In VR, the music game “Rhythm Lightsaber” is currently the best VR game.
Editor’s note: This article comes from “Interface Technology” , Reporter | Peng new.
Oculus, a Facebook-owned virtual reality (VR) wearable device company, said today that it has acquired Beat Games, the developer of the VR game “Beat Saber,” to expand virtual reality technology and serve a wider range of services. Player.
In the field of VR, the music game “Rhythm Lightsaber” has accumulated more than 20,000 reviews on the Steam platform, of which more than 92% are positive reviews, and once became the best rated game on the entire Steam platform. According to media reports, “Rhythm Lightsaber” is also the first VR game to reach 1 million sales.
Beat Games has also made a name for itself with the success of Rhythm lightsaber. This independent game studio was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Prague, the Czech capital. It was originally composed of three people: Jan Ilavsky, Vladimir Hrincar and musician Jaroslav Beck. It has now expanded into a small team of 10 people. “Rhythm lightsaber” development began in 2016, and landed on Steam as an early access experience in May 2018.
According to Jaroslav Beck, one of the founders of Beat Games, “Rhythm Lightsaber” not only drives the sales of VR headsets, but also promotes the design of headsets. This is part of the reason that Beat Games and Oculus have reached a close relationship, because Oculus has used Rhythm lightsaber as a testing tool for testing VR headset tracking systems to ensure that the new device can handle most of the advanced mode of the game.
The acquisition of Beat Games also shows Facebook’s desire for content. Mike Verdu, Oculus’ head of VR content, said: “Rhythm lightsaber has achieved excellent results, but the Facebook and Beat Games teams know that they can achieve more in the fields of virtual reality, games and music.” p>
He also promised that “Rhythm Lightsaber” will not become the exclusive Oculus platform because of the acquisition. The game will continue to be updated on the already released platforms.
Facebook acquired Oculus for $ 2 billion in 2014, and has since invested heavily in VR business. Successive games such as Star Wars, Rhythm Lightsaber, and Medal of Honor have been introduced.
Currently on VR devices, Oculus ’product line is relatively clear and low.The mid-to-high third-tier product lines are Oculus Go, Quest, and Rift S. Rhythm Lightsaber is available on Quest and Rift S.
At this year’s VR developer conference Oculus Connect, Facebook announced that it has reached a new milestone-total consumer spending on the Oculus Store has exceeded $ 100 million, of which Oculus Quest accounts for 20%. In order to promote Oculus’ VR social experience, Facebook’s social VR world “Facebook Horizon” is expected to be launched in 2020.
It is worth mentioning that Beat Games is the guest of Oculus Connect this time, and “Rhythm Lightsaber” is also a game highlighted by Facebook, becoming a model for the success of VR developers.
However, 2019 is still a turbulent year for Oculus. Because sales of VR equipment are difficult to open up, there are often rumors that Facebook is about to abandon the VR business. For now, Facebook is still very determined to invest in VR.
In the middle of this month, Oculus’s chief technology officer John Carmack announced his resignation and announced the news on Facebook today, saying that he plans to focus time on artificial intelligence and will continue to stay on Oculus Consult a CTO position. However, the well-known game producer who developed Quake and Doom has publicly stated that he is really dissatisfied with the progress made in VR.
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