Developers who have apps or games in the Oculus store can now sell recurring subscriptions to their titles, as opposed to offering them for a one-time fee or choosing to manage the subscription process independently. This should give developers an easier and more sustainable way to deliver new content, features, and tools to paid subscribers over time. Oculus said The Verge that the approval process for subscription applications is similar to applications that have in-app purchases and add-ons.
Oculus shared on its blog that starting today, FitXR, extremely great success Recreation room, Tribe XR, Tripp, vSpatial, and VZfit are the first to start working on a subscription model in the Oculus store – especially for the Quest platform versions of the applications. If you have purchased or downloaded any of these applications, you will retain any content that you already have access to. Check out the blog for details on how each app will handle the jump to the subscription model and what benefits each will offer as they differ.
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Popular VR fitness app Supernatural confirmed at The Verge that it will soon provide support for headset subscriptions for new members in the near future, but for now, subscriptions are managed through the accompanying website or mobile app.
Unlike HTC’s Xbox Game Pass Viveport service, which offers unlimited access to a library of VR apps and games at a monthly or annual cost, the Oculus Store currently has subscriptions per app. And don’t worry, Oculus will allow a free trial period for each subscription-based title in the store, so you can try (and cancel) before you buy, but those trial periods vary by app.
Oculus says some apps will now require a subscription to use them, while some will make the subscription optional. However, developers are likely to channel most new content to subscribers instead of offering it as a free update, as popular Quest games are. Beat Saber and In Death: Unchained they did it with downloadable content packs, perhaps as a way to encourage in-app spending.
The VR company owned by Facebook declared in February that over 60 titles for the Quest platform win millions of dollars with applications and games from the Oculus store. Clearly, it wants to turn multiple apps into multi-million dollar stories, and subscriptions certainly seem like a way to speed it up. When asked if Oculus will keep a percentage of the sale of a subscription, the company said The Verge that it does not discuss the fees it collects from developers.