VR is central to the future of the company. VR/AR is priority 1 for Facebook and something they won't hesitate to drop tens of billions into.
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Facebook has acquired Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath, Marvel Powers United VR, Ripcoil etc)
- Thread starter modiz
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Ever since they acquired the Beat Saber dev I have expected Sanzaru and Ready At Dawn to become Oculus studios. Maybe that's why Insomniac finally joined Sony in spite of always talking about independence, they only had those paths forward. Going to be very interesting seeing Oculus going forward. They have been taking VR a lot more seriously than anyone else.
Only thing I wished is that we didn't have to use a third-party app to play games from the oculus launcher. Especially when performance can be worst compared to playing natively on oculus headsets.
I'm waiting for the day that Ready at Dawn announce that they've been acquired by Facebook/Oculus Studios. They've gotta be right at the top of their list.
I guess annoyed is more apt. As a game even on its own merits Sly 4 was mediocre at best. The company's other works like the DS sonic boom games didn't exactly grab me either.
They did great with Asgards Wrath so this isn't much of a suprise, wish em the best and a smooth transition :D
I have to admit I haven't read up on them. Is Oculus actually its own separate platform? So the games won't be playable on PC?
Yeah. That's always been pretty shitty but at least they aren't going out of their way to block it (I believe they attempted to do so early on).'
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yep. https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/24/...ves-exclusive-games-drm-block-htc-vive-revive
Oculus has 3 currently supported headsets. Rift S, Quest, and Oculus Go. Rift S is a PC headset while the others are standalones. Medal of Honor is exclusive to the PC Oculus Store, however the Quest can access this store via a link cable if you have the PC to handle the games as well.
I can't imagine that Ready at Dawn isn't already in some talks with Facebook about becoming a permanent part of the Oculus team. I can't imagine Sony raising much of a fuss about it either, since they already grabbed Insomniac, who have been a far, far more valuable partner to them than RAD ever was.
It's a seperate platform like Steam. Runs on PC or on the Oculus Quest.
I figured this would've already happened given the reception to Asgard's Wrath.
Oculus Rift and Quest are actually two separate platforms. Rift is the PC one and has its own runtime and store just like Steam. Quest is the mobile platform with its own store and ports.
I mean, nothing was forcing Insomniac to sell themselves was there? I guess Sony could've said "either we acquire you now or we never work with you again" but that seems really unlikely given how well Spider-Man went.
Oculus Rift and Quest are actually two separate platforms. Rift is the PC one and has its own runtime and store just like Steam. Quest is the mobile platform with its own store and ports.
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RAD have been amazing, monumental even, since they've pioneered a future-proof locomotion system and practically invented a new game genre.
I hope that the Echo IP is still going strong in 10 years.
Oculus is PC VR gaming (Rift) and Oculus Quest specific gaming.
The Oculus Store is a PC storefront/launcher that Oculus publish their own games on, as well as most third party stuff. Oculus Rift users can play games from any PC VR launcher though. Their first party stuff just goes on the Oculus Store though. As an Oculus user I buy 95% of my stuff on the Oculus store (it's just easy and streamlined) and then occasionally bits from Steam if they're cheaper or only available there (like Half-Life Alyx). And then the odd bedroom made experimental thing that I just download off some dumb website.
This makes a lot of sense on both fronts.
Sanzaru proved they can make a great game with Asgard's Wrath, and I think that was one of the titles that proved Facebook is actually capable of allowing a developer the time & resources needed to make an AAA game.
The relationship showed it worked. Now they put a ring on it.
Sanzaru proved they can make a great game with Asgard's Wrath, and I think that was one of the titles that proved Facebook is actually capable of allowing a developer the time & resources needed to make an AAA game.
The relationship showed it worked. Now they put a ring on it.
Not too suprising they've been working on the platform for the last few years and they put out a VR hit with Asgard's Wrath. Hope the Facebook money allows them to make interesting expereinces
Kind of......like you can play their games on PC, they have their own storefront like any other major publisher on PC but the difference is you can only play those games using one of their headsets. Fortunately there is a easy workaround with revive but playing natively through launcher would be better than using another app.
Could have sworn they tried a second time but ultimately gave up on it.
That's not too bad then. Obviously you would need to buy the required gear, but as long as it's on the same platform I don't see the problem with having to use different storefronts.
I meant platform as in the different operating systems or consoles. I don't really consider storefronts to be platforms.
Yeah, Lone Echo has been tremendous for them and for VR as a format. Facebook would be nuts to let someone else come in and take them away from their platform.
Also, Sly 5 was never going to happen with or without Sanzaru. Despite Thieves in Time doing rather well, Sony clearly does not give a crap about the IP and seems content with having Ratchet & Clank and Astro Bot fill their cutesy platformer needs.
My only concern is they'll be relegated to Quest content. Stuff like Asguards Wrath can't exist on Quest without being cut down, and I'd doubt even a next gen Quest could handle something like that. Every Quest focused VR game has been poor compared to PC focused ones.
Now that sounds kind of counterproductive when it comes to making VR mainstream. I get why they're doing it, but still...
While Quest has taken the VR world by storm, I wouldn't really be too concerned about Facebook putting all their chips down on that being the best path forward. PCVR is still the best experience possible for the format, and it's games like Asgard's Wrath that show why.
It did alright (500k I think?) but Sony delaying it right around the time the PS4 was announced probably killed any other momentum it had.
This is pretty disappointing. Now Sly will stay dead forever. Better hope the next Ratchet game is good as he's the last of the PS2 mascots we're likely to see. Damn.
Asguards Wrath is entirely owned by Oculus. Regardless of what happened with this buyout, it had as much chance of going to PSVR as Atrobot had to going to Oculus.
That game was pretty behind schedule in development... and Sony quickly cut ties with them right after sly was finished... same with the PS allstars dev. ...
I just don't think sony cares about sly that much, I also sensed that they weren't exactly pleased with sanzaru .
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They are just trying to heavy capitalize profits as much as possible. You can still buy the games off Oculus store and play them through revive so they are still getting money, but they want you to buy a headset along with that.
Revive is pretty great for what it is but you'll likely have to adjust you're saying since likely you'll have a headset that can allow higher resolution and framerate than say the rift s. At most I'd set framerate to 80 and lower Supersampling accordingly.
