our VR content moving forward. Likewise, Boneworks’ premise leaves nearly endless branching opportunities to explore the Boneworks universe in future content.”
Boneworks supports Oculus Rift/Rift S, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. For further updates on the Oculus Quest project, keep reading VRFocus.
Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today, we want to hear from you in regards to how important you think SideQuest is to the future and success of the Oculus Quest?
We’ve covered the rise of SideQuest very closely here at UploadVR. For those unaware, SideQuest is a side loading platform for the Oculus Quest which eases the process of loading content onto your headset that is not officially approved for and sold on the actual Oculus Store.
Due to its comparatively stricter content guidelines, Oculus turns down a lot of content for the Quest. As a result, SideQuest arose to fulfill the need for alternate avenues. Developers use it to distribute not only demos and experimental software, but to also sell actual full games using itch.io as well.
For more details on SideQuest read our guide on how to use it and watch our in-VR interview with its creators for information about how things are going for the platform.
Recently we’ve seen lots of cool experimental hand-tracking projects like this one that lets you learn piano using VR as well as fan-made games like Pokemon hitting Quest.
So, the question at hand now is: How important is SideQuest for the future of Facebook’s Oculus Quest? Will the average consumer continue to function without needing to know about it, or does a future exist where it establishes itself as a leading alternate app store on standalone devices?
Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below!
In Facebook’s quarterly earnings call yesterday, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the Oculus Store had sold nearly $5 million worth of content on Christmas Day alone.
Zuckerberg says in the Q4 2019 earnings call that the Christmas Day boom was an “outlier day,” although it represents what he calls “real volume by any measure” and that it shows the progress the ecosystem is making.
While the Oculus Store provides hardware-specific VR content for the ‘tethered’ PC VR headsets Rift & Rift S, the 6DOF standalone Oculus Quest, and the more diminutive 3DOF standalone Oculus Go, this year’s holiday winner seems to have been Quest.
The standalone headset provides many of the top games made famous on PC VR headsets, albeit tailored to fit onto Quest’s humble Snapdragon 835 mobile chipset. Releasing support for Oculus Link a month before Christmas, Quest users can also now play Rift games too by connecting to a VR-ready PC with a USB-C cable.
Image courtesy Facebook
All of this combined with its $400 price point, and Facebook has managed to create a strong enough draw with Quest to send it out of stock since well before Christmas, with back orders still projected to ship in late February as stocks rebound from the holiday rush.
Facebook hasn’t released any info on whether its holiday bump in content sales was primarily due to Quest or Rift S owners, although the PC VR headset refresh did experience a much smaller backlog during the holiday season. It’s unclear if this was based on higher supply or lower overall demand, however our analysis of the Steam’s hardware survey month-over-month for the year of 2019 reveals that Rift S increased its VR market share on the Steam platform by about 4% from November to December, which represents roughly 18.46% of total connected headsets through Steam. With most VR games, save a few Oculus Rift exclusives, purchasable through Steam, it’s very likely the Quest ‘walled garden’ approach has garnered the company most of its content sales during that Christmas boom.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a call with investors that “on Christmas Day, people bought almost $5 million of content in the Oculus Store.”
We were hoping Facebook might finally break its silence and reveal how many Oculus Quests sold during its debut year but the $5 million figure is still an interesting number. In June 2019, a Facebook vice president said Oculus Quest sold $5 million worth of content over its two week launch period.
“Sales are stronger than we expected,” Zuckerberg also said of the Oculus Quest.
In another section of the call Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Wehner said, while referencing the company’s “Other” revenue, which includes Facebook’s VR efforts, “year over year growth was driven by sales of Oculus Quest.”
The Oculus Quest standalone headset has been backordered from some places as far as March. The company finished 2019 with nearly 45,000 employees and continues to invest considerably in a wide range of technologies fundamental to advances in VR and AR.
After an initial release on Viveport, award-winning 360 degree VR movie Gloomy Eyes is coming to the Oculus Quest and other PC VR store platforms next month.
Gloomy Eyes follows a young zombie boy who falls for a human girl, split across 3 episodic volumes. It’s narrated by Colin Farrell, who recently spoke about his experience working on the project in a video from HTC Vive about the development. Gloomy Eyes appeared at a number of film festivals and events last year, including South by Southwest, Annecy and Sundance. At the last of those, it even took home the awards for Artistic Achievement and Audio Achievement.
While all 3 volumes of Gloomy Eyes parts launched on Viveport not long ago (and were therefore available through that platform for PC VR headsets), the experience is now lauching on the Oculus Quest standalone system on February 14.
Also on the same day, the PC VR version of the game will expand out onto other PC VR store platforms as well. The publisher ARTE were unable to confirm exactly which other PC VR platforms it will expand onto just yet (such as Steam or Oculus Store), but said they would let us know once they have more information ahead of February 14.
