Facebook's Oculus acquires Beat Games – CNET

Facebook has brought Beat Games into the Oculus fold, announcing the acquisition Tuesday afternoon. The virtual reality games studio will be an independently operated studio under Oculus in Prague. According to Facebook, Beat Saber content and updates will continue, but with additional support from the social media giant.

Beat Saber is the top-selling VR game on Valve’s Steam Store, with players slicing through bricks to the beat of a song. Facebook launched its wireless, portable VR headset, the Oculus Quest, with Beat Saber. The Quest allows full six degrees of freedom (6DoF) room motion. 

Facebook says it zeroed in on acquiring Beat Games because the studio has a “strong team with proven potential across VR, games and music.” Beat Games is still promising to add more music and features to Beat Saber, including shipping 360° Levels mode in December.

“What the community has come to love about Beat Saber will remain intact,” Mike Verdu, director of AR/VR Content for Facebook’s Oculus, said. “Facebook and the Beat Games team know that there is so much more that can be done across VR, games, and music. They have only scratched the surface with Beat Saber in terms of social features, new modes, music and more.”

The two will “push VR to new heights,” Verdu added. Facebook will allow modding to continue on the game, as long as it’s done legally and within its policies.

As for whether Facebook plans to acquire other VR gaming studios, Oculus says the Beat acquisition “is just the beginning.”