Social VR platform Rec Room is getting ready to launch another co-op game this week, this time taking you to the sewers with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtled-themed adventure.
Called ‘Trials of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, you’ll soon be able to take on Foot Clan goons with friends or strangers, and even face off against the evil Shedder mano a mano.
The turtle-powered adventure is kicking off November 15th and is also coming along with a host of digital accessories, powerups and (of course) pizza.
Rec Room users will be able to buy avatar skins to look the part, so you can dress as Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, or even the infamous Shredder.
You can play ‘Trials of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and any other of Rec Room’s co-op adventures for free across all supported devices, including Quest, SteamVR headsets, iOS, Android, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Meta introduced a new game called ‘Super Rumble‘ to Horizon Worlds, something the company hopes will showcase a new generation of improved experiences on its own social VR platform.
Released after a successful beta weekend in May, the free-for-all first-person shooter is said to highlight new improvements to Horizon Worlds, such as “better graphics, deeper gameplay, and a variety of quests and rewards.”
Players can choose from six superpowers before each session, allowing them to outmaneuver opponents and develop their playstyles. Here’s how Meta describes each power:
Super Dash gives you super speed
Super Jump lets you launch into the air with explosive force
Super Ammosaves you from having to reload
Super Tough reduces the damage you’ll take from each hit
Super Net lets you immobilize other players
Super Punch lets you attack with a powerful punch
Super Rumble is aiming to offer a fast-paced experience, which serves up to two to six players, with each match lasting five minutes. The game also serves as a launching point for a new integrated system of player levels, quests, rewards, the latter of which includes avatar clothing, emotes, and nameplate titles.
Check out the action below:
We’ve seen a few first-party worlds alongside a number of third-party brand engagement experiences on Horizon Worlds since the platform launched in late 2021, however going the ‘full featured’ minigame route is a fairly recent move that has more potential to attract and keep users. It’s certainly helped Rec Room to become one of the most prolific social VR platforms to thrive on both VR headsets and traditional flatscreen devices.
Interestingly enough, this comes only one day after Meta opened Quest up the online gaming powerhouse Roblox, which is in direct competition with Horizon Worlds. Now, Quest users can choose between Roblox, Rec Room, VRChat, Horizon Worlds, and Gym Class to name a few of the top free social VR platforms.
Apple unveiled Vision Pro on Monday, its long-awaited standalone headset capable of both virtual and augmented reality. While the Cupertino tech giant seems to be emphasizing Vision Pro’s AR capabilities thanks to its color passthrough cameras, it’s also going to pack one of VR’s most prominent social apps, Rec Room.
Apple’s launch of Vision Pro is still a good bit away—it’s coming first to the US in early 2024 at the hefty price of $3,500. Still, what apps the Fruit Company will allow on the undoubtedly very curated Vision App Store will be telling.
As first noted by UploadVR, among them will be the hit social VR game Rec Room, which so far shares cross-compatibility with SteamVR, Meta Quest, Meta PC VR, PSVR, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, iOS, Android, and standard monitors via Steam.
Rec Room was the only native VR app shown during the part of the keynote discussing third-part apps, which are coming to the headset via Apple’s integration of the Unity game engine.
Notably, Vision Pro doesn’t offer any sort of motion controller, instead relying on hand and eye-tracking, and voice input. In the past, Rec Room has primarily targeted motion controllers for VR input, however the apps is also set to bring both full-body avatars and new hand models to the platform, which will seemingly do away with the game’s wristless mitten-hands.
Rec Room, the popular social VR platform, is putting on its first in-game music festival this weekend, suitably dubbed ‘Rec Rocks’.
The immersive concert experience is set to take place this weekend, March 11th & 12th, and feature headliners Tokyo Machine (EDM) and pianist/singer/songwriter Ethan Bortnick.
Check out the full list of artists below:
Tokyo Machine – EDM
Ethan Bortnick – Alt-Pop
Haven – Pop
Charlie Curtis Beard -Rap
Suzy Shinn – Rock
The Royal Foundry – Alt
Akintoye – Rap
Clinton Kane – Pop
Rec Room says its free two-day music festival will let you explore virtual stages set in the environment of an open canyon, with Tokyo Machine kicking things off on the mainstage on March 11th with his electrifying beat, which will also include some new tracks too.
Image courtesy Rec Room
“The first time I played Rec Room 6 years ago I was blown away by how immersive the games like laser tag and ping-pong could be”, said Tokyo Machine. “I’m super pumped to be a part of Rec Rocks and will be premiering a whole set of unreleased songs with a performance that will be unlike what my fans have seen before!”
Ethan Bortnick will take the main stage on March 12th where he will perform fan-favorite tracks. Bortnick previously hosted an in-game prom for the Rec Room community last spring after he missed out on his in-real-life prom due to COVID-19.
“Rec Room will be the first stop on my 2023 tour,” said Bortnick. “As the technology in Rec Room continues to advance, that allows for even more elaborate lighting, staging and the entire set is crazier and showcases everything I can’t do in a real live setting”, Bortnick said.
The Royal Foundry | Image courtesy Rec Room
The free music festival is set to include exclusive artist merch, and Community Creator Booths where festival-goers can buy in-game inventions and merch from the creator community.
Check out the full schedule of the music festival here to see when performances are set to kick off. To attend Rec Rocks, make sure to download and setup your Rec Room account across your chosen device, which includes iOS, Android, Steam (flstacreen), SteamVR headsets, Meta Quest, Meta PC VR, PlayStation 4/5, PSVR, and Xbox.
Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR platform for Quest users, is expanding with alpha tests of new members-only spaces, allowing creators to manage up to 150 card-carrying members in their private worlds. Meta says it’s also gearing up to release Horizon Worlds on non-Quest devices for the first time.
Meta is now rolling out alpha access to its new members-only worlds, which aims to let creators build and cultivate a space in Horizon Worlds. Each members-only world can have up to 150 members, although only 25 concurrent visitors can gather at any given time.
“Every community develops its own norms, etiquette, and social rules over time as it fosters a unique culture,” the company says in a blogpost. “To enable that, we’ll provide the tools that allow the creators of members-only worlds to set the rules for their communities and maintain those rules for their closed spaces.”
Meta says moderation responsibilities can be shared among trusted members, so creators can better control who gets in and who’s kicked out, however the company says its Code of Conduct for Virtual Experiences is still in effect in privately owned spaces.
What’s more, the Quest-only social platform is also going to be available on the Web and mobile devices “soon”, the company says, adding that rules will be made and enforced “similarly to how mobile operating systems manage experiences on their platforms.”
As it is today, Horizon Worlds plays host to a growing number of user-generated content in addition to first-party worlds. The release of Horizon Worlds outside of Quest would represent a massive potential influx of users and user-generated content, putting it in direct competition with cross-platform social gaming titans such as Roblox and Rec Room.
As a similar free-to-play app, Horizon Worlds offers an Avatar Store featuring premium digital outfits—very likely only a first step in the company’s monetization strategy. For now, the company says it allows creators to earn revenue from purchases people make in their worlds, which includes hardware platform fees and a Horizon Worlds fee, which Meta says is 25 percent.
In late October, Meta showed off a tempting preview of its next-gen avatars, although it’s clear there’s still a ton of work to be done to satisfy its existing userbase. Floating torsos are still very much a thing in Horizon Worlds, and that’s despite Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insistence that full body tracking was in the works. It was too good to be true.
For now, Horizon Worlds is only available on Quest 2 headsets in the US, Canada, UK, France, Iceland, Ireland and Spain—something we hope they change well before it ushers in flatscreen users.
Rec Room announced it’s partnering with the National Football League (NFL) to bring a host of officially licensed virtual merch to the social VR platform.
Kicking off today, Rec Room will feature a new NFL pop-up shop where users can buy NFL-licensed virtual hoodies and hats, which includes all 32 NFL teams.
Although we were hoping for an official NFL football mini-game too, the studio says its’ also launching a photobooth in the platform’s ‘Rec Center’ hub which will also let fans show off their NFL-licensed gear by snapping a few photos for social.
The platform has played host to similar events in the past, with an NBA event last year bringing team jerseys and branded basketballs to the platform. More recently, Rec Room signed a deal with Mattel to release avatar items based on the world ofMasters of the Universe.
Rec Room now boasts over 82 million lifetime users, which is in part thanks to the fact that it’s free to download across basically all major platforms, including mobile, PC, console, standalone VR and PC VR.
This, combined with a $3.5 billion valuation thanks to over $294 million in outside funding to date, has undoubtedly allowed the company to expand its selection of first-party mini-games, which include activities such as paintball, offroad racing, co-op dungeons, and more.
Moreover, the studio has since monetized its free-to-play app with the addition of premium paid memberships, which unlocks the ability for users to not only earn in-game currency by creating and selling items, but also convert it into actual cash. The platform’s premium users create things like rooms, gadgets, avatar items, and mini-games—all of it designed to pull in users and get them spending in app’s in-game currency.
Not ready to plonk down your first $100 on Quest 2 games? Thankfully there’s an impressive number of free games, experiences, apps, and social VR platforms to keep you playing before you’re paying.
We have however included App Lab games. If you want to see more, SideQuest’s search function is a great resource for finding free stuff and demos. Below you’ll find some of the top App Lab games in addition to those hosted on the official store.
Free Games
Blaston
This shooting game just went free-to-play, letting you take on friends, family and foes head-to-head in 1v1 dueling action. Refine your loadout and jump into the action as you scramble for weapons and send a volley of hellfire as your enemies, all the while Matrix dodging through this innovative bullet hell meets futuristic dueling title. Spend money on cosmetics, or don’t: it’s a massive slice of fun any which way.
There aren’t a ton of free-to-play shooters out there that promise multiplayer action, however Gun Raiders fits the bill with its multiple game modes that let you jetpack through the air, climbing from wall to wall, and shoot down the competition. There’s the same sort of microtransactions you see in bigger games, but it they’re all avatar skin stuff, so no pay-to-win here.
Ultimechs should look pretty familiar: it’s basically Rocket League, but instead of driving around in cars, you’re given rocket-powered fists to punch balls into the goal. Online multiplayer includes both 1v1 and 2v2 matches, offering up tons of opportunities to earn cosmetic gear that will let you outfit your battle mech into something unique. There are also now two paid battle passes too, offering up a ton of cosmetics to set you apart from the competition.
Battle Talent is one of those fighting sims that let you go ham on ragdoll baddies, which in this case are wily goblins and loads of skelingtons. This physics-based roguelite action game lets you climb, run and slide your way through levels as you slash, shoot, and wield magic against your foes.
From the studio that brought you the award-winning puzzle game, I Expect You to Die, comes the room-scale mixed reality experience Home Sweet Home, which offers up a new way to defuse potentially lethal situations, and all in the comforting backdrop of your own living room thanks to Quest 2’s passthrough mixed reality function.
Ever wanted to play Counter-Strike on Quest? Pavlov Shack offers up a pretty comparable experience, as you play in either deathmatch or co-op mode. It’s got all of the realistic gunplay and much of the fun of the paid PC VR title, but it’s still going strong with a free open beta on Quest.
Zero-g sports aren’t possible unless you’re stationed on the ISS, and even then you probably shouldn’t muck about. In this fast-paced game of ultimate frisbee-meets-hockey-meets-whatever you’ll launch at speed to the goal, evade the opposing team and chuck your Tron-style frisbee-thing for the win. Remember: you can smash your opponent in the face, but please follow the same suggestions mentioned in Gorilla Tag above.
Freshly launched into open beta, this 4v4 arena-scale shooter requires space and Quest 2 (or Quest Pro) owning buddies—both of which you may not have. Still, it makes for an incredible time that is basically the best version of laser tag you’ve ever played. You’ll need SideQuest to download this one since it disables Quest’s guardian system, but it’s well worth jumping through the hoops to get working if you have everything else.
This humble game of tag has taken both SideQuest and App Lab by storm with its infectious gameplay, and it’s now made its way to the official store. You’ll be lumbering around a tree-lined arena using its unique grab-the-world locomotion style that lets you amble around like a great ape. Chase the other apes and infect them or climb for your life as the infected chase you. Pure and simple. Make sure you’re far from TVs, furniture, babies, and pets because you will punch something in the mad dash for sweet, low-poly freedom.
No real cash gambling here, but PokerStars VR not only let you go all-in on games of Texas Hold’em, but now a full casino’s worth of table games a machines that are sure to light up the dopamine starved pleasure centers of your brain. It’s all free play, so you won’t be risking real cash unless you buy in-game chips, which cannot be turned back into real money: it’s only to keep your bankroll flush for free play.
Gym Class – Basketball is the solution if you’re looking to shoot some hoops and dunk like you probably can’t on a physical court. Online multiplayer lets you go head-to-head for a pretty convincing game of b-ball thanks to the game’s physics-based and full-body kinematics.
This plucky roguelite dungeon crawler is still in beta (still!), but there’s a reason it’s become an App Lab favorite. Explore a vast dungeon to explore, housing plenty of baddies just asking for the steel of your sword, knives, and arrows. You’ll climb over deep pits, dodge lethal traps, and search for hidden treasures. Smash all the pots and crates you can before it officially launches on Quest sometime in the near future.
Would-be wizards, this is your time to shine. Explore a magical laboratory and take on the job of apprentice wizard. The lab is full of gadgets and magical stuff to mess around with; as one of the games that natively supports Quest’s hand tracking, you can put your controllers down and get experimenting with this little slice of the dark arts.
Since the recent Fishin’ Buddies update, this classic VR title has gotten a whole new lease on life as a multiplayer VR fishing game that lets you sit back and crack a cold one with the boys as you reel in the big’uns. The additional social areas also let you sit back between your fishing adventures to take part in casual mini-games.
Without a doubt one of the most fun, and most expansive VR titles out there… and it’s free. Sure, you can pay real cash for in-game tokens to buy spiffy clothes for your avatar, but that’s really up to you. Gads of mini-games await you in both first-party creations such as the ever so popular co-op Quests—that could be games in their own right—to user-created stuff that will keep your pocket book gathering dust. It’s social VR, so meet people and have a ball for zero dollarydoos. Fair warning: there’s a ton of kids.
If you’ve been anywhere near the Internet in the last few years, it’s likely you’ve already heard about VRChat, the user-generated social VR space filled with… well… everything you can imagine, re-pro games included like Among Us, Mario Kart, and even a version of Beat Saber. Fashion your own avatar or download the millions of user-generated avatars out there so you can embody SpongeBob, Kirito from Sword Art Online, or any one of the million anime girl avatars that you’re bound to see there.
Horizon Worlds is still taking baby steps, although recent efforts have brought more tools and user-generated content to the platform which has rounded out things to make it more competitive with Rec Room and VRChat. You may want to check in just to see the state of Meta’s first-party VR social platform—and then check right out again—but at the price of ‘free’, you may just find an environment or community you really gel with, which is the whole reason behind social VR in the first place.
Social VR platform Rec Room is getting another big brand collaboration with the limited-time release of avatar items based on the world of Masters of the Universe, which will let you transform into He-Man, Teela, or the dastardly Skeletor.
From December 15th to March 31st, Rec Room users will be able to don the armor inspired by the legendary heroes and boney villain from the Masters of the Universe franchise. To get a copy of the avatar items, just visit the stylized pop-up of Castle Grayskull which will be in the platform’s Rec Center hub.
Ok, so He-Man is clearly missing the massive, rippling muscles you’ll see in all of the franchise’s cartoons, which include the original ’80s show, 2002 reboot, and 2021 re-reboots, but the trailer is certainly on point with everything else:
The collaboration represents another big step for Rec Room, as content is based on the official Masters of the Universe IP owned by Mattel. In the past, Rec Room has run similar events too, such as its collaboration with the NBA to bring team jerseys and branded basketballs to the platform and an event featuring popular YouTuber Mr. Beast.
As a platform that tends to skew to the younger crowd thanks to it not only being free, but available cross-platform across essentially all flatscreen devices and VR headsets, the He-Man licensing agreement may prove as a valuable test case for similar brand engagement vehicles in the future. After all, Mattel owns a mountain of kid-friendly IP that may just as well fit in the growing platform, including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Polly Pocket, Thomas & Friends, Monster High, Bob The Builder, and Pingu to name a few.
And all of that’s possible thanks to Rec Room’s $294 million lifetime financing and reported $3.5 billion valuation. Since the studio last reported Q1 2022 data, Rec Room has attracted over 75 million lifetime users across all platforms, with a reported 29 million active players worldwide.
