Facebook is buying the developer behind VR shooter ‘Onward’
After a steady stream of studio acquisitions in late 2019 and early 2020, Facebook has been a little quieter in recent months when its came to bulking up its VR content arm.
Today, the social media giant breaks that stream, announcing their acquisition of Downpour Interactive, the developer of the popular VR first-person shooter Onward. The title, which is available on the company’s Rift and Quest platforms, as well as through Valve’s Steam store, has been among virtual reality’s top sellers in recent years.
Facebook says that the title will continue to be available on non-Facebook VR hardware going forward.
Virtual reality is so old now that Nasa s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was working on it way back in 1977. Despite these surprisingly storied origins, tech’s perennial “next big thing” never quite managed its moment in the sun over the following five decades or so. After 2016 came and went – when the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR all arrived to muted fanfare – you had to wonder if VR was ever going to come good on its tantalising promise. A bit like Tottenham Hotspur winning a major trophy or vegan cheese that doesn’t taste gross.
Then last Christmas, when we were least expecting it, virtual reality finally hit its inflection point. The culprit? Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 headset, which has sold more than 1.1 million units since its launch in October 2020 according to