Gaming: Facebook Acquires Game Studio BigBox VR

Facebook has added BigBox VR to its list of VR-related acquisitions. The tech company announced this on Friday. BigBox VR is the maker of the popular “Population: One” and is based in Seattle. This acquisition follows the acquisition of Downpour Interactive; maker of the VR shooter “Onward”, which Facebook acquired in April.

“Population: One”, BigBox’s major studio title was one Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 headset big post-launch releases. It copies a number of Key gameplay techniques while adapting them for the movements unique to virtual reality, making it an impressive Fortnite clone. The terms of the deal was not disclosed, as the case is with most of these types of deals.

According to Mark Verdu; Vice President of content at Facebook Reality Labs, “POP:ONE stormed onto the VR scene just nine months ago and has consistently ranked as one the top-performing titles on the Oculus platform, bringing together up to 24 people at the same time to connect, play, and compete in a virtual world and while social is bringing players into POP:ONE, the quirky humor, continual updates, and pure fun of the environment keeps them coming back time and time again – we’ve seen players scheduling time to meet in-game for a synchronous social experience”.

According to a statement the Facebook Vice President of content at Facebook Reality Labs said in February, “Population: One” has earned more than $10 million on the Oculus store after just a few months of appearing. Mark Verdu says that this alone qualifies describing “POP:ONE” as a hit. The game is available on Steam and on the Oculus store and the Mark Verdu has assured that it will “continue to be supported on all its current platforms”. Information on BlackBox’s website says the game will continue to receive regular updates.

It is still quite some mystery as to what changes the acquisition might bring and Facebook isn’t ready to let the cat out of the bag just yet. Mark Verdu said that “BigBox VR has big plans for the future of POP:ONE and for other projects, but we’re not ready to share details at this time”.

Other VR studios that Facebook has acquired in the past include Onward developer Downpour Interactive in April of this year, the creator of Lone Echo – Ready at Dawn in June last year, Sanzaru Games; maker of Asgard’s Wrath in February of 2020, and Beat Saber developer Beat Games in November of 2019.