Facebook made some big announcements yesterday regarding its Oculus Quest platform and how well some developers were doing. Over 60 titles have managed to exceed the $1 million USD marker with the company naming several of them. Since that announcement, studios have taken to Twitter to confirm which of them had managed to be part of this coveted group.
Some weren’t that surprising like nDreams’ stealth shooter Phantom: Covert Ops. Available on both Oculus Quest and Rift, it launched in June last year and only a month later had achieved over $1m in gross revenue from both platforms. The studio Tweeted that Oculus Quest revenue has exceeded $1 million on its own.
Fitness titles OhShape and Synth Riders are also part of that list. The Synth Ridersteam also confirmed to VRFocus in an email that since the release of the Oculus Quest 2 monthly active players had tripled and that monthly revenue showed a 9x increase.
This type of jump in figures was echoed by others in the community. Hrafn Thorisson, CEO and co-founder of Aldin Dynamics – the studio behind Waltz of the Wizard – Tweeted: “Our sales on December 25th 2020 were 5x greater than on December 25th in 2019. January 2021 was our biggest sales month on Quest to date. More than 4x greater than January 2020.”
Good news all around then, with some of these managing to make their way even higher up the revenue pile. It’s important to note that while Facebook might be using $1 million as a positive marker, for long term videogame development that figure is a drop in the ocean. For further updates on the health of Oculus Quest’s ecosystem, keep reading VRFocus.
More VR developers are coming forward to confirm they’ve made over $1 million in revenue on the Oculus Quest platform.
Yesterday, Facebook confirmed that over 60 titles had passed that milestone. At the same time, the company confirmed a few games like Onward and Population: One were included in that list and other studios like Resolution Games have revealed that their own titles made the cut too.
Since then, many more studios have come forward with their successful apps. Among them are:
Schell Games‘ Until You Fall and I Expect You To Die
Hrafn Thorisson, CEO and co-founder at Aldin, confirmed that January 2021 sales were Waltz’s biggest ever, achieving four times more copies sold than the previous January. Kluge, meanwhile, confirmed that since the launch of the Oculus Quest 2 in October 2020, Synth Riders has more than tripled its active player base and increased its revenue by nine times year-over-year.
This week Facebook also launched App Lab, a new means of accessing experimental Quest games and experiences without needing to sideload, and started integrating Facebook Messenger support into the standalone headset.
The company hasn’t revealed sale stats for the headset itself but, clearly, Quest 2 is making a meaningful impact on VR developers. Coming up, we know that arena shooter Hyper Dash will hit the headset this month, and The Climb 2 is on the way to the platform too.
It’s been quite the year for the Oculus Quest platform, both positive and controversial. The standalone headset has gone from strength to strength with a growing catalogue of videogames and let’s not forget about the arrival of Oculus Quest 2. Whether you’re new to VR or not, here are VRFocus’ recommendations from 2020.
Below you’ll find 10 of the best videogames for Oculus Quest and this list is by no means exhaustive. It really was difficult narrowing down the selection and there are many more great titles on the store.
The Best Oculus Quest Games of 2020
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
For those who love a good zombie apocalypse Skydance Interactive’s The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is worth a look. Having to survive the mean streets of New Orleans, you’ll deal with dangerous humans and walkers alike. Scavenge houses for useful parts to keep you healthy or to craft more weapons, whilst uncovering the underlying storyline.
Go in silent with blades or a bow to avoid attracting attention or make some noise with pistols, rifles and more – just be ready for the horde. Plus in January 2021 a free horde mode ‘The Trial’ will provide wave-based action.
Cubism
Simple, elegant puzzle gaming, Cubismis the work of solo developer Thomas Van Bouwel. Featuring 60 puzzles, twist and turn them to try and fit the various colourful pieces inside. Easy to pick up yet difficult to put down Cubism is an indie gem to enjoy.
Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition
The horror genre has been well represented in VR and Bloober Team’s Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition is a great example why you should avoid the woods at night. Taking the standard 2019 title and giving it a VR twist, you have to explore the creepy woodland looking for a missing lad.
