While Virtual Reality is yet to make a major impact in the gaming industry with hit games, Facebook has acquired the studio behind one of the biggest titles of the platform. The social networking giant just announced the acquisition of Beat Games, which is the game studio behind the rhythm game Beat Saber.
As of now, the terms of the deal have not been disclosed by the company. It is said that Beat Games will join Oculus Studios but still operate independently at its headquarters in Prague. This will help Oculus get more content for its virtual reality headsets.
Initially, Oculus has been producing in-house content for its VR headsets. Over the past couple of years, it has been focusing on fewer high-profile studios and trying to get big titles for its platform. Buy acquiring Beat Games, it will let Facebook follow similar strategies as Sony and Microsoft.
Why Beat Games?
Beat Games has a proven potential across industries such as games, VR, and music. With its resources and know-how, Beat Games can accelerate and add more music and other exciting features to Beat Saber. It can also make the game accessible to more people.
While Beat Saber content and updates will continue and it will receive additional support from Facebook. This will add to the popularity of the top-selling VR game on Valve’s Steam Store. And, the acquisition will help both companies push VR to new heights. Facebook will allow modding provided it is executed legally within the company’s policies.
Oculus Quest VR headset
Notably, Facebook launched the wireless, portable VR headset dubbed Oculus Quest with Beats Saber. The VR headset allows full 6DoF (Degrees of Freedom) room motion. Moreover, the long-awaited 360-degree mode is all set to debut next month and more tunes are likely to be rolled out to the rhythm game by the end of this year.
Oculus director of content Mike Verdu stated, “We understand and appreciate the value that modding brings to Beat Saber when done so legally and within our policies. We’re going to do our best to preserve the value that mods bring to the Beat Saber player base. As a reminder, our most recent policy updates give more clarity to how developer mode is intended to be used, such as helping developers build their apps or for enthusiasts to explore new concepts. It is not intended for engaging in piracy or illicit modding, including mods that infringe on third-party IP rights or contain malicious code.”
Main image picture credits: Beat Saber
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