The popular online gaming platform Roblox is about to become far more accessible to those who want to experience it in virtual reality.
Meta has announced that the platform’s 66 million daily users will be able to play the game in virtual reality on Quest 2, Quest Pro and the upcoming Quest 3 in the near future.
“With over 15 million active experiences and counting, Roblox will offer a vast library of content for the Quest community to explore,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Crucially for a social platform, the Quest version will support cross-play, meaning those playing on the Quest headset will be able to play with their friends on Xbox, PC or mobile.
It doesn’t sound like this will be a cut-back experience like some virtual reality ports. Indeed, the company stresses that most Roblox experiences “typically run well in VR without modifications”.
Roblox elaborated on this point in a post on its developer forum. “Traditionally, developing a VR experience required a team that had VR-specific experience and skills,” the company wrote. “With Roblox, developers will soon be able to publish their existing experiences to support VR with little to no additional coding effort required. This is because Roblox is designed to be universal, allowing the same experiences to run everywhere.”
This isn’t the first time Roblox has come to virtual reality but it will be by far the most accessible. You can currently play Roblox in VR with the Oculus Quest, HTC Vive or Valve Index headsets but all of these require a connection to a host PC. You can even run the game via the Quest headset in this manner too.
The dedicated Quest port will be considerably easier to get up and running, downloadable from the Quest Store with no additional gaming PC required.
It is also likely to be far more popular, given the runaway success of Meta’s Quest headset relative to dedicated PC solutions.
Rated 13+
Roblox as a platform is especially popular with children, which has caused well-publicised problems in the past related to out-of-control microtransactions, inappropriate content and worries about grooming. Suffice it to say, parents should familiarise themselves with the Roblox parental controls if their child wants to join the game in virtual reality.
Interestingly, despite recently announcing plans to open the Quest up to those aged between 10 and 13, Roblox will carry a 13+ rating on the platform, Meta said. That is in contrast to the original game, with the official Roblox site dividing in-game experiences between 17+, 13+, 9+ and “all ages” categories.
But even if you’re happy with your child playing a supervised version of the game on mobile or console, you may want to think carefully about the virtual reality version. Experts believe that there isn’t clear evidence that virtual reality headsets are safe for under 13s, despite Meta’s recent change in policy.
