Facebook, I suspect, thinks it’s learned its lesson with Oculus Quest. Gear VR and Go, both good VR headsets, in their own right, are unarguably inundated with shovelware – low-quality apps and games that clog up their storefronts and drown out the better content. Venturing into either store means wading through a swamp of virtual rollercoasters, endless runners and wave shooters to find the rare worthy release. At this point, they’re practically suffocating.
As Jason Rubin pointed out this week, Facebook can’t let the same happen on Quest. As the first truly great standalone VR headset, the kit stands to reach further than VR ever has before. If VR newcomers were to turn their headset on for the first time and download, say, Don’t Die (out this week on Go), for the first time, the poor taste left in one’s mouth could be final. As a result, Facebook effectively has its own take on Nintendo’s Seal of Quality.
And yet, in attempting to remedy its curation problems, Facebook awoke a different beast. Over the course of E3 last week Quest’s narrative seemed to shift from a successful launch into backlash over Facebook’s strict policies. In the past month, we’ve heard from multiple developers about unsuccessful attempts to bring their games and experiences to Quest.
True, some have been misunderstandings that eventually straightened themselves out but other cases appear to have gone unresolved and who knows how many other rejected developers are out there that haven’t spoken up. Facebook is no doubt between a rock and a hard place deciding where to come down on curation, but based on the past month, the needle needs to shift. Even one studio closing down its doors because Mark Zuckerberg gave them a variation on ‘no’ is one too many. There aren’t many VR-focused studios to begin with so each rejection carries a lot of weight.
To be fair, I don’t envy the company’s position. Quest is the new kid on the block and everyone wants to be friends with it. To open the floodgates on day one would have almost certainly been detrimental to the headset’s reception and, more importantly, developers’ success. Controlling the flow of Quest releases allows Facebook to prevent the inevitable gold rush that has claimed other platforms as recent as Nintendo’s Switch. I’d go as far as to say I understand Facebook’s position.
But we’re not just talking about trivial factors like comfort, bug testing or even critical reception. Perhaps most alarming about Quest’s curation policy is that it requires evidence of “probable market success“. In other words, Facebook has to think your game or app will sell in order to actually sell it.
The process might not be as stringent as some make out. Oddities like Puppet Fever, Electronauts and even Tokyo Chronos have arrived since launch while more anticipated big-selling ports like Crytek’s The Climb are still yet to have their turn. Quest certainly isn’t only gunning for mainstream experiences like some fear. I suspect, though, that for every risky pitch that ended in success, there’s a fair few more that resulted in failure. Facebook says its rejections aren’t final, but what if you don’t have the resources to afford another three or four months of optimization before launch?
And that’s where the buck stops. When Quest’s curation policies are risking the livelihoods of genuinely hard-working, well-intentioned developers with quality products on their hands, Facebook has gone too far.
For all its measured reasoning, Facebook’s stance undercuts a golden rule, long preached within the videogame industry. It’s a simple law that’s proved to be make or break for entire console generations; don’t piss off developers. Even in its infancy as a platform-holder, I’m surprised to see this hasn’t been fully grasped. At the very least it’s been knowingly disregarded in-part.
When Sony fumbled the launch of its PS3 with complex architecture that proved difficult to develop for, studios fell back on the accessible Xbox 360 as a lead platform. Significant other factors were in play, of course, but the market initially followed suit until Sony changed tactics to become a more open platform that welcomed independent development. This most recent generation has seen a reversal of fortune, in which Microsoft is on the backfoot following its less developer-friendly publishing guidelines on Xbox One. Now it’s Sony back in hot water for its strict policies on cross-play and cross-save.
Admittedly, unlike those examples, Facebook has developers over the barrel. In the fledgling VR market, there are few other places to turn than Quest’s promised land. Facebook’s own suggestion that developers bring their games to Rift first feels meager even with the three-year lead time it has over Quest.
The chorus of disgruntled developers voicing their grievances online should signal concern for Facebook. Some I’ve spoken to feel forgotten, tossed aside after being so warmly embraced in Oculus’ earlier days. Others simply aren’t used to being told what they can and can’t do with their content after years of open-ended storefronts. There is a picture being painted of a likely market leader that has no time or concern for the little people. No matter where you sit on the situation, you can’t deny that that’s an issue.
For Facebook, I can see three solutions. The first and most obvious is to rebalance its curation and bring it back closer to the center rather than all the way left to Go/Gear territory. Another possible route is to rejig the Oculus store and specifically brand and evangelize its ‘Seal of Quality’ content while also allowing its customers to venture out into the Wild West of an uncurated segment.
The most practical solution, though, may be to simply redouble its efforts in developer communications and planning. Much of the outcry surrounding Quest curation is from developers left in the wind with seemingly little guidance. If Facebook instead committed to providing more detailed insight and road mapping for teams to get their projects on Quest, they could contain a lot of future criticism.
Quest is billed as VR’s savior and, though it’s early days, it certainly seems to be on course to earn that mantle. But its path to success must not be paved with the dismantled hopes and dreams of developers that risked it all on VR. If that happens, no matter how many headsets Facebook sells, we all lose.
Tagged with: curation, facebook, Oculus Quest
The post Editorial: Oculus’ Curation Policies Lean Too Far In Both Directions appeared first on UploadVR.
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