in which stores to buy virtual reality games and applications? – SamaGame

[HOT] : Oculus Quest 1 and 2: in which stores to buy virtual reality games and applications?

Do you often hear about PC VR, Steam, SideQuest, etc., but don’t understand any of these? Don’t panic, we’ll help you differentiate them.

Virtual reality is a branch of video games in its own right, which today offers a huge number of quality games and experiences. However, finding happiness is not easy, because there are many application stores, whether they are dedicated to the PC VR world or the native world. In this little game, Oculus Quest can drive you crazy, because they are hybrid headphones. They allow you to run native applications with their integrated hardware, but also on a PC. once connected to it by cable or via Wi-Fi.

The different app stores dedicated to the native world of Oculus Quest:

• Oculus Quest Store

  This is the official Oculus Quest store. It contains, among other things, exclusives related to the Facebook platform., like the ones we find on home consoles. All games and applications present in this store have been tested and certified by Oculus to fully meet the qualitative requirements of the platform.

• Secondary mission
  This is an unofficial virtual reality app store dedicated to Oculus Quest. A kind of sandbox for developers and a real snub to Facebook, it is a gold mine for gamers. We found a lot of experiences and great games in the works. The peculiarity of this store is its unofficial character. That is to say that The experiences there do not necessarily meet Oculus’ quality standards and are therefore not certified by the manufacturer.. Developers who offer their experiences there have no royalties towards Facebook, but they do not necessarily benefit from high visibility. We find the good and the bad in him. It’s up to everyone to figure it out. The installation of the applications available in this store requires some operations for them to be loaded on the headset, such as a developer account and a little hacking. You’ll find our full tutorial here. In return, anyone using SideQuest accepts responsibility in the event of disappointment or damage to their helmet. We would like to note that it is still completely legal to go through this store, it does not void the equipment warranty.
• Application laboratory
  This is the small gateway to the official Oculus Quest store. In practice, it is a “hidden” part where independents deposit their game without having to go through the heavy certification process that actually allows it to reach the official store. In addition, for small studios, the App Lab has become a necessary step before being able to apply to get there. On the user side, it is more practical than Sidequest, because there is no manipulation to be done, the games are installed and purchased in the same way as the “official” games. The only limitation, and no less important, is that the games do not have visibility from the Oculus store or application and it is impossible to search or find them without knowing their exact name. That’s why external sites manage referrals and you can find them through the dedicated space on SideQuest or through the AppLabDB site.

The different application stores dedicated to the PC VR world:

Note that an Oculus Quest connected to a PC is recognized as Oculus Rift and runs the Oculus PC software.

• Oculus Rift Store

  This is the official store of Oculus Rift. It contains, among other things, exclusives related to the Facebook platform, such as the exclusives that we find on home consoles. All games and applications present in this store have been tested and certified by Oculus to fully meet the qualitative requirements of the platform.

• Steam
  This is the store Steam as you know it now with a section dedicated to virtual reality experiences. It houses a large number of open applications and games for all the PC virtual reality headsets on the market, unlike the Facebook store. It is the SteamVR utility that manages the headphones and allows you to play in virtual reality.
  
• VivePort
  It is a store that offers, like Netflix or Xbox Game Pass, a paid subscription called Infinity that gives you at the time of subscription unlimited access to the virtual reality experiences in the catalog. However, it is quite possible to purchase some titles permanently, while others are simply not available by subscription. The games offered are mainly run through the SteamVR application.
• Epic games store
  This store is far from having many virtual reality games, but there are some and it costs nothing to see what happens there. The offered games are run through the SteamVR application.

Where should I buy my VR games in the end?

For native games, the question does not really arise since the games in final version are only available in the official store. Buying from the app lab allows you to have access to demos or early access versions, including full games, without having to play, while SideQuest expands the catalog with more, not necessarily exciting, titles elsewhere.

Not inconsiderable small bonus, some games purchased on the Oculus Quest Store unlock their counterparts for free on the Oculus Rift Store and vice versa. This is called cross-buying. Again, remember to take a good look at the prices offered, because it happens that some games are cheaper on the Oculus Quest Store than on the Oculus Rift Store and vice versa. By choosing the less expensive of the two, you are getting both versions at a lower cost. You can find the list of cross-purchase games at this address.

For VR games for PC, the choice is much wider and we find a large majority of games available at the same time in the different stores. However, some titles are not displayed at the same price everywhere. So remember to search each store before paying. Do the same with promotions. If the latter are much more frequent on Steam and many sites offer game keys at reduced prices, the fact is that VivePort sometimes breaks prices quite violently. Please note that normally games purchased from the Oculus Rift Store can only be used with the Oculus VR headset, which could mean that you will lose your library if you rebrand your headset. This is not the case, fortunately, thanks to a small utility called Revive that allows you to play games from the Oculus Rift Store with all VR headsets (SteamVR or WMR).

We hope that this file has allowed you to understand the different possibilities that are at your disposal when it comes to buying virtual reality games, either natively for them. Oculus Quest 1 and 2 or on PC VR. Feel free to ask us any questions in the comments here or through our Discord. If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, you can enjoy a Oculus Quest 2 on, Fnac, Darty or Amazon for 349,99 €.