Google’s directly competing services aren’t on Vision Pro, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t doing business on Apple’s headset altogether, as it has now brought two of its most influential VR games to Vision Pro.

Google’s XR studio Owlchemy Labs today launched Job Simulator (2016) and its sequel Vacation Simulator (2019) on Vision Pro, respectively priced at $20 and $30 on the App Store.

The tongue-in-cheek simulator games parody both the worlds of work and play as seen through the eyes of robots who have replaced all human jobs—and have taken human vacations too.

To boot, the franchise has been one of VR’s most successful to date, with both games going multi-platinum across all major VR headsets, and regularly showing up in the top most-popular VR game charts since their respective launches.

The Vision Pro releases of both games are in large part thanks to the studio’s early adoption of hand-tracking, as Apple’s headset doesn’t support motion controllers of any sort. Consequently, this has also allowed the studio to bring a hand-tracking mode to the Quest versions too.

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“Owlchemy Labs has always been committed to pioneering hand tracking technology and putting our games on the most innovative platforms,” said Andrew Eiche, CEO at Owlchemy Labs. “Bringing Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator to Apple Vision Pro feels like the most natural manifestation of our goals. The fully immersive environments look stunning on Apple Vision Pro, and the games have been optimized for the hand- and eye-tracking capabilities of the platform.”

Acquired by Google in 2017, Owlchemy Labs is also known for the Emmy-nominated title Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality (2017), and its latest VR game Cosmonious High (2022).

This technically makes for the first Google-owned apps to release on Vision Pro. At the time of this writing, notably missing is YouTube, Google Maps, Meet, Drive, and Photos. The company has said however a YouTube app for Vision Pro is on the map, although it’s not certain when that’s set to arrive.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.

  • Speaking of Google, their AIO collab
    with Samsung won’t even come-off, I bet.
    Amazon and *their* half-assed “on again/off again” approach
    to XR,
    the latest news has them partnering with LG, will also fail.
    In the end, it’ll be Meta [inexpensive] vs. Apple [expensive].
    []^ )

  • ViRGiN

    Juuust what AVP needed.

    • ViRGiN

      I detect a hint of sarcasm. Meta for the win, I feel much better now. Loads of people read all this BS, and any competition against Meta can go f*** themselves, just like mom did.

      • ViRGiN

        Full Body Tracking through SteamVR, thanks GayBen!

  • Timothy Bank

    I honestly would love to see Tilt Brush on the AVP. Years ago, I built a 1:1 copy of my VR room and loaded that into Tilt Brush so that I could draw in my space.

    • Stephen Bard

      Tiltbrush would be a nightmare to try to control using AVP limited awkward hand gestures. Why not use the wonderful mixed reality app Figmen XR on the Quest, which has realtime Tiltbrush built into it, and also allows you to download Sketchfab models and YouTube screens into your real VR room. Why do you people persist in wanting this limited-functionality AVP device do things that it was not designed to do?!

    • ViRGiN

      all you ever did at best was to paint outlines of your room.