VR exclusivity deals are one of the most controversial topics in the industry right now, and it looks like the developer of Serious Sam VR just fuelled the fire significantly.
Mario Kotlar, a Level and Game Designer at Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope developer Croteam, recently revealed that Oculus VR offered the team a “shitton of money” to make its latest creation temporarily exclusive to the Oculus Rift, making HTC Vive users wait to play the game. