HTC VP: I disagree with Oculus’s strategy a lot

The VP of global VR for HTC has slammed VR rival Oculus for its walled garden approach to VR content.

Joel Breton told GameSpot that HTC has an internal policy to encourage its development partners to release their titles on as many platforms as possible. Oculus, in contrast, has come in for a lot of criticism for paying for platform exclusive releases on the Rift.

I disagree with their strategy a lot,” Barton said of Oculus. I just feel that they’re essentially hampering developers’ ability to create large communities by blocking them out from other platforms.”

Some, such as DayZ creator Dean Hall, have argued that the financial perks of platform exclusivity are key to making VR development profitable for developers. Breton does not agree, however.

It’s problematic for the developer’s long-term success, because by not developing relative to the market size, and sort of putting more cash in than the market can ever recoup, or the developer can ever recoup,” he argued. They’re learning how to make content at that level, and then when they try to make their next game, they’re going to struggle because they’re not able to develop at the size and scope that the market is at.

At Vive Studios, we’re platform agnostic, and we encourage developers to be the same. What I mean by that is [developers should] develop for all VR platforms that make sense. We create first party content, second party content, and support third party developers. And we encourage all of those, including our own internal studios, to put their content on all platforms because that gives them the best opportunity for two things which are critical.

One, to make more money, to generate more revenue, but also to build a community, because beyond money, the most important thing for a developers is to build a community around the game. So by having their content only on one platform, say Vive, they’re going to be blocking out a bunch of the market. So if it’s possible to port your game [to other VR platforms]… then we encourage developers to do that.”