Camouflaj & Armature Studio acquired by Meta. This is significant for a few reasons: 1) Most importantly...Meta's full-throated bet on the #metaverse as the future of the company has invited loads of skepticism and disdain. They have never shown a desire or talent for game development - but rather, have always depended upon other developers to publish games on their platform (see Zynga, Wooga, PopCap Games, etc.). There is a huge gap there...games are of obvious importance to the metaverse...yet Meta directly controls very little of that content. 2) This comes a few months after their acquisition of Unit 2 Games (a Meta studio) - the house behind #Crayta (a Roblox-style development platform). You can start to see a pattern here. 3) As part of the deal, Camouflaj's #IronMan VR will now be available on the #Quest2 (was previously only available on Sony PlayStation's #PSVR). 4) Armature is primarily a game porter...something that will definitely come in handy, assuming that Meta is seeking to get more/better VR experiences built for their metaverse. Essentially, Meta will be funding the porting of games to their platform...they are now a game publisher in a way, in addition to a platform. Speculating on what's next...I think we see a flurry of deals to bring big IP to Quest (as opposed to them buying one of the big 3 publishers rumored to be on the market: Ubisoft, Electronic Arts (EA), and Warner Bros. Games). Either way - they absolutely need the content - not just to sell new hardware - but to re-engage lapsed Quest users as well. Meta needs games if they are to 'win the metaverse.' Real games. A LOT of real games. #VideoGames #GameDevelopment #GamesIndustry #MergersAndAcquisitions #Facebook #Oculus #VirtualReality #VR #AugmentedReality #AR #FifteenHundredDollars???
Richie Pearce
2 年
Resident Evil 4 VR was excellent, and alongside titles such a Red Matter, leagues ahead of what else is on offer. Quest desperately needs more quality IPs to take it beyond the gimmick. So this news is very exciting. Personally, I'm still hoping to see more high budget PC VR titles which the quest has opened up. HL:Alyx is incredible, and not just for a VR title. Valve could afford to lose on it, I get it, but it's a tantalising glimpse into what could be possible in the hopefully not too distant future.
CTO, Bidscape
2 年VR in general needs real games. And the efforts to take exclusives as a platform strategy from consoles to VR is probably a huge mistake. "Game consoles" as a worthwhile investment was a proven concept by the time of SEGA, let alone the current ecosystem. "VR headsets" are not, and have a serious problem with justifying their ROI given the limited content. The most interesting part of Connect to me was their partnerships for asset libraries. My guess would be the dollars Meta spends further up the chain to improve VR development ecosystems and to encourage development for VR in the first place will take their platform a lot further than further fragmenting VR. And perhaps most importantly, they need to quickly move into leadership in envisioning and evangelizing VR experiences that don't simply replicate real world experiences, but offer things impossible outside VR. If game talent acquisitions are being integrated to accomplish that across the whole company vs simply siloed studios (which I very much doubt), then this was money well spent. Meta's envisioned VR future is - so far - the equivalent of watching virtual paint dry.