With the Oculus Rift and Gear VR ecosystems so closely knit together, it makes sense that some games appearing on both systems would offer cross-buy promotions. The first title to do just that has now been revealed
OZWE’s Anshar Wars 2 is that title. The third-person space combat adventure first hit the Gear VR – which is made in partnership between Oculus and Samsung – late last year but has launched on the Oculus Rift too this week at a price of $9.99. As you’d expect, the new version includes all the content already available on Gear. The game’s visuals have also been improved thanks to the extra power afforded by the PC. But OZWE has also included one other notable element; cross-buy support.
That means you can buy one version of the game and get the other completely free provided you’ve got your Oculus account consistent across both platforms. It’s a similar approach to what can be seen between PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita as well as Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. This is the first case of this happening on these platforms after much request from the VR community. In the past Oculus itself has said it’s open to such scenarios though it’s up to the developer to offer them. Hopefully other studios porting between systems will follow in OZWE’s footsteps.
There are plenty of games appearing on both Gear VR and Oculus Rift that could also benefit from this promotion, including Gunjack, Into the Dead, and Herobound: Spirit Champion. On top of this, we’d also like to see further examples of cross-play support, in which players can compete online whether on Rift or Gear, and cross-save, where you can save your game on one headset and that continue on another.
Still, Anshar Wars 2‘s release is a first step towards this better connected ecosystem. Gear VR even received an update earlier this week that revamped the Oculus Home menu and brought it much closer in line with the Rift equivalent.