Additionally a 360 degree video version will also be available on the ARTE Cinema’s YouTube channel. While you’ll be able to watch the full experience there for free, you won’t have the benefit of 6DoF that comes with VR headsets, of course. The full VR experience will set you back $14.99 on all platforms.
Will you be checking out Gloomy Eyes next month? Let us know in the comments below.
VR is a hit this holiday season — so much so that some of the industry’s most compelling systems were backordered as far as February 2020.
Facebook warns that new orders of the Oculus Quest self-contained standalone system won’t arrive until February when ordered from its website in the United States. It is sold out from other online stores as well and, in recent days, we’ve seen Amazon resellers as much as tripling the price of the all-in-one VR headset which is normally priced starting at just $400.
Valve, meanwhile, warned that new orders of its Valve Index PC-powered headset wouldn’t arrive until February before removing the ability to pre-purchase the hardware in the United States and switching to a “notify me” option for when it is possible to buy it again.
Steam is the only official place to purchase the super-comfortable Valve Index headset so if you find it available elsewhere it is likely from a reseller marking up the price of the hardware. The modular system from Valve sells as a kit for $1,000 but also requires a high-end PC to operate. The February shipping expectation was starting to approach the March release window for Valve’s highly anticipated VR game Half-Life: Alyx.
VR In 2019
For those unfamiliar with the VR market as it stands in 2019, Oculus Quest is Facebook’s standalone VR headset which ships with a pair of Oculus Touch controllers that allow precise and intuitive control of incredible games like Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, Super Hot and many more excellent titles.
Oculus Quest from Facebook typically sells starting at around $400.
Quest works great completely wireless but Facebook also recently added a new wired mode to the system called “Oculus Link” that allows it to be optionally powered over a USB 3 cable from a VR Ready PC. This mode dramatically expands the library of content accessible with Quest to include top tier expansive VR titles like Skyrim VR, No Man’s Sky VR and even Half-Life: Alyx when it arrives in 2020. Facebook also recently added an experimental controller-free hand tracking mode to Quest that allows operation of its menus without the controllers and a subset of developers should start to support the feature in 2020.
Valve Index
Valve Index is the newest PC-powered system from the company behind the Steam store and the original breakthrough 2016 headset from HTC, the Vive, which was the first to offer consumers intuitive hand controllers and the freedom to move around an entire room while immersed in VR.
Valve Index is sold via Steam and typically sells for around $1,000 as a full kit with headset, tracking base stations and controllers. It also requires a VR-ready PC to operate and includes a wire back to the computer.
Index still includes a wire back to the PC to operate (though Valve is exploring wireless options) but also includes an optical design tailored toward visual comfort while running at 90, 120 or even an experimental 144 frames per second. This may provide a more visually comfortable experience in VR for some buyers than Quest’s top frame rate of 72.
The full Index kit also includes Valve’s new controllers which strap to the hand around the palm and knuckles to allow full release. All other current VR controllers including Vive wands, Windows MR controllers and Quest’s Oculus Touch require them to be actively held. Valve developed the controllers alongside Half-Life: Alyx and, though the game is promised to work with all PC-powered VR systems with tracked hand controllers, some optional interactions will only be possible with the Index Controllers.
Are you picking up a Quest or Index? When did you order and what expectations were you given for arrival?Let us know in the comments. Also, if you happen to spot a Quest in physical stores anywhere in the world, maybe drop a note in the comments to other readers to let them know where they might snag one.
Update: Article originally published Dec. 17 and updated with new information about Steam availability on Dec. 22.
It’s Black Friday today, and Facebook is finally putting a large number of Quest games on sale – though mostly still through bundles.
Since the release of the Oculus Quest back in May, games in its app store haven’t gone on sale. In fact, even when a game was on sale on Steam or a non-cross-buy game was on sale on the Rift store, it wasn’t on sale in the Quest store.
On Wednesday Facebook finally launched a discounted Thanksgiving Collection, but this isn’t much of a deal if you only wanted a few games from it.
But Black Friday is the day of sales, and Facebook is finally offering a range of 6 bundles, as well as 8 Quest games on sale individually.
The bundles are sorted by price, with the most expensive (Black) being $200 and the most affordable (Bronze) being $45.
All of the offers end midnight tonight in the Pacific Standard Time Zone.
Black Collection ($200) [21% Off]
The Black Collection is priced at $200, which saves $55 off the price of buying all of these games separately. It includes:
OUR TAKE: None of these discounts are significant, but if you’re a fan of the Rocky franchise you’ll want to pick up Creed while it’s on sale. And if you want to use your PC from your Quest, there’s no better way than Virtual Desktop.
