There’s a new developer in the Oculus Studios family: Beat Games, the makers of light saber rhythm-action game Beat Saber.
“Today we’re announcing that Beat Games is joining us in our quest to bring VR to more people around the world,” wrote Oculus’ director of content Mike Verdu in a blog post. “They will join Oculus Studios as an independently operated studio in Prague, continuing to create new ways for people to experience music and VR gaming.”
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It’s a good acquisition for Facebook – Beat Saber sits proudly on our list of the best VR games you can buy, but if you’re a fan, it does raise some difficult questions about Oculus exclusivity.
The good news is that Verdu is quite clear in his post that, for the time being at least, non-Oculus platforms will continue to get updates. “Beat Games will continue to ship content and updates for Beat Saber across all currently supported platforms, now with even more support from Facebook,” he wrote.
What’s less clear is what this means for future games, and it isn’t addressed in the FAQ section, with the phrase “currently supported platforms” possibly taking on an ominous meaning given it appears no fewer than three times in the post.
Still, in the short term, things will continue in much the same way with the promised 360-degree level mode coming in December and more music to follow Oculus says.
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And what about the modding community? Oculus is fine with it, but is keen to emphasise the importance of staying within copyright law.
“We understand and appreciate the value that modding brings to Beat Saber when done so legally and within our policies,” Verdu wrote. “We’re going to do our best to preserve the value that mods bring to the Beat Saber player base,” he added, but highlighted that developer mode is “not intended for engaging in piracy or illicit modding, including mods that infringe on third-party IP rights or contain malicious code.”
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