Along the way you have to deal with some strange events as well as your characters own PTSD and panic attacks. Lucky, by your side is your faithful pooch Bullet who can find hidden items as well as alert you to danger. Full of suspense and puzzles to solve, this isn’t for the faint of heart.
Until You Fall
When you just want a pure arcade hack-n-slash Schell Games’ Until You Fallis an energetic roguelite which ticks all the right boxes. Set in the neon fantasy world of Rokar you play a Rune Knight tasked with ridding the land of evil.
Gameplay revolves around runs through the world which changes each time due to procedurally generated levels. Combat is melee based, where you buy and upgrade various swords and knives adapt and conquer each run. Die and you return to the beginning a try again. Hectic and brutal, this is one videogame to get your heart pumping.
Population: One
Mixing the massive battle royale genre with VR’s interactive gameplay is Population: One. Taking place across one giant map which supports 18 players, across six squads with three players each, drop pods launch you onto the battlefield to see who can survive the longest.
Weapons and useful items are littered throughout the world as well as resources to build quick platforms for defensive and offensive capabilities. You can also climb anything you want and then glide across the map to gain an advantage. A relentless first-person shooter (FPS), one to keep you entertained for hours.
Phantom: Covert Ops
For a far more subtle shooter where you can be as stealthy or gung-ho as you like then nDreams’ Phantom: Covert Ops is a good choice. Playing as an elite operative infiltrating an enemy base, the unique element here is that you’re entirely confined to a kayak throughout.
So you can silently paddle through waterways, hide in reeds, and then snipe enemies to complete the task. Or with some C4 and the assault rifle tear the place up, your call. Completing mission-specific objectives or finding hidden secrets will unlock levels in the Challenge Mode, so there’s more to keep you entertained after the campaign is over.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted
The only other horror title on this list, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted goes for the classic jump scare, using it to great effect. A compilation of all the previous Five Nights at Freddy’s plus some made for VR content, all the levels are bite-sized mini-games where you have to survive the night.
With killer animatronics hunting you down encounters can include playing a security guard keeping an eye on monitors or crawling into claustrophobic ventilation systems to repair them. You know they’re coming, but it doesn’t make it any less scary!
Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale
Pure multiplayer madness for up to four people, Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale is all about preparing delicious lunches for your customers. They all have their own preferences with some more exacting than others, so it’s up to you and your team to deliver, no one person has all the ingredients. Therefore good communication and some speedy chopping skills are in order.
You have access to a fridge full of ingredients as well as a grills to toast (or burn) ingredients. Plus you’ll need to clear and clean plates as no customer wants their sandwich on a dirty plate. There’s also a single-player mode where you can team up with a kitchen robot assistant to tackle the various campaign levels. Good clean/messy fun.
In Death: Unchained
In a similar roguelite vein to Until They Fall, In Death: Unchained has procedural levels and single run-throughs where death puts you right back at the start, a little wiser and a little stronger. Here though, all you have is a bow – a crossbow can be unlocked – and an assortment of magical arrows to take down Templar Knights, demons, evil monks and other unearthly creatures.
One for those who love a challenge, there’s plenty to keep you entertained as the developer has just released a new gameplay mode called ‘Siege of Heaven’. Plus, like many on this list if you have an Oculus Quest 2 there are visual enhancements which make the world more impressive.
The Room VR: A Dark Matter
Fireproof Games took its hugely popular mobile series The Room and built The Room VR: A Dark Matter specifically for VR gaming. With an original storyline set in London, circa 1908, you play a detective called to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a renown Egyptologist from the British Institute of Archaeology.
Que elaborate puzzles, dark magic and fantastical gadgets to aid the investigation. These are all fully interactive to help engross you in each element plus the gameplay uses specific teleportation points so it should be a very comfortable experience for all players.
Oculus Quest 2 launches tomorrow, bringing along with it higher resolution, higher refresh rate, and a cutting edge Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset to drive native VR games on the company’s most powerful standalone headset yet.
Although all games out of the box will benefit from Quest 2’s overall bump in hardware specs to some extent, there’s already a few Quest games out there that are getting graphical overhauls just in time for tomorrow’s launch to make good use of the upgrades.
