Social VR platform AltSpaceVR will not be available on the Oculus Quest standalone headset at launch. The app does not currently meet the performance and polish requirements Facebook set out. AltSpace plan to have these issues addressed in time for a launch in August.
The information was delivered live in VR by community manager Keegan Law during an official AltSpace “town hall” meeting.
AltSpaceVR is a social VR platform with a focus on communication, events, and activities. It was acquired by Microsoft back in 2017. Users can play Cards Against Humanity, attend karaoke nights, or traverse a maze together. The platform has focused on being available on as many platforms as possible, including Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream, and even outside of VR.
It’s also already is available on the Oculus Go standalone headset and has been since launch. As Law explained, not appearing on Quest at launch is due to Facebook’s stricter console-like store curation policy for the room scale standalone.
Apps on Quest must maintain 72 frames per second for the majority of the time, and must be intuitive and polished. Law explained that while in the past the team has been in “experimentation” mode as a startup would, for Quest they’re now focusing on performance, polish, and ease of use.
Competing social VR platform VRChat will be available on Quest at launch. Whereas most AltSpace content is made by the company, VRChat worlds and avatars are created by the community. To enable the app to come to Quest, VRChat has enacted detailed specific requirements for Quest versions of these worlds and avatars. While creators can make their content cross-platform, not all content has to be, and much will continue to be PC-only.
AltSpaceVR has been mobile-first since the days of Gear VR, so they likely want the entire platform available on Quest.
