Meta will continue using the Oculus name as part of its third-party VR games publishing program, now officially titled Oculus Publishing, with 150 games in active development.
Announced during GDC 2023, Oculus Publishing provides a new name for Meta’s existing efforts to work with developers on everything from conceptualization and funding to promotion of their projects. According to Meta, the company assisted with funding games like Among Us VR, Bonelab and Blade & Sorcery: Nomad, and Meta claims there’s “another 150 titles in active development today”.
“Over $1.5 billion has been spent on games and apps in the Meta Quest Store, with 40 titles grossing more than $10 million in revenue, and the number of titles making $20 million has doubled year over year,” according to Meta. You can read more in the official blog post.
It’s been nearly 18 months since Meta rebranded itself from Facebook and reduced the Oculus brand it acquired in 2014 to Meta’s Oculus Studios, which saw Oculus Quest 2 renamed Meta Quest 2 mid-lifecycle. At the time, Meta’s then-incoming CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth claimed they “want to make it clear that Quest is a Meta product,” offering reassurances that “the original Oculus vision remains deeply embedded in how Meta will continue to drive mass adoption for VR today.”
Meta never completely ditched the Oculus name — evidenced by its first-party development division Oculus Studios — but the new branding suggests the name may live on for quite some time. Following its protracted acquisition of Within (Supernatural), Oculus Studios now has an assortment of developers working on first-party content to bring to future headsets, including Beat Games (Beat Saber) and Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR).