To squeeze out everything Quest 2 has to offer, some developers have already gone into their previously released Quest games and optimized for the headset’s ‘experimental’ 90Hz support and ability to push higher quality assets and textures thanks to Snapdragon XR2. While this list may evolve as new games come to light, here’s the 10 games we’ve found that are going to benefit from developer optimization:
Apex Construct
Summary:Apex Construct is a single player VR action/adventure. Wield an upgradable bow & shield combination to battle enemy robots while exploring and solving mysteries in a shattered world.
Summary: VR meets the zombie apocalypse! Arizona Sunshine is the original zombie shooter rebuilt entirely for Oculus Quest. Powered by 360° gameplay freedom, the untethered Arizona Sunshine® experience immerses you and up to 3 fellow survivors in a world overrun by zombies more than ever.
Summary: Build Your Incredible Machine – Gravity Lab would like to introduce our new range of gravity modifying appliances! Currently awaiting regulatory approval, we invite you to visit our testing facility and give them a go! We have prepared a selection of test scenarios for you and we are certain you can solve them!
Summary: Ironlights is a VR dueling game with skillful, fluid, slow-motion melee combat. Test your skills in multiplayer battles, or fight to the top of the league in the huge single-player campaign!
Summary: Dispatched into hostile wetlands in your military kayak, utilise weapons and equipment to neutralise enemies. Engage targets lethally or infiltrate unnoticed from the shadows across a full campaign. This is stealth action redefined.
Summary: Let’s dive in and explore the world of fishing or just sit back and relax in a mesmerizing scenery together. Real VR Fishing invites you to the incredible real-world fishing spots to feel the taste of fishing in the Multiplayer mode or to relax and enjoy the stillness in the Single-play mode.
Summary: Red Matter is a story-driven VR puzzle adventure game set during a dystopian Sci-Fi Cold War. Take on the role of Agent Epsilon, an astronaut of the Atlantic Union dispatched to an abandoned Volgravian base on Rhea, one of Saturn’s moons. Your mission: to investigate a shady top secret research project.
Summary: Multi-award winning, smash-hit SUPERHOT VR blurs the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem. The definitive VR action experience. Time moves only when you move.
Summary: From the co-creator of Rick and Morty comes Trover Saves the Universe. Your dogs have been dognapped by a beaked lunatic who stuffed them into his eye holes and is using their life essence to destroy the universe. Only you and Trover can save everything in this bizarre comedy adventure filled with combat, platforming, puzzles, and morally questionable choices
Summary: If you have ever wanted to make things disappear with a snap of your finger, throw fireballs, or telekinesis, then this experience is for you. Now included among many other hand tracking features!
Summary: Not a game, but rather a utility to connect to your computer to watch movies, browse the web or play games on a giant virtual screen or in various theater environments. Developer Guy Godin says Virtual Desktop will allow Quest 2 streams at higher resolutions, a higher maximum bitrate (150 Mbps instead of 100) and supports 60, 72, 80 and 90Hz.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you’re overhauling your Quest game, or know of one that’s getting some graphical bumps to optimize for Quest 2, let us know in the comments below!
Oculus Quest 2 launches tomorrow, bringing along with it higher resolution, higher refresh rate, and a cutting edge Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset to drive native VR games on the company’s most powerful standalone headset yet.
Although all games out of the box will benefit from Quest 2’s overall bump in hardware specs to some extent, there’s already a few Quest games out there that are getting graphical overhauls just in time for tomorrow’s launch to make good use of the upgrades.
To squeeze out everything Quest 2 has to offer, some developers have already gone into their previously released Quest games and optimized for the headset’s ‘experimental’ 90Hz support and ability to push higher quality assets and textures thanks to Snapdragon XR2. While this list may evolve as new games come to light, here’s the 10 games we’ve found that are going to benefit from developer optimization:
Apex Construct
Summary:Apex Construct is a single player VR action/adventure. Wield an upgradable bow & shield combination to battle enemy robots while exploring and solving mysteries in a shattered world.
Summary: VR meets the zombie apocalypse! Arizona Sunshine is the original zombie shooter rebuilt entirely for Oculus Quest. Powered by 360° gameplay freedom, the untethered Arizona Sunshine® experience immerses you and up to 3 fellow survivors in a world overrun by zombies more than ever.
