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thelivinglegend0's avatar
thelivinglegend0
Member
5 months ago

VR vs Mobile

Hey all, I wanted to make this post to gather opinions and start a discussion about the state of Meta Horizon Worlds and where it’s headed as a platform.

I wanted to start by saying that I’ve always loved the idea of VR. Being fully immersed in a world where you can do things that you can’t do in a typical 2-D flat screen experience is one of the most amazing things I think anybody can experience.

I still remember when I first got my Oculus and how amazed and fully convinced that this device would be one of the biggest revolutions in gaming and social interaction whenever more people experienced it.

There has been a ton of progress made in VR, and specifically Meta Horizon Worlds, but there’s still a long way to go before this platform reaches its full potential.

Now that we’re done with that intro, I wanted to get to the real meat of this conversation. I personally think this push for Meta Horizon Worlds to be a mobile platform is a huge mistake, and that this focus on mobile is causing resources to be diverted away from VR. Meta should focus on helping creators create the best VR experiences possible. The Desktop editor is a huge first step in making that happen, but there are a lot of things that can be improved such as making tutorials for UI functionality for VR, making basic inventory scripts for VR ( there is currently a public asset by meta that creates an inventory for you but it doesn’t work for VR ) etc. 

The easier it is for creators to make VR games, the more quality content there will be for the platform, and the more likely it is to grow. The edge that this platform has is being one of the only VR gaming platforms. Roblox already has Meta beat in having a Mobile gaming platform; that race is over.

This is just my opinion. What does everyone else think?

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4 Replies

  • SyBorgVR's avatar
    SyBorgVR
    Partner
    5 months ago

    I agree with your sentiments. Unfortunately Meta is a business and there are billions of mobile devices vs. a few million VR headsets. I assume this is the reason for the mobile push. The #1 reason I fell in love with Horizon Worlds was the in-headset VR creation tools. Use VR to create VR experiences. Not only was game play immersive, so was the creation process. I don't think VR will be abandoned, but all the latest and greatest stuff is tailored to desktop creation and mobile. Which IMO downgrades my reasons for the headset. Which makes me sad 😔 

  • KevinJardine's avatar
    KevinJardine
    Start Partner
    5 months ago

    I love VR too, which is why I think Meta's plan to use Horizon World's mobile support to attract a potentially much larger audience is a brilliant strategy. Most Horizon Worlds experiences work for both mobile and VR and even the pure mobile games bring a larger audience to Horizon Worlds as a whole. I have a large group of friends who have never tried a VR headset and have previously had no interest in doing so but do play mobile games. Horizon Worlds now gives me a whole new way to promote VR-compatible games and in some cases I am getting opportunities to have a substantial talk about VR that I've never had before.

  • SeeingBlue's avatar
    SeeingBlue
    Mentor
    5 months ago

    I just don't think VR was as widely adopted as Meta needed to justify the money they've spent. If we want to keep the platform alive and have a future then they needed to pivot to a larger player base and compete with existing UGC platforms. Of course, this is just my personal opinion.

  • SethGIB's avatar
    SethGIB
    Meta Employee
    5 months ago

    I agree, especially with the part about other platforms. Roblox and Fornite both have better and more widely adopted mobile gaming platforms, as well as having much better toolchains. The lack of features & workflows in the Desktop Editor is a significant roadblock to creating competitive mobile experiences, and as you mentioned, is also a drain on resources which could be better leveraged towards supporting existing tools and creating/supporting lower overhead tools such as exporters from existing tools (e.g Unity, Unreal, etc) vs. trying to reinvent the wheel and create a whole new toolchain.

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