The current flood of VR games is crazy, and it's not all good for the industry
There is currently a flood of new VR games, the likes of which virtual reality has never seen before. But that's not all good.
2023 was an excellent year for VR games, and 2024 will even surpass it in terms of quality and especially quantity.
Since October, the number of releases has increased so much that even we are struggling to keep up. Our inboxes are overflowing with announcements of new VR games and updates to existing titles. At times, it feels like developers have been waiting two years or more to release their products at the same time.
The timing is no coincidence: The low-cost Meta Quest 3S was released in mid-October, and VR studios are naturally hoping for a bumper holiday season. Of course, it would be foolish not to take advantage of this unique opportunity.
Dissatisfaction with Meta's store
There are currently rumors that game sales are not as strong as some established VR studios had hoped for with the launch of Quest 3S. Generally, two factors are being cited: the merging of the App Lab and the Quest Store, which has eliminated curation, and Meta's recommendation system, which is said to prioritize Horizon Worlds content over third-party titles that studios have been working on for years. Both of these factors could have led to lower visibility in the Horizon Store and therefore lower sales.
We hear you on this. Helping devs find customers AND monetize is mission critical for us. First key step: grow the total audience. Quest 3S is already doing that, so far it's bringing in the highest share of new-to-Quest users (vs upgraders) since Quest 2. https://t.co/SkRSF4dhLc
- Mark Rabkin (@mrabkin) October 26, 2024
This is a fair criticism. The fact that the Horizon Store is no longer curated definitely makes it harder to separate the wheat from the chaff. And while the app recommendations in the VR version of the Horizon Store work fine for me, the redesigned mobile app with its focus on Horizon Worlds and avatars is, in my opinion, a disaster. Meta has since responded to the criticism and promised improvements to the Horizon Store.
Another possible factor for the alleged decline in sales could be that Meta is currently throwing so many high-quality VR games at new customers for free that they have no reason to buy new VR games, which of course hurts the ecosystem.
A gold rush and its consequences
The situation is complex, and hopefully a clearer picture will emerge early next year when Meta publishes quarterly VR sales figures and the mood among studios becomes clearer.
But the fact is that there are more VR games than ever vying for users' attention, and the huge selection and flood of new titles is making it increasingly difficult for individual products to get the attention they deserve. The draught of content that Meta Quest was experiencing until a year and a half ago is over and has turned into the opposite: a competition for visibility in the store.
Are you interested in VR and AR? Then follow us on Instagram or Facebook or share your experiences in the comments. For feedback, topic suggestions or other ideas, please send us an email to hallo@mixed.de or hop on our Discord server.
Note: Links to online stores in articles can be so-called affiliate links. If you buy through this link, MIXED receives a commission from the provider. For you the price does not change.
