This week Facebook announced the launch of cloud-streamed games from Facebook Gaming. These are games which are rendered in the cloud and then streamed to your computer. Cloud-based gaming has been seen by the industry at large as a way to make games more widely accessible by making them playable on less powerful hardware. Facebook is also betting that one day they’ll be able to do the same for VR.

Facebook Gaming’s new cloud streaming functionality doesn’t support VR today, but it’s clear that the company is eyeing it up as part of its roadmap.

Not only is the company’s just-launched cloud streaming service headed by Jason Rubin, a former Oculus executive, but VR cloud streaming is being talked about at the highest levels of the company.

Responding to a question during Facebook’s most recent quarterly earnings call this week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the intersection of Facebook’s cloud gaming and VR initiatives:

“Over the longer term, I think the VR piece will obviously come into [our gaming strategy] as well. Some of the cloud gaming stuff that we’re doing will, of course, be useful for VR as well, and we’re building a big community around that on Oculus. But [our cloud gaming service]… I do think will be a very exciting growth opportunity and ability to offer a lot of innovation over the coming years,” Zuckerberg said.

Rubin joined Oculus in 2014 as was a key spokesperson for the company’s VR before his role expanded into Facebook’s broader gaming initiatives | Image courtesy Jason Rubin

Jason Rubin, the former Oculus executive turned ‘VP of Play’ at Facebook, laid out the company’s cloud-gaming vision this week, opening with a not-so-secretive jab at Google’s cloud streaming service, Stadia:

We believe in the long-term future of cloud gaming, but we aren’t going to try to wow you with the wonders of our data centers, compression algorithms, resolutions, or frames per second. Cloud game streaming for the masses still has a way to go, and it’s important to embrace both the advantages and the reality of the technology rather than try to oversell where it’ll be in the future.

Rubin also touched on the reality of game streaming latency as it stands today, knowing that competitive and VR games share exceptionally demanding latency requirements which the service isn’t ready to handle just yet.

It’s critical for us to start with latency-tolerant games so we can deliver a good experience for players across a variety of devices. For the purposes of our beta, that includes genres like sports, card, simulation, and strategy games. This is cloud gaming after all, so even with latency-tolerant games players may notice some glitches. […]

As our beta progresses and cloud technology scales, we’ll increase the variety of game genres. That expansion will start in 2021 with the addition of action and adventure games.

Though Rubin doesn’t mention VR in the Facebook cloud gaming announcement, he explicitly addressed the it in an interview with Protocol earlier this year:

I can tell you this: Nobody is banking on cloud processing making standalone VR headsets viable. We have to make them viable with the chipsets that are in them. But in the long run, cloud solves a lot of problems because it most effectively puts the processing power where it’s needed. Now there’s latency issues, resolution issues, frame rate issues, tons of issues. And it’s a hell of a lot more uncomfortable when it’s a frame that’s right in front of your face than it is when you miss a frame on a TV that’s across the room. So all of these things have to be solved, but no one thinks it’s impossible. It’s a hypothetical that can be done but it’s not coming anytime soon. It is very, very complicated.

Elsewhere he added, “ultimately we’ll throw those processors in a server farm somewhere and stream to your headset. And a lot of people are going to say, ‘Oh my god, that’s a million years away.’ It’s not a million. It’s not five. It’s somewhere between.”

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So while we don’t expect that the company will be rolling out VR game streaming in the immediate future, the Facebook is actively positioning itself to be offer the service further down the road.

As the only company in the consumer space with a complete tech stack for VR cloud streaming, the strategy seems sound. While other companies like Amazon, Google, NVIDIA, and Microsoft are building out their own cloud game streaming services, none of them have both a standalone VR headset and a major VR ecosystem for a complete end-to-end solution.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • kontis

    Imagine having Valve SteamVR Cloud gaming app sideloaded to Quest.
    Gaben massively monetizing Quests would be an awesome outcome.

    We know Valve plans cloud gaming option but we don’t know it they plan to support VR.

    • Sigma

      You can do this now using virtual desktop. I’ve been playing Alyx wirelessly on the oculus quest 2 and it works great. It isn’t cloud based…runs off your PC, but effectively works as you described.

    • ChristianWilliamson

      With Gabe’s recent plans of moving the entire company to New Zealand I honestly see them bailing on VR in 12 months. With numbers we’re seeing now. We need to stop pretending companies wont be changing a few things because of all this. Gabe’s moving the company to keep himself and his employees safe. I see them bailing out of hardware all together to just make the move half way across the planet a ton easier.

