February 25, 2020 – Oculus has today announced that Sanzaru Games is joining Facebook in order to help the company “pursue a future of rich, immersive, and original VR game content.”
Sanzaru is a game developer which has shipped titles to multiple platforms in the past. In terms of VR, it has created four titles for the Oculus Platform since 2016 (Ripcoil, VR Sports Challenge, MARVEL Powers United VR, and Asgard’s Wrath), when it was the first developer to partner with the Oculus Studios team. According to Oculus, Sanzaru approaches game design with three pillars in mind: great design, beautiful art (including animation and audio), and strong tech. It is this foundation that has enabled Sanzaru to build its Asgard’s Wrath title, and it’s a strong foundation that Oculus anticipates Sanzaru will continue to build upon as VR moves forward.
Sanzaru Games was one of the earliest development houses to take steps towards pioneering a whole new language of game design, according to Oculus. The company added that just a few months ago, players saw the state of VR gaming make a “huge leap forward” with the launch of Asgard’s Wrath, a title that Oculus states “redefined what a full-length, fully-featured VR game looks like.”
The success of that title has likely played a part in Facebook’s decision to ultimately acquire Sanzaru Games and Oculus states that it has learned a lot from its development and launch. However, the companies have nothing to announce about future projects at this time, nor are they ready to talk about future projects. Sanzaru supposedly has exciting plans for future VR titles and the only comment Oculus would make on those is that it hopes to bring those experiences to as many people as possible.
Oculus has confirmed that the vast majority of Sanzaru will be joining the Oculus Studios team. However, despite Facebook’s absorption of the company, the culture at Sanzaru Games is an aspect of the company that Facebook intends to maintain. As a result, Sanzaru will continue to build VR experiences as an independent studio operating out of its current offices in the US and Canada, but will be supported by Oculus’ latest advancements in VR technology, and will also have the full support of Facebook and the Oculus Studios team.
Oculus states that it is exploring many ways to accelerate VR, and commented: “2020 is going to be an incredible year for VR game launches and announcements”, and that “This is just one of the many amazing VR announcements that we have in store this year.”
Image credit: Sanzaru Games
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.