Summary: Build Your Incredible Machine – Gravity Lab would like to introduce our new range of gravity modifying appliances! Currently awaiting regulatory approval, we invite you to visit our testing facility and give them a go! We have prepared a selection of test scenarios for you and we are certain you can solve them!
Summary: Ironlights is a VR dueling game with skillful, fluid, slow-motion melee combat. Test your skills in multiplayer battles, or fight to the top of the league in the huge single-player campaign!
Summary: Dispatched into hostile wetlands in your military kayak, utilise weapons and equipment to neutralise enemies. Engage targets lethally or infiltrate unnoticed from the shadows across a full campaign. This is stealth action redefined.
Summary: Let’s dive in and explore the world of fishing or just sit back and relax in a mesmerizing scenery together. Real VR Fishing invites you to the incredible real-world fishing spots to feel the taste of fishing in the Multiplayer mode or to relax and enjoy the stillness in the Single-play mode.
Summary: Red Matter is a story-driven VR puzzle adventure game set during a dystopian Sci-Fi Cold War. Take on the role of Agent Epsilon, an astronaut of the Atlantic Union dispatched to an abandoned Volgravian base on Rhea, one of Saturn’s moons. Your mission: to investigate a shady top secret research project.
Summary: Multi-award winning, smash-hit SUPERHOT VR blurs the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem. The definitive VR action experience. Time moves only when you move.
Summary: From the co-creator of Rick and Morty comes Trover Saves the Universe. Your dogs have been dognapped by a beaked lunatic who stuffed them into his eye holes and is using their life essence to destroy the universe. Only you and Trover can save everything in this bizarre comedy adventure filled with combat, platforming, puzzles, and morally questionable choices
Summary: If you have ever wanted to make things disappear with a snap of your finger, throw fireballs, or telekinesis, then this experience is for you. Now included among many other hand tracking features!
Summary: Not a game, but rather a utility to connect to your computer to watch movies, browse the web or play games on a giant virtual screen or in various theater environments. Developer Guy Godin says Virtual Desktop will allow Quest 2 streams at higher resolutions, a higher maximum bitrate (150 Mbps instead of 100) and supports 60, 72, 80 and 90Hz.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you’re overhauling your Quest game, or know of one that’s getting some graphical bumps to optimize for Quest 2, let us know in the comments below!
nDreams Latest shooter Phantom: Covert Ops arrived back in June with a positive reception from players. The studio followed this up with a free Challenge Pack 1 update and has now released details of what’s set to arrive by the end of the year.
With Oculus Quest 2 set to launch next week, nDreams has just released a quality of life update for Quest and Rift platforms. This includes general fixes, several new achievements, optimisation for the Oculus Quest 2, and rebalancing of the campaign’s scoring system to make the unlockables more attainable.
Then tomorrow will see Phantom: Covert Ops on sale for one day only for Oculus Quest. It’ll cost £20.69 GBP / $26.99 USD / €26.99 EUR during the 24hr sale period.
As for the challenge packs, the second free challenge pack will be released on 22nd October. It’ll feature new cheat-based challenges to test your kayaking and shooting skills on. Then a third and final Challenge Pack will be released before the end of the year. More details regarding the content in both packs will be released soon.
Phantom: Covert Ops had a decent launch with nDreams revealing the title achieved over $1m in gross revenue during the first month on sale. It takes a unique approach to the stealth FPS genre by taking place completely on water, where players have to infiltrate a secret military installation by silently paddling through the waterways on a kayak.
When reviewing the videogameVRFocus commented: “Phantom: Covert Ops offers a decent slice of immersive VR gaming that will be well suited to most gamers.” Going onto say the videogame: “is entertaining and there’s enough to keep you invested for a good few hours. Hopefully, nDreams will build upon this concept rather than letting it sink into the depths.”
As further details regarding Phantom: Covert Ops’ updates are released, VRFocus will let you know.
Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), the stealth action game for Oculus Rift & Quest, got its first ‘Challenge’ pack today, bringing a host of new content to get you back into the seat of the game’s tactical kayak.
