Facebook buys BigBox VR, the maker of VR battle royale title POPULATION: ONE, in its fifth VR game development studio acquisition
Facebook acquired another VR shooter game development studio with the purchase of BigBox VR, the creator of battle royale title POPULATION: ONE.
UploadVRIan Hamilton
Context & Ripple Effects
BigBox is the latest step in a studio-buying strategy Facebook had already signaled through exclusive VR deals and planned game-studio purchases to bolster Oculus. It follows the acquisitions of the team behind Beat Saber and Ready at Dawn, adding another established VR title to Facebook’s in-house portfolio.
The move also comes a week after Facebook bought Unit 2 Games to bring Crayta’s tools into Facebook Gaming’s cloud platform. Together, the purchases show Facebook acquiring both VR game production and game-creation capabilities rather than relying solely on outside publishers.
First-order effects
BigBox VR becomes part of Facebook’s VR games operation, placing development of POPULATION: ONE under the platform owner that is assembling its fifth VR game studio.
Facebook gains another recognizable multiplayer VR game alongside studios associated with Beat Saber and Lone Echo, strengthening its internal content pipeline.
Second-order effects
Independent VR developers face a platform owner with a larger roster of owned studios and titles, raising the value of distribution and exclusivity arrangements for developers that remain independent.
Facebook’s Oculus ecosystem can concentrate more of its game strategy in-house, while its Unit 2 acquisition extends the company’s gaming ambitions into creator tools and cloud-platform integration.
Third-order effects
If Facebook continues pairing hardware-platform investment with studio acquisitions, VR game publishing may tilt toward vertically integrated platform owners that control both distribution and a larger share of content production.
The pattern makes exclusive-content opportunity cost more consequential: platform differentiation can improve, but fewer major titles may be developed independently of the largest VR distributor.
The trend: Facebook is using acquisitions to build a vertically integrated VR content portfolio, spanning flagship games, development talent, and creation tools.
I keep harping on this but Facebook will have literally reinvented itself for a new paradigm shift in computing by the time regulation gets around to addressing it in its current state
We believe social experiences are paramount to accelerating growth in VR—we're excited to welcome BigBox VR to Facebook and help them achieve their vision for POPULATION: ONE as a state-of-the-art VR social gaming experience and pursue future projects. https://www.oculus.com/...
Part of Zuck's brilliance is acquiring his way to monopoly in a category while regulators and public still think that category is a toy. https://twitter.com/...
Now that Facebook has Onward, Population: One and Echo VR I can imagine them using these games as a testing ground for some of the system-wide sim sickness mitigation stuff that @ID_AA_Carmack recently talked about. Then roll those ideas out to all developers. https://twitter.com…
Of all Facebook's VR game acquisitions to date this is probably going to end up the most lucrative. They just bought what is basically Fortnite in VR. (Have played it and it's honestly incredible)
worth noting that 98% of its revenue still comes from mobile advertising on its apps with iOS being the most valuable and currently being knee-capped. Plenty of R&D there, as with Google, but the core biz model is still remarkably unchanged. https://twitter.com/...
A little late but I'm on the oculus train and it's definitely leaving the station. Did you know 1/4 (10,000) of Facebook's employees work on VR? https://twitter.com/...