Good News for Oculus Rift Game Developers: Vr Games Can Be Sold on Any Store, Not Just the Oculus Store
Makers of the recently-released Oculus Rift, in an effort to appease some developers who have been asking about what platforms they can make available their Rift VR games, have announced that game developers who make Rift games have the option to sell their games on other platforms and not just the Oculus Store. According to a report in Polygon, this follows the philosophy of Oculus that the hardware remains open and therefore allows its developers to market their Rift games on any platform they want.
According to the company's blog, their platform and store "are designed to provide the best VR experience and content, but we also recognize that people will want to use apps that aren't available on the Oculus platform or in the store." When it comes to developers, this is what the blog stated: "As a developer, you don't have to be in the Oculus Store — you can sell outside, and when you do that you can you use your own IAP if you prefer, and we don't take a cut. You can also request keys (royalty free) to sell your Oculus PC app on other stores, while making it available to the community through the Oculus platform."
This is a win-win arrangement for both developers and consumers. Since the Oculus Rift headset is compatible with non-Rift games, this gives consumers more choices of games to play. For the developers, it means they can freely sell their games inside or outside the Oculus Store.
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A Tech Times report however noted that VR games that are not bought through the Oculus Store will be functional on the Rift by accessing the "Unknown Sources" settings found on the desktop app for the Oculus. Once a non-Oculus Rift game is being used, it also must give access to the Home screen and allow the user to see all Oculus-specific notifications and overlays.
A section on the Oculus website has specific information for developers who want to sell outside the Oculus Store. In the meantime, Oculus also reiterated that each and every Oculus Rift has the capacity to be used as a development kit within this year provided that developers use the latest SDK. The company is actively providing technical support for developers and rightly so, as the success of the technology at this point depends on content development for virtual reality.
