![]() ![]() Fairly soon, others began to follow, and before long, the SideQuest ecosystem had started to evolve. With nowhere else to go and a quality product on their hands, Electric Hat became the first developer to release a full-length game for sale on SideQuest. In the case of SideQuest, the release of To the Top for sale at $14.99 was just such a moment.ĭevelopers Electric Hat Games had completed the Quest port of their successful PCVR title, To the Top, but were denied access to the official store. But in any pseudo-storefront, there will inevitably become a time where the boundaries get pushed. Oculus could not be held accountable for what was found out there. In the beginning, it seemed that Facebook was happy to turn a blind eye to SideQuest, given that the games were free, and that users knew that they were leaving the gates of the garden. Even demos began to appear of games available on the official store. Developers could upload games that needed testing and community feedback and hobbyists could share their passion projects. Offering a way to upload games, apps and mods directly to the Quest and bypassing the Quest store itself, SideQuest provided the much-needed open-access platform that VR game development so sorely needs. Within a few days after Oculus launched the now revolutionary Quest, the SideQuest platform was born. While building a wall around your garden can seem safe, it can also cut it off from the very things that it needs to grow. That, or the correct funding and connections. Without that testing ground for indie experimentation and improvement, which had arguably been the bedrock of every advancement in VR over the last x years, the medium’s future development seemed to sit solely with those who already had the experience. ![]() While these are indeed lofty ideals, and in fairness, probably in the best interest of this fledgeling attempt to bring VR into the mainstream, they do come at a price. In Oculus’ brave new world, newcomers to VR could rest assured that every purchase would meet a stringent level of quality testing, that all titles on the store have earned a rightful place in the Pantheon of the Quest. No longer would there be barely finished concepts, shilled under the pretence of early access only to be abandoned. No longer would studios be able to bring their games to the point of readiness and charge gamers for the chance to help get the game to its full potential. In a medium as new as VR, this was indeed something of a turning point. Only vetted titles would be allowed to be sold officially. Facebook set about creating a particularly high-walled garden for their new ecosystem to bring VR into the mainstream, with limited developers’ access. In February 2019, months before the Quest was released, Facebook made it clear that the ecosystem for this new standalone headset would have some more robust criteria than the Rift store. ![]()
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