Meta’s Survival Depends on More VR Games

It appears for Meta to achieve its goal of creating its own Metaverse, the company must have high-quality VR games. Nevertheless, Meta may not fully recognize the significance of good VR games.

Meta’s Quest for the iPhone Moment

To achieve its goal, Facebook needed to shift from being just a community to becoming a platform. This ultimately created an entirely new industry. In 2014, Zuckerberg laid the foundation for this by acquiring Oculus and investing billions in virtual reality.

On this day in 2014: Facebook buys virtual reality startup Oculus VR, ultimately paying about $3 billion. pic.twitter.com/Do8gSJGUbt

— Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) March 25, 2017

In 2021, Facebook rebranded itself as Meta and shifted its focus to building the Metaverse. With the Quest VR headsets, Meta now possesses the hardware, ecosystem, and an entirely new medium that could potentially lead to its “iPhone moment.”

However, success in the future will depend not only on the hardware but also on the software offerings. The easiest way to reach people’s living rooms is through entertainment. Hence, Meta needs to invest in compelling VR games and applications to attract users to its platform.

Meta’s Metaverse is Hindering the Growth of VR

Meta’s ambitious vision for the Metaverse has not been well-received. Promoting virtual reality is challenging. Additionally, VR marketing has been ineffective, and Meta has struggled with the rollout of its Horizon Worlds platform. The negative publicity and marketing missteps have made the Metaverse prototype seem like a joke. Even Meta employees have been reluctant to use the platform, which does not bode well for potential users. The low number of users has prompted Meta to allow teenagers into the platform, which is risky. As it stands, Horizon Worlds is not compelling enough to compete with established platforms like Fortnite and Roblox.

VR Gaming: Meta’s Path to Success?”

For Meta to achieve its dream of building a successful metaverse, VR gaming is essential. Compelling applications are crucial to pique people’s interest in hardware. Gamers, typically more receptive to emerging technologies like VR, are ideal targets.

Meta must go beyond acquiring and leaving VR game developers idle to achieve this goal. Instead, the company should prioritize cultivating an independent and creative VR developer community. The development of more quality VR games will encourage innovation. In turn, it could inspire developers to explore new use cases for VR, potentially leading to exciting breakthroughs.

The featured image is from pcgame.com