Published on: 12/01/2023
Roblox to debut on Meta Quest VR by end of 2023, report says
A report by The Verge said that Roblox might debut on Meta Quest VR headsets by the end of this year, which could offer Meta a clearer direction for the future.
At the time of writing, Roblox and Meta have not confirmed the potential deal. However, in 2021, Roblox co-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki said the company was considering a deal with Meta. He explained that Quest made “perfect sense for Roblox.”
The deal will benefit Meta, given that Roblox has developed itself as a leading platform in the metaverse. A new study showed that 68 percent of consumers — 88 percent of them were 13 to 25 years old — participated in the metaverse, with Roblox being one of the most prominent platforms in the sector.
Roblox is compatible with several virtual reality instruments, including Meta’s Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Integrating Roblox into Quest will enable players to play in VR environments easier because they no longer need to use the computer to access the platform.
A joint venture with Meta can boost Roblox’s earnings, which data has shown to fall under expectations despite a high number of daily active users. Reports said the gaming metaverse lost $297.8 million last year after failing to hit its Q3 target.
Analysts have said that since Meta rebranded itself in October 2021, it has yet to live up to the hype. They added that Meta’s Horizon Worlds platform had drained the company’s funding. Meta recently had to lay off 11,000 employees to trim its operational costs. The company’s VR division lost $3.67 billion last year.
This year, analysts expect Meta to lose some more. Therefore, a partnership with Roblox can provide stability to the company, especially in boosting its user count.
As of now, people still do not know which Meta headset Roblox will support if the partnership comes to fruition. Meta, however, is set to launch a new headset series later this year. Roblox can become the launch’s title.
People anticipate Meta to announce its new VR headset — Quest 3 — at the upcoming Connect conference in the fall. The price for a headset is expected to be around $500, or about the price of a new Quest 2 set.
Web3 yet to be integrated into metaverse
Although the terms “Web3” and “metaverse” are often used in the same breath, experts argue that both entities have yet to fully harmonize.
Numbers showed that the Web3 metaverse had not attracted many users. Web3 platform Decentraland — valued at $1.3 billion — only posted 38 daily active users in October 2022. In comparison, Roblox, a Web2 metaverse, could attract 57.8 million daily active users per September 2022 and be valued at $25 billion.
Some argue that the numbers for Decentraland, obtained from CoinDesk, only report the number of people interacting with the platform’s smart contract.
Decentraland has also rebuked the claim, saying there were 1,074 user interactions with its smart contract during the reported period. It also claimed to record 56,697 monthly active users. However, data have shown that only 1.9 percent of Decentraland users account for its on-chain activity.
Another Web3 platform, The Sandbox, only saw 1.3 percent of users interacting with the Web3 functions last year, indicating how underutilized Web3 is. However, despite the underwhelming data, analysts said that Web3 metaverse firms have successfully cultivated healthy communities.