The free update lands today on Rift and Quest, bringing with it five new Challenge Maps. Developers nDreams also say the so-dubbed ‘Challenge Pack 1’ also features bug fixes and some quality of life updates too.
The extra content is certainly welcome, because if you’re like us, you probably completed the campaign mode in around four hours and then played a bit around with the mini-game-style Challenges and Free Play mode before hanging up your oars for another title.
Anyway, here’s all of the new Challenges coming to Phantom: Covert Ops:
Loose Cannon brings an infinite ammunition grenade launcher.
Powder Keg makes high-value targets have exploding heads.
Unfathomable introduces a difficult time trial which reverses kayak controls.
Target Hunt sees you paddle around the levels finding and shooting pop-up cut-outs of enemies, like a shooting range on the river.
Broadside gives you the chance to take the SV-54 Assault rifle out to the watery shooting range for some target practice.
If you haven’t played yet, you’d be surprised at how immersive being tied to a military-grade kayak really is in VR. It’s not the brainiest of games out there, but shooting, paddling sneakily through shadowy waterways, and liberally exploding baddies was definitely a fun and well-crafted enough experience to earn a respectable [7/10] in our review.
Considering this is only Challenge Pack 1, we’re expecting a few more in the pipeline from nDreams. How many packs the studio has planned, we’re still not sure, but if they sound as fun as these (minus the reverse time trial because we’re not sadists), then we should be looking forward to plenty of mini-game content on the horizon.
Phantom: Covert Ops, the latest Oculus exclusive game, has reached the $1 million revenue mark “a few weeks” after launch, according to developer nDreams. The studio has also teased post-launch content planned for the game and dropped hints of brand new VR projects in the works.
“We did it! Phantom: Covert Ops has smashed $1m in gross revenue within the first few weeks from launch. I think it’s a sign of how far VR has come in the last few years, and shows that it is now a very viable, commercial and exciting space to be in,” he said.
At $30 per game, $1 million in revenue would translate to 33,333 units sold so in a month or less. A good start, but probably not yet enough to break even on the game’s production costs.
Phantom: Covert Ops appears to be faring better with users than its critical reception would have suggested. While the game scored an average of 75% from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic, user reviews currently stand at 90% on Quest and 86% on Rift.
Between the two platforms, it looks like the game has sold much better on Quest than Rift, at least as much as can be inferred by the number of reviews; Phantom: Covert Ops has been reviewed 637 on Quest and 81 times on Rift. Indeed, O’Luanaigh seems quiet happy with the standalone version of the game.
“We’ve been particularly delighted with the Quest version of the game. The headset is phenomenal, but I’ve been blown away with how hard the team have pushed it technically and what we managed to achieve,” he said.
While the Quest version may be impressive compared to other games on the headset, some Rift users assert that it came at the cost of underwhelming graphics on the Rift version of the game, highlighting the challenge of maximizing the potential of two headsets with vastly different levels of computing horsepower.
Phantom: Covert Ops offers cross-buy, meaning that purchasing either version also unlocks the game on the other headsets. That gives Quest players the option of playing with the headset’s onboard processor or plugging into a capable computer to play the PC VR version of the game with enhanced graphics.
Post Launch Content Coming to Phantom: Covert Ops
Image courtesy nDreams
nDreams also teased more content coming to Phantom: Covert Ops. “[…] this is only the beginning… We’ve got some exciting plans for post-launch content which we’ll be announcing more on very soon!” the studio wrote in a post on its website.
Exactly what that content will look like isn’t clear just yet, but there’s a few obvious forms it could take. For one, the game’s ‘Challenge’ missions are short mini-games which challenge the player’s aim, maneuvering abilities, and more. Players are scored on each challenge and ranked on a global leaderboard. It would be relatively easy to add more challenges with an update to the game.
Less likely, but still possible, would be to add additional content to the game’s short four hour campaign. Phantom: Covert Ops is structured in a way that sees players traversing around different areas of a single large map; building more missions around the same space without needing to create a brand new environment seems like it could be an efficient approach to creating more content for the game.
nDreams Teases New VR Games
It sounds like the studio has plans well beyond Phantom: Covert Ops. As a studio with 110 people that’s now “hiring rapidly,” according to O’Luanaigh, nDreams is very large compared to most VR game studios. All of those people have to be working on something…
“I wish I could share a little something on some of the exciting new VR projects that we’re currently working on, but for now all I can say is we’ll likely have a couple of big announcements between now and the end of the year,” he said. “[…] we’re investing an increasing amount in R&D as we explore new mechanics and VR gameplay, and come up with new original VR concepts and prototypes.”
That’s good news, as one of the things we liked most about Phantom: Covert Ops was its totally unique locomotion concept which has the player gliding around in a kayak throughout the course of the game. The whole industry will benefit if nDreams continues to explore innovative movement and game structures in their future VR titles.
One of the big virtual reality (VR) releases of the summer was nDreams’ Phantom: Covert Ops, exclusive to Oculus Quest and Rift. That happened a month ago and now the studio has announced that the title has achieved over $1m in gross revenue in that short time.
Patrick O’Luanaigh, CEO of nDreams made that announcement, saying: “We did it! Phantom: Covert Ops has smashed $1m in gross revenue within the first few weeks from launch. I think it’s a sign of how far VR has come in the last few years, and shows that it is now a very viable, commercial and exciting space to be in.”
He didn’t go into details regarding how that figure split down between the two headsets but as Facebook has been keen on announcing software sales figures for Oculus Quest, its likely the standalone headset played a major part.
O’Luanaigh did go onto mention: “We’ve been particularly delighted with the Quest version of the game. The headset is phenomenal, but I’ve been blown away with how hard the team have pushed it technically and what we managed to achieve.”
Phantom: Covert Ops is a stealth shooter which takes place entirely on water, with players infiltrating a secret base using a kayak. This means players have to paddle their way past guards or kill them depending on the approach they wish to take, armed with an assortment of weapons.
Giving Phantom: Covert Ops a four-star review, VRFocus found that: “Phantom: Covert Ops offers a decent slice of immersive VR gaming that will be well suited to most gamers.” Going onto say the videogame: “is entertaining and there’s enough to keep you invested for a good few hours. Hopefully, nDreams will build upon this concept rather than letting it sink into the depths.”
By the sounds of it, nDreams will be doing just that. “We also intend to continue to support Phantom which, as you can probably tell, is an IP that we’re really proud of, and as a company we’re hiring rapidly, whilst also continuing to look for new opportunities and partnerships,” states the CEO. Plus the studio has some big announcements planned for later in the year regarding new projects.
As further updates are released, VRFocus will let you know.
Phantom: Covert Ops seems to have paddled its way to success, according to the CEO of developer nDreams.
In a tweet earlier this week, Patrick O’Luanaigh noted that he was “really pleased with the reaction and sales of Phantom so far. And incredibly proud to have hit #1 on both Quest and Rift.” Phantom was developed with the help of Oculus Studios, the publishing arm of Facebook’s VR team.
O’Luanaigh didn’t reveal sales statistics for the game, but Phantom has amassed over 500 reviews on the Quest store, which is a pretty encouraging sign.
And it’s well deserved, too; we think Phantom is a brilliant bit of VR sneaking. In the game, you play as an elite agent tasked with dismantling a Cold War-era Russian Naval base over the course of a single night by paddling through the surrounding waters in a kayak. Though the game’s mechanics are on the simplistic side, its VR-first design puts immersion right at its heart.
We said the game established solid footing for a stealth franchise for VR to call its own, so hopefully, we’ll be seeing more in the future.
“Far-fetched as it may be, Phantom’s fantastically immersive design makes for a VR mission well worth accepting, even if its campaign is shorter and simpler than hoped for,” we wrote. “But what it lacks in gameplay complexity, it often makes up for in its giddy role-playing, going a step beyond many other VR games to convince you that you’re really in its (admittedly daft) world. A deeper sequel with more advanced gameplay would elevate the series to essential status, but Phantom already navigates the rough waters of VR stealth better than most.”
What would you want to see in a Phantom: Covert Ops sequel? Let us know in the comments below!
