Meta’s Quest 2 VR headset users may now access Roblox in an open beta.
Indeed, it’s now available via the headset’s Quest Store or Meta’s App Lab. From there, it’s simple to sign in and explore.
However, it’s seemingly not yet possible to kickstart an account through Quest – as a post on the Roblox developer forum suggests.
Once it’s out of Beta, this will likely change, yet keen-eyed players have already spotted additional issues that developers may soon wish to mop up.
Examples include an inability to receive recommended experiences, server issues, and distorted graphics.
However, in an open beta, users can expect such problems as developers seize the chance to test, learn, and enhance the VR experience.
As they do so, Roblox developers may build new, unique VR experiences and bring their much-loved experiences to Meta Quest.
That prospect is exciting. After all, creating such experiences once required significant VR-specific expertise. Now, developers can publish existing experiences with little to no coding involved.
For Jeremy Duncan, a Chief Metaverse Officer at Onyx Leaf Media, that is so significant he believes: “This might just be the day that standalone VR changes forever.
[Roblox] has over 66 million users and has over a million worlds to explore. Imagine that coming together… in the Quest platform and standalone VR. This is going to be crazy.
That ability to shift experiences between platforms stems from Roblox’s universal design.
As a result, the Quest community may enjoy experiences together across desktop, smartphone, and Xbox – opening up new opportunities to connect and communicate.
Moreover, it may help to accelerate interoperability within the metaverse, as Meta and its competitors realize that nobody can do it all.
A Win for Metaverse Interoperability
If Meta opens up, works with more companies, and considers the metaverse a team sport, it may take strides in preventing a siloed metaverse.
In doing so, it may also support the broader XR ecosystem’s development and give users access to a raft of digital experiences.
As such, when murmurs of Roblox becoming available on Meta Quest first started to bubble below the surface, many industry analysts became excited.
Indeed, Kevin O’Donovan, Co-Chair of the VRARA Industrial Metaverse and Digital Twin Committee, lauded the possibility.
“I think it could be a case of necessity, by having [the digital worlds] play together,” he said during XR Today’s Big News Show.
Some will ‘get married,’ and some will ‘get divorced.’ I look forward to seeing how some of them may become a bit of a soap opera, but I think generally, the idea of firms working collaboratively ultimately makes sense.
Indeed, if Meta engages a fraction of those 66MN Roblox daily active users, it may increase its addressable market while adding new experiences for current users.
Meanwhile, Roblox’s bid to develop the metaverse may go from strength to strength as it leverages VR/MR headsets.
Certainly, it seems a win-win, with the move offering Meta a much-needed boost as revenues for its Reality Labs division plummeted $3.7BN last quarter.
