Since it keeps coming up, I should mention the recent single source rumor that Roblox is coming to Meta Quest this year. This one:
Editor Alex Heath launched The Verge’s Command Line paid subscription newsletter last week with a mention of “hearing that Roblox is planning to come to Quest in the back half of this year.” That timing could line up with release of Quest 3 and what’s expected to be a major jump in on-board graphics power, though there’s no indications either way precisely which Quest headsets could see support for Roblox.
That's certainly possible. And from writing my book, my impression is yes, Roblox is working on some kind of VR support in the future. But that doesn't necessarily mean this year, and I see more signs that that won't happen in 2023, at least not in some mass market launch:
For one, checking Roblox's job board today, I don't see a single mention of "VR". But a holiday 2023 launch would require a pretty significant team to handle Quest support, which the company would need to be building out now.
For another, Roblox is focused on mass market, cross-platform experiences. So why would they devote resources to serving a Quest 2 install base of about 20 million? (Versus the billions on smartphones and the hundreds of millions on consoles and PCs.) A costly move like that would benefit Meta and its floundering VR line far more than it would Roblox.
In the likeliest scenario where Roblox comes to the Quest this year, it'll be an early beta soft launch sort of an affair, a testing of the waters. If there's surprising uptake, they can expand on that organic growth. If no uptake, they can step back and declare it a failed experiment. (At least that's what I'd advise.)
Just my take at the moment. I definitely wouldn't assume it's a fait accompli like my brother in Christ below.
Video link hat tip: Adeon!
I guess we will see. Just for the fun of playing devil's advocate:
- "to come to Quest" could mean a lot of things, including that you can download the app in the Oculus Store for Rift and Quest (and Rift) is supported only via Oculus Link. And/or that standalone Quest 3 is supported but not Quest 1 nor Quest 2 nor Quest Pro.
- If Quest is only supported via Oculus Link, Roblox might not need to hire anyone. If they want to port to standalone Quest devices, they might need more software engineers with experience in "development in mobile ecosystem including openGL ES" and "familiarity of mobile compute devices". You probably guessed it, these are quotes from a job opening at Roblox: https://jobs.roblox.com/careers?pid=137452230477
- If they want to improve their VR support, they might need someone to work on controlling avatars "through natural movement that reacts to the environment and integrates with Roblox's unique physics engine." Yep, that's another quote from a job opening at Roblox: https://jobs.roblox.com/careers?pid=137452238197
Why would Roblox bother to support Quest?
- First, a counter-question: why did they bother to include half-assed support for VR on PC? Maybe to have a foot in the door of VR; maybe to be hip and attract new employees; maybe as a side project for bored engineers; maybe to keep players who buy a VR headset. Many of the same reasons appear to apply to Quest support.
- I guess Roblox faces two main problems: growth in their (saturated?) core market has slowed in 2022 and players leave as they grow up. Support for more VR devices can address both issues. Yes, it's a small market, but once your core market is saturated, any further growth requires more investments for smaller returns.
- Also, Meta might pay Roblox enough money to make Quest support worthwhile. Why would Meta do that? Because they know very well how bad Horizon Worlds is doing (compared to VRChat and Rec Room, which are not even doing well for the mass market that Meta targets!) and they might have decided to rather pay Roblox and Microsoft to bring their social apps to VR instead of wasting even more money on Horizon Worlds. (And that would be consistent with Facebook Gaming integrating Crayta instead of Horizon Worlds.)
But again, we will probably see soon enough.
Posted by: Martin K. | Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 06:13 AM