According to Meta, Quest 2's content has yet to reach its full potential in terms of visual quality and game complexity. A hint at upcoming VR games?
GDC 2023 is currently in full swing and Meta is present at the world's largest developer conference with a large booth, demo rooms and talks to promote Meta Quest and virtual reality.
Yesterday, in one of those talks, Director of Content Ecosystem Chris Pruett revealed that 150 new third-party titles are in development for Meta Quest 2.
According to Road to VR, which was present at the talk, Pruett said he doesn't think we're "anywhere close to the upper-bound for visual quality and game complexity on Quest 2."
Untapped potential
According to Pruett, this is "partially because we have some awesome tech that most of you aren’t using yet".
Pruett is likely referring to the company's new "Application Spacewarp" (AppSW) rendering technology, which internal tests have shown can unlock up to 70 percent more processing power for developers.
One downside to this technology is that VR games have to be optimized for it. Otherwise, artifacts may cloud the visual impression. According to the studio that developed the graphically impressive Red Matter 2, AppSW is no silver bullet.
However, the game was not developed with AppSW in mind. Meta's upcoming VR games may rely more heavily on this rendering technology. After all, their development is supported or funded by Meta.
Meta Quest 2 still has a long way to go
Meta's Oculus Studios is also likely working on new, unannounced VR games as well. For Meta Quest 2 and the upcoming Meta Quest 3.
Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth recently said that Meta Quest 2 will "continue to be in-market a good while longer" which presumably means Meta Quest 3 won't replace it (yet). This makes sense: Meta Quest 2 already has an installed base of several million devices, which Meta will continue to support. Another factor in such a decision could be that Meta Quest 3 will be more expensive than Meta Quest 2.
As the lifespan of the device increases, so does the need to get the most out of the aging hardware. Especially with Meta Quest 3 in mind, which reportedly will be at least twice as powerful thanks to a brand new chip.