Facebook Moving Oculus to Support Industry Standard OpenXR

I usually blog any Facebook/Oculus news with this irresistible pic of Zuckerberg striding like a dictator through the opiated masses in VR, but I'll give him some credit in this case:

Facebook says new features “will be delivered via OpenXR extensions” starting with v31, echoing language release by Valve last year regarding new features on SteamVR being connected to OpenXR as well...

Facebook “will be unable to provide access to Oculus Native Mobile and PC APIs but will allow existing applications to continue to use them” and “can provide recommendations for migration of existing applications to OpenXR via guides but are unable to assist with creation of new applications with Oculus Native and PC APIs.”

Broad industry support for OpenXR from Facebook and other major VR players like Valve, Microsoft and HTC — as well as game engines from companies like Unity and Epic Games — should make it easier for developers to make VR apps that run on a wide range of hardware.

More analysis from Ian Hamilton of UploadVR here. This news via reader Joey1058, who says, "Yeah, ol' Zuck has something up his sleeve." I'm unconvinced Facebook itself has the corporate DNA to build a successful metaverse (more on that soon), but if one of the other companies signed on to using OpenXR does succeed, Facebook's move will be one key reason it did.

Pictured: Watch: Oculus Quest Demo Virtually Recreates Developer's Apartment At 1:1 Scale, Adds Interactive Surfaces.

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[Adeon Writer]

Facebook also announced that they are done with Oculus exclusive games.