      • Valve don’t manufacture the index in-house, base stations are made by Flex in buffalo grove, Illinois whilst headset and controller are Chinese made.

        Moving their design and development offices to another continent would have no impact on production

        • ChristianWilliamson

          After losing money on steam machines, and then losing money on steam controllers. any smart business person would look to save money where they can when undergoing the expense of a massive company wide move to new zealand.

          I just don’t see gabe not being frugal when it comes to the company. i also don’t see gabe not going through with it.

          thats before we get to the personal reasons i can see gabe loving this idea. new zealand is probably one of the coolest places to live if you’re a car person.

      • Xristofer Bker

        They are litteraly about to release their own stand alone by the holidays. Don’t think after vr sales after half life Alex made them lose any money and they have to hate it that the quest 2 is the most used headset on thier network. Trust me valve is a long way from packing up the hardware side of things. Btw they didn’t lose any money off the things you claim. Both steam machine and the steam controller sold enough to make profit but not enough to be a commercial success. Maybe do more research because you are misinformed on a bit of your data.

  • Sharkz

    LOLNo Fuck Off

    • xyzs

      Never I would use that crap.
      First, cloud gaming makes me puke, then cloud gaming but from FB… let me pick my stomach from the keyboard..

  • Billy Wallace

    Rubin, what data mining frontiers exist with several billion humans connected to this cloud? What “behavioral modification” frontiers exist in this cloud? Why do we never get the transparency of those things? So tired of being the product in your ecosystem.

  • I’ve always respected Rubin and the way he talks openly and honestly about what he’s working on. We need way more people like this in the industry, and indeed all industries.

  • RockstarRepublic

    When you mix Facebook and VR, you literally get FaceF*ck.

    • ChristianWilliamson

      People can hate on facebook all they want for their ad business. But if you look at the people at oculus it’s like a whos who of the best, hands down, no better staff that money could buy on the planet when it comes to their computer scientists and programmers at reality labs. Carmack, Abrash, Rubin and like 3 buildings full of MIT graduated studs. And thats before we get to the studios they’ve bought recently.

      Facebook has problems, but so far, Oculus has been awesome. Especially since they got rid of Palmer.

      • leseki9

        “Oculus has been awesome. Especially since they got rid of Palmer.”

        The frogs were always gay.

      • Amni3D

        Their OS stability is questionable. Also the Rift S. Also how they broke Rifts worldwide 3 times without implementing an update rollback.

        I don’t care if they have “3 buildings full of MIT graduated studs” because they’re still selling a product. Also for what reason did Palmer leaving actually change anything that was palpable? He was the one yelling for an IPD slider.

        Imo they have momentum, but they’re too incompetent to survive real competition. Can’t praise them when they’re not worthy of it.

        • Xristofer Bker

          And how is the os questionable? I think might be just talking out your backside just to complain.

          • Amni3D

            I own a Quest and I know first hand. I wouldn’t say something like that just for fun.

            Something you can easily replicate: connect a DS4 or 3rd party Xbox controller, and try playing something like a GearVR app (if you’re on Quest 1 and have that support) or flatscreen app. The OS *will* crash. It just chokes the moment you try using something that’s not the 2 devices it supports. This is not the case on even cheap android devices or Smart TVs with extreme rudimentary functionality.

            When I made the post, putting your Quest in rest mode in certain titles would mute all system audio, until you restart the system.

            Recently they still haven’t learned from the Rift days and have no update roll back, where an update dropped that screwed up tracking and lagged the system UI.

          • Christopher Baker

            Hmm. Interesting, it may be possible to fix those errors with the controllers with sideloaded patches. Thing is anything I can think that I want to use such controllers for I can do on my pc and at that point I would just use the wireless virtual pc app. As far as roll backs that happens all the time on your phone and pc all the time you just never know about it because it’s not something generally listed in change details. Don’t get me wrong I am not a big fan of a lot of the ways Facebook does things. At the same time I have to give credit where credit is due. Oculus has made the very first stand-alone vr unit. A pretty decent one all things considered such as price and where the technology is. I mean do you even have another device in your house that uses WiFi 6? Give it time this is still in its its infancy.

      • leseki9

        no better staff that money could buy on the planet when it comes to their computer scientists and programmers at reality labs. Carmack, Abrash, Rubin and like 3 buildings full of MIT graduated studs.

        Okay first of all you don’t need the best computer scientists and programmers for VR, those are the least important things you need to worry about. It’s extremely easy for others to compete in this front.
        What matters here are optical engineers and game developers. Regarding optics Facebook in 2020 still uses off the shelf LCD panels and well known Fresnel lens optics and their public hardware research isn’t unique or impressive either to say the least and they have only bought few indie game studios. If there’s something game industry has proven time and time again is that you can’t just buy game studio and have them pump exclusives for you. It never works, gamedev is a very creative process and requires a lot of passion, something money can’t buy. Nintendo and Sony know this too well. Another things that matters in creativity is that you don’t try to force your political or social views on the devs and players which Facebook is also terrible at.

        Also,

        Especially since they got rid of Palmer.

        This was the most retarded choice they made. Palmer was against all the downgrades we’ve seen since CV1 which every here complains about. I don’t even buy the reason was Palmer supporting Trump. I think it’s more likely that Zucc again couldn’t stand someone not obeying his every command and wanting to micromanage Oculus like he does with every other acquisition.

      • DannyDieHard

        I went all in and bought the quest 2 first vr gaming experience has been for the part fun, I won’t lie , they hate on fb cause they couldn’t stay off then found out about the algorithm to keep you scrolling so they got butt hurt for used, but in reality Mark through fb connected the world like never before, real time free video calls, that passed off a lot of people in the telecommunications industries. I don’t like Mark because he sod America out in order to do business in other parts of the world and for the most part help them feel comfortable, our freedom of speech means nothing when ur on fb say something they don’t like it’ll will be taken down in some cases u get thrown in fb jail for some time, I landed in fb jail bunch of times , but if I was to visit ur house and said things u didn’t like and felt disrespected I’m sure u would kick me out so I really ain’t that mad at him to not buy the quest , like I said many times since I purchaced , this is the future , vr headset with no cables the freedom to move around , u can work , u can play games , u can take tours around the world , u can just hang out in virtual space with your cousins on the other side of the planet , I for 1 am happy facebook purchaced oculus, he made affordable for me to experience this, plus ur in control of ur privacy ,, can some them see all u do , I’m sure there is , but not that many and if they slip and the data gets loose , lawsuits , so I’m in already and loving it ,

  • Foreign Devil

    I use Stadia and it’s great. Now I’m trying to find a way through virtual desktop to stream my Stadia games to my Quest 2. Unfortunately only Firefox browser streams video.. So I’ll be using a kind of streaming game in VR …but 2D.

    • Xristofer Bker

      Chromium for stadia is the apk you are searching for.

  • AS

    Aah, so that’s why the quest 2 didn’t get wireless PC link capabilities

    • Xristofer Bker

      What are you talking about? You have been able to wireless pc link. Even back when you posted this you could sideload an update to the virtual pc to do so. Now it’s fully supported by the app straight for the store.

      • AS

        The virtual PC app is a 3rd party tool. There is no ‘official’ wireless pc link. It’s not really that difficult to understand the comment was referring to the latter.

        If you’re going to join a conversation, please don’t be so confrontational with your tone!

        • Christopher Baker

          It’s in the store so it is officially supported. Don’t tell me how to talk either. You don’t get to act like your my daddy especially when you don’t know what you are talking about.

          • AS

            Firstly, it was originally blocked from the store, which is why you had to sideload the update.

            Secondly I’m talking about native wireless support, which fits in with the article context.

            A public forum has terms of use, one of which is showing respect for other members. Your tome of voice throughout your post history shows no respect at all.

            For this reason, I’m blocking you and reporting your behaviour.

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    It’s one thing to stream game via Wifi from your local PC to the headset at up to 1500 mbits and totally different to get stream via G5 signal, dependent on your mobile IPS (and even that doesn’t work all that great latency wise). Cloud based VR gaming is years if not decades away.

    • Ideally we need a high bandwidth wireless adapter kit for PCVR (to support Index and reverb G2)

      Local processing on PC works great, just need to eliminate that pesky tether. Once supply stabilises, RTX3080 will give users high-end compute power at affordable price.

  • Ad

    Ben, why haven’t you run an article on shadow or other third party cloud services? It doesn’t seem that likely that streaming to quest by Facebook will happen for at least a year. They’re not investing in any PC software, so why would it be necessary for them?