BigBox VR – Known for Population: One, Acquired 2021

Image courtesy BigBox VR

BigBox VR, developer of popular VR battle royale game Population: One (2020), was acquired by Meta in 2021. At the time, Meta said it was helping BigBox VR to “grow and accelerate their vision for POPULATION: ONE as a state-of-the-art VR social gaming experience, as well as pursue future projects.”

True to its word, Population: One has not only seen multiple expansions, including new maps, modes, and seasonal events, but it even went free-to-play in 2023, owing to the game’s popularity and extensive variety of purchasable in-game cosmetics. To this day, Population: One is still active and fresh, and remains cross-platform.

But the studio’s population of games remains just one. More than three years after the acquisition, the studio hasn’t announced any plans to work on new projects.

Post-acquisition Grade: B+

Within – Known for Supernatural, Acquired 2021*

Image courtesy Within

Meta announced it was acquiring the studio Within in 2021 to build on its subscription-based VR fitness app Supernatural, with the goal of growing the VR fitness market and capitalize on the “new normal” of at-home fitness following the COVID-19 pandemic.

*The acquisition hit a pretty bumpy patch though when Meta encountered legal issues shortly thereafter, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission taking Meta to court in 2022 to formally block the deal, citing the social media company’s supposed monopoly on the VR fitness space. Acquiring Within meant Meta would control both Beat Saber and Supernatural, two of VR’s most successful fitness and fitness-adjacent titles.

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In February 2023, the acquisition was eventually finalized and Supernatural continued on to offer regular content updates while remaining a major player in VR fitness. Within has largely delivered on its promise to enhance Supernatural.

The studio has added new workouts, novel ‘knee strikes’, and—most recently—multiplayer. It has also given Supernatural a mixed reality mode for Quest 3, unlike Beat Saber.

But as with the other acquired studios we’ve talked about so far, there’s still no word on whether this talented studio will do anything but keep churning on Supernatural.

Post-acquisition Grade: B+

Camouflaj – Known for Iron Man VR, Acquired 2022

Image courtesy Camouflaj, Meta

Meta acquired developer Camouflaj in 2022, which was known for the PSVR-exclusive Iron Man VR (2020). Touting the studio’s expertise in delivering high-quality immersive experiences, it was all but certain Camouflaj would bring the popular superhero game to Quest.

Since the acquisition, Camouflaj did just that, garnering the Iron Man VR port a respectable [4.3/5] user rating on the Horizon Store. With the port giving the studio a chance to get its bearing on the Quest platform, the studio set out to build a new flagship title for Quest 3, Batman: Arkham Shadow.

The game promises to be one Quest’s biggest games this year, coming exclusively to Quest 3 on October 22nd. Batman: Arkham Shadow is shaping up to be very promising, as our hands-on in August revealed that the studio has really honed the art of delivering a VR-native take on superhero action. This time the focus is on the tense melee combat and the gritty narrative that the Batman: Arkham games are known for.

Post-acquisition Grade: A

Twisted Pixel – Known for Wilson’s Heart, Acquired 2022

Image courtesy Twisted Pixel

Meta acquired Twisted Pixel in 2022, a studio with significant VR experience: Wilson’s Heart (2017) and Defector (2019) on Rift, B-Team (2018) on Oculus Go, and Path of the Warrior (2019) on Quest. Unfortunately none of the titles were breakout hits as far as we know.

Though it wasn’t acquired until 2022, Twisted Pixel had a tight partnership with Meta even since the 2017 release of Wilson’s Heart, one the early titles for Oculus Touch. Considering the connection, the acquisition largely made sense, with Meta likely hoping to secure the studio’s ability to create narrative-heavy VR games moving forward.

However, two years from the acquisition, we’re no closer to knowing what Twisted Pixel has planned. The studio let slip in 2023 it was building something for VR in Unreal Engine, but it’s remained mum on details, which is a long time to stay quiet for a studio which last released a game in 2019.

Post-acquisition Grade: C 

Armature Studio – Known for Resident Evil 4 VR, Acquired 2022

Image courtesy Capcom, Armature Studio

Armature Studio—which had worked on smaller VR games in years prior—was acquired in 2022 after the success of its Resident Evil 4 (2021) port to Quest 2. As a solid port and a well-known and well-loved IP, it became one of the highest-profile game releases of the Quest 2 era.

At the time of the acquisition, Meta didn’t mention specifically why it acquired Armature, but the studio’s long track record in successfully porting games to other platforms probably had something to do with it.

While Resident Evil 4 VR is basically the same game you could play on GameCube in 2005, Armature did an admirable job of overhauling the classic game for VR, which, despite some fairly dated gaming tropes, made it feel new again with the addition of high-res textures and a number of immersive, VR-native mechanics.

While impressive, Armature hasn’t released anything beyond Resident Evil 4 VR for Quest since, which was notably before the acquisition. Again, seemingly not utilizing the studio’s talent in a particularly efficient way.

Post-acquisition Grade: C-

– – — – –

While many of these studios continue to deliver content, outside of Batman: Arkham Shadow, we’re still largely waiting to see what’s next. And although you’d expect Meta to keep the exclusive games coming at a regular pace, there are a few factors at play that suggest Meta may actually be slowing down, rather than speeding up its push for VR content.

Firstly, the games industry as a whole is feeling the effects of the economic downturn, partially spurred by rapid post-COVID inflation and war-driven energy disruptions. Layoffs are a regular occurrence, and we don’t expect the headlines to change any time soon. Notably, Meta hasn’t acquired any VR studio since 2022.

Meanwhile, the cheap and cheerful Quest 3S ($300) is undoubtedly set to spark a renewed push by Meta to flesh out its mixed reality content library, and that’s still very much in its infancy. With relatively few ‘must play’ mixed reality games to show for it, new Quest 3S owners will at least be able to look forward to the backlog of Quest titles alongside the few Quest 3-only games currently in the pipeline.

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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.
  • ViRGiN

    Onward devs fired by Zuckerberg has started a new vr game scam called Tier One Direct Action. Take a look how dogshit it is if you're interested. These people are so mental they think calling themselves ex Onward devs is something to be proud of. In reality nearly everyone was just in QA. They asked for 40k on Kickstarter, and they ended up paying half of it themselves lol. Can't wait for this dumpster fire to shut down.

    • Andrey

      Yeah, I saw it. Imagine being "free" from Meta and your previous company and be able to create any shooter you want (better, bigger, deeper in mechanics than what they've previously worked on) – and they announce THIS… And even dare to ask people to fund IT… Hell, even F(v)eil VR looked more promising than this, lol.

      • ViRGiN

        They said they had 23 people in the team, and are asking for 40k. So the money won’t even cover minimum salary for employees? The community manager is a heroin addict, smokes weed all the time as seen by his Reddit account. Their YouTube videos of “devops” are so pathetic, they haven’t showed any development, everything i saw looks like vr template which has been available for years. They never mentioned any risks in the campaign, and when pointed out, they just ban. Regardless, there were barely enough purple to fund this game, at least 3x 5000 is basically their own payment, and also coming from ex Onward community manager who apparently is not working for Niorun. Mr death is still looking for job to this date, which makes me super freaking happy. Imagine thinking “ex Onward devs” sounds good lol.

      • ViRGiN

        Since nearly everyone at niorun was qa tester, these are exactly the people who made sure and approved how crappy Onward was throughout the years. They constantly lie at every stage. They claim to quit their jobs to pursue their passion, but no, they were personally fired by Zuckerberg. Ever noticed how Dante, the original founder, have not spoke once since he sold his company to Meta? He isn’t working at Niorun as well. I assume the company buyout was way more than enough to just retire and relax. I suspect this will never even come out, there is no gameplay, just editor testing walking around. The trailer even had explosion added in as an effect rather than spawning particle. But just call game competitive and the loud minority loses their sanity and makes tierone their personality.

    • VRDeveloper

      The situation is so ironic that it looks like a bad joke.

      • ViRGiN

        No doubt the only winner there was Dante who sold the company. Mark must have been high when he bought it.

  • Well, as a VR enterpreneur/developer myself and knowing other people with a VR company, I'm not surprised that these startups are keeping working on their successful titles. VR is a niche and it is very hard to make a profitable game now, so if you have a cash cow like Beat Saber or Population One, you milk it as much as you can. If you hire a new team and dedicate a lot of money to build a new game, you have always the fear that the new game won't make enough money and will eventually sink you. See what happened with XR Games and its failed launch of Hitman 3 VR.
    In this case, it should be Meta pouring money in them and taking the risks. But in this "years of efficiency" probably also Meta's managers prefer to play safe, so either there is a really good idea which seems poised to sell really well (e.g. Batman for Camouflaj) or all the internal prototypes are probably ditched even before they can see the light.

    • ViRGiN

      How is Pop One a cash cow?

      • Sven Viking

        Do we have any idea how popular the cosmetics are? I don’t pay attention to what’s sold or free, so even though I played an amount I don’t even have an anecdotal idea of how many paid skins you see around.

        • ViRGiN

          Population One as paid game “died” pretty quickly, going free to play helped with the very low playerbase, but even to this day I hear that some game changes killed the game again, like introducing mode with respawn split the already thin playerbase.

          “After just a few months on the Oculus Store, it’s already surpassed the $10M revenue mark”

          So I guess it initially sold well, but the game got old really quickly. If it really was a cash cow, I think they would announce big goals publicly. Tabor doubled their revenue from 10 million to 20 million in about 6 months.

          Showdown is also a battle royale, but that game pretty much died already.

  • kakek

    I'm not shocked by the delay without games after acquisition. AAA titles takes 3 to 5 years to devellop, even on flat.

  • William Wallace

    Bob cooney said after Zuckerberg bought beat saber, it was over for mom and pop fec's.

  • namekuseijin

    Awhile ago I've seen someone either from Sanzaru or Camouflaj mentioning that Armature's project is pretty impressive.

  • What an absolute disgrace ….
    #FuckZuckerberg
    []^ (

  • JB1968

    What a big Meta's failire. Basically in last 5 years they delivered only one new good exclusive game(Asgard2) and another one is not yet out (Batman).

    Neither of those games I'd like to play (but that's my subjective choice). So personally for me it is total fail.

    After reading this article I still don't get the Quest fanboy whiners that are spamming the intetnet with "psvr2 is dead, Sony failed to support vr" because Meta is failing the same if not even more in that regard.

    • ViRGiN

      Quest is f-ing awesome, given the price and being standalone. Obviously things could be better and will get better, but compared to PSVR2/PCVR which has unlimited power in comparison, those are the platforms that truly offer nothing of value given high entry point.

      You could have bought $200 Quest 2, use it a handful of times, and it's still an excellent purchase. You could never say that about Valve Index + PC.

      • JB1968

        Sure, Q2 or Q3s is great entry point to VR for cheap if you are ok with the gfx limitations and have no issues with Facebook as a company.
        But in my case after playing VR games for more than 10 years I'm tired of the poor gfx or washed out genres.
        I can tell you I love low poly(kinda retro) aesthetic in games with original and/or well designed gameplay so its not only about gfx complexity.
        But to my surpise I realized I only played No Mans Sky in VR in the last couple months as this game and devs know how to deliver so standalone hw is not an option for my tastes.