Valve’s recent launch of an app on Meta’s platform, along with Meta’s CTO praising it, highlights the remarkable evolution of the VR industry.
The Steam Link Quest app was officially launched on the Quest Store, gaining Meta’s approval. This app allows users to play SteamVR games wirelessly, such as Half-Life: Alyx and Boneworks, as well as traditional non-VR Steam games, on a large virtual screen.
In a tweet by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, he described Valve’s app as the “easiest way by far to stream your PC games to Quest headsets”.
This development challenges the traditional perception of Meta and Valve as fierce competitors in the VR space. The introduction of Steam Link for Quest, along with Bosworth’s endorsement, may require a revision of this widely-held view.
Steam vs The Oculus Rift Store
Valve and Oculus had a close collaboration in the early stages of the Rift’s development in 2013, following Gabe Newell’s endorsement of Palmer Luckey’s Kickstarter campaign in 2012.
However, less than a decade later, the Rift headset was officially replaced by the Link mode of Quest headsets. The events that transpired in the intervening years have been largely shrouded in professional secrecy, although books like Blake Harris’ History Of The Future have offered glimpses behind the scenes. For those unfamiliar with these developments, here’s a brief recap:
In early 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus, hiring many of Valve’s top VR engineers. This was seen as a long-term threat to Steam, prompting Valve to collaborate with HTC on the Vive, a Rift competitor with direct Steam integration. Despite starting as the market leader, the Vive was eventually surpassed by the Rift, largely due to Facebook’s aggressive price cuts, exclusive games, and preferred controllers.
In 2019, Valve launched the Index at $1000 for the full kit. However, it was around this time that the standalone Oculus Quest gained traction, leading Facebook to shift away from PC VR. By 2021, the Rift S headset was discontinued, and the last major Rift Store exclusive was released.
Lone Echo II Is The Last Oculus Rift Platform Exclusive
Lone Echo II for the Oculus Rift platform on August 24th will mark the end of an era as the last exclusive project funded by Facebook for its PC VR platform. We’ve known it was coming for quite a long time with Facebook ending sales of
During this transitional period, unofficial SteamVR streaming apps like Virtual Desktop, and later the official Oculus Link, transformed Quest headsets into the most prevalent way to access SteamVR content. As of October, 42% of headsets used for SteamVR were Quests, and this figure has often exceeded 50% in multiple months.
Meta’s VR initiatives no longer pose a threat to Steam. In fact, Meta’s headsets have become a significant asset for VR on Steam. The launch of Steam Link on the Quest store serves to streamline the user experience and eliminate the need for intermediary software.
A Changed Competitive Landscape
Meta no longer competes directly in the PC platform space. The Oculus PC app has only received minor maintenance updates for years, and Link does not support 120Hz on Quest 3.
Bosworth’s statement becomes historically significant when considering that Facebook previously barred Wi-Fi PC VR streaming on the Quest Store. The developer of Virtual Desktop, Guy Godin, was compelled to remove this feature from the Quest Store build for almost two years, until just months before Meta introduced its Air Link feature.
Bosworth’s comment does not explicitly mention “VR”, but the fact that he would praise Steam Link over Meta’s own Air Link, and the fact that Valve launched it on Quest, is a clear indication of the substantial evolution of the VR industry since the early days of consumer VR, and even since the initial years of Quest. With Apple entering the fray, could we witness even greater collaboration between companies that were once perceived as adversaries?
