Meta recently bought three virtual reality (VR) gaming studios as an addition to their Oculus Studios, which was acquired in 2014 for 2 billion USD by Meta before they rebranded. The announcement was made through the Meta Connect developer conference on October 11.
The studios that joined Meta’s VR game development are:
“Camouflaj” created Iron Man VR back in 202 for Playstation.
“Twisted Pixel” made the horror VR game Wilson’s Heart in 2017.
“Armature Studio” made the port of the horror game Resident Evil 4 on Meta Quest 2.
The company announced Iron Man VR by Camouflaj for Quest 2 VR headset will be released on November 3, but there are no new projects from the other two developer teams. In an official blog, Meta said, “It’ll be a while before we can reveal what they’re working on, but we’re excited to continue working with and supporting these developers as they bring ambitious and forward-thinking games to VR.”
During the event, the company also announced that it had spent around 1.5 billion USD on games and apps in the quest store, and about one-third of all titles on the quest store has made at least 1 million USD in revenue.
The famous deduction game Among Us also shows a VR version on November 10. Other titles like Population: One is getting a sandbox mode, and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution is releasing December 1.
Meta have already been acquiring VR studios for its Metaverse VR program; some of the studios now working under them are Unit 2 Games, Within, Downpour Interactive, Beat Games, Ready at Dawn, Sanzaru Games and BigBox VR. The acquisition of this many VR studios also led the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to step in and sue Meta in July 2022, telling them to halt its VR studio acquisition spree.
The move by US FTC was taken under the allegations that the deals will create less competition in the market, effectively creating a monopoly for Meta in the VR space. Meta has disagreed with the statement by the FTC.
