Here’s the key difference: If every VR headset is a platform, then companies can justify holding back “exclusive” content to entice consumers into their ecosystem. If, on the other hand, a head-mounted display is just a fancy monitor you strap to your eyes—equivalent in status to a mouse or a keyboard or a pair of headphones—then exclusive content makes no sense. You wouldn’t buy a monitor just so you could play the new Doom, for instance.
And it’s a conflict that’s come to a head this week, in probably the most confusing way possible. First, put down your pitchfork. Then, let’s lay out the chronology of events.
Things started when, frustrated by a bunch of games going Rift-exclusive during E3, a Reddit user posted a thread complaining about Oculus’s tactics. Typical day on the Vive subreddit, really—except Croteam’s Mario Kotlar jumped into the thread and alleged something people long-suspected but couldn’t confirm: Oculus is buying exclusive rights to third-party games. Said Kotlar:
Would that be surprising No. But it does fly directly in the face of what Palmer Luckey has said in the past. Last year, Luckey took to Reddit to say:
Again:
But if what Kotlar says is true, then that’s exactly what’s happening now, so I got in touch with Oculus to see what’s going on. And then everything really went to hell, and Croteam CTO Alen Ladavac waded into the fray with a comment and his own Reddit thread.
First, Ladavac comments:
And then here’s Oculus:
So, assuming Oculus and Croteam are on the up-and-up and this isn’t just damage control, then Kotlar was only half wrong. Oculus didn’t try to “buy” Serious Sam VR. Not entirely, anyway.
Instead, I assume we’re looking at a deal similar to the one struck with CCP to keep EVE Valkyrie exclusive to the Oculus for six months. If you still have an ideological aversion to those tactics, I can’t blame you—I too have more fondness for the old “If one succeeds, we all succeed” attitude the VR community used to pay lip service to—but I can’t fault Oculus (as a business) for trying to get something for its money. I just can’t really applaud them for it, either.
The most you can do is try to support companies that are more magnanimous. Companies like Razer, believe it or not—the company announced yesterday it’s donating five million dollars to help kickstart VR development for games across all platforms, not just its HDK2. Maybe it’s time we look to other leaders in VR and stop treating Oculus like it’s the be-all-end-all, lest they actually become the be-all-end-all.