The company claims content sales topped $5 million in the first two weeks.
Facebook’s Oculus Quest seems to be hitting a mark with VR fans all over the globe. Since the 6DOF headsets release back in May, major sites such as Amazon and Newegg are seeing shipping dates backed up to 2 to 3 weeks. On top of that, user reviews have so far been overwhelmingly positive, save for a few users frustrated by Oculus’ strict content curation system.
Facebook’s victories don’t end there, however. Though the company hasn’t released any official numbers, Facebook’s vice president of VR and AR, Andrew Bosworth, told an audience during CodeCon that the standalone headset had over $5 million in content sales during its first two weeks on the market.
UX Researcher, Nick Dauchot talked with VRScout earlier in the month about the importance of design, stating, “when the design is done right, the market follows.”
Well it appears as though the market is indeed following.
Bosworth didn’t give a complete breakdown of what VR apps are leading those sales, but it’s a good bet that established titles such as Beat Saber, Superhot VR, and Robo Recall: Unplugged account for a significant portion of those content sales seeing as they are listed as Top Sellers in the Oculus Quest store. Also included in that list of Top Sellers are experiences such as Vader Immortal: A Star War VR Story – Episode I, Wander, and Virtual Desktop.
One VR/AR analyst did some quick math based on Bosworth’s claims and determined that Quest owners most likely purchased two VR titles each per headset, averaging a total of $50 per owner.
In an interview with GameDaily at E3 2019, Jason Rubin, Facebook Vice President of Special Gaming Strategies, doubled-down on the companies commitment to providing consumers with a VR experience that is reliable, affordable, and reasonable quality; which sometimes means a stricter response to content curation.
“It’s the right thing to do for consumers,” states Rubin in defense of Oculus’ strict content curation, which has recently been criticized as an “anti-consumer” tactic. “It’s also—and this is the hardest thing for people to understand—the right thing to do for developers, because what we’re seeing with this device is console-like usage. That’s hours of usage that you would have on a console. And we’re also seeing buying habits that you would see on a console. And I believe that that is largely because everything’s good. And so, every time something boils up, ask yourself, was this a high-quality thing, or was it in other ways detrimental to the ecosystem, harming the consumer, or harming the developer ecosystem? Not an easy business to be in, but that’s the answer.”
Up next for Facebook is their Oculus Connect 6 event in September, where the company is teasing something huge for both VR and AR.
“The future we’ve all been working towards start here. It’s our moment to think bigger, build smarter, and realize the true potential of what we’ve created together. This year, we hope you’ll join us to begin a new chapter of virtual and augmented reality.”
Could this be teasing the reveal of the companies long-rumored AR headset? Or perhaps the recent rumors regarding a cross-platform metaverse are true and Facebook is prepping the launch of an exciting new social experience. Whatever the case, it appears as though Facebook’s dream of mainstream VR is well underway with the initial success of the Oculus Quest.
Featured Image Credit: Amy Osborne—AFP/Getty Images
