Yesterday’s Meta Quest Gaming Showcase had some big VR games on display, but there’s a lot more on the table.
The brief but pointed presentation hosted the launches of Bonelab, Ghostbusters VR, Espire 2 and Red Matter 2, with a special focus on upcoming games in 2022. But Meta’s recent partnership with some of the biggest games and developers has been missing for a few years, leaving us wondering when and where we might see them. Here are some items we didn’t see at yesterday’s event.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR
We had thought that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was one of the highlights of this week’s showcase. The VR port was announced at Connect in late 2021, and it seems like it’s gearing up for a 2022 release, with a potential release later this year. But the game wasn’t even mentioned in yesterday’s demo, making it question whether we’ll see it this year, let alone play it.
Assassin’s Creed/Splinter Cell VR
It’s been a year and a half since Meta confirmed a partnership with Ubisoft to bring Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell to VR, and it’s been nearly three years since the deal was first reported. However, with Ubisoft still hiring for these projects – Assassin’s Creed is still looking for a lead game designer – it seems that their hopes of seeing them soon have been dashed.
forward 2
A year ago, Mark Zuckerberg accidentally confirmed the existence of Onward 2. Since then, we’ve patiently waited for a proper announcement and had reasonable hopes for a showcase of this week’s event. That said, with Onward 1 still in early access on Steam, developer Downpour may want to finish work on its first multiplayer shooter before starting discussions on the next.
Oculus Studio Project
In fact, we haven’t heard much about any new games since the Meta-owned studio started its acquisition spree. The company acquired Beat Saber maker Beat Games in November 2019, Asgard’s Wrath developer Sanzaru in February 2020, Lone Echo studio Ready at Dawn in June 2020, and Downpour in April 2021, Population: One developer BigBox VR was acquired in June 2021. The acquisitions kicked off, and to date, none of the studios have released or announced any real new Quest projects. Granted, everyone has existing projects to maintain and game development is a long and complex process, but surely we must hear from one or two of these studios in the near future?
Which games do you think are missing from this week’s showcase? Let us know in the comments below!
