Just one year ago, today, Oculus launched its second standalone headset – the Oculus Quest. I would then say “and the rest is history,” as the Oculus Quest has done a lot for VR in the past twelve months of its shallow life.
I like to imagine that this year’s birthday could have been a lot different if it wasn’t for spread of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world. I think it has really put limitations on large companies, stopping them from going ‘all out’ on events and any major new announcements. I like to think that if the world was ‘normal’, we could have been learning about an Oculus Quest Pro, or an Oculus Quest 2 device today.
We live in a different world right now, and I am sure many events and announcements have been put on ice. Seeing as Facebook/Oculus can barely get their Oculus Quest into stores and onto people’s faces as well as make them fast enough, why should they release any updated hardware? I am certainly in the camp of wanting new updated hardware – although it has been a year, it’s time I think…
Anyway. It’s the Oculus Quest’s first birthday – YAY!! – and what a year it has been. There has been some stellar titles released on the Quest over the past twelve months. Many have won our Recommended award, so if you want to know what games and hardware is worthy of your coin, then please do check out our Recommended list of Oculus Quest games and hardware.
A year gone and I am still playing Beat Sabre, as is everyone else it seems, as it rarely leaves the top spot in the Top Selling or the Most Played charts. With more headsets getting into people’s hands, adoption has been growing each month at a fairly rapid pace. With some games selling double-platinum, earning millions of dollars, its is starting to look financially viable for developers to create a VR game for Quest.
At the very beginning media said the Quest might invoke an Apple iPhone-like gold rush. Well, after a year of Quest, I think they were right. It’s now time for developers to pick up their tools and start digging for that revenue gold! Mainstream VR gaming is truly upon us, and we have to thank Valve and the release of Half-Life Alyx to thank for that. But triple-A games aside, there has been some great VR experiences on the Oculus Quest over this past year, and I can’t wait to see what this next year brings us.
Happy birthday Oculus Quest! Here’s to another wild and colourful year ahead in the Oasis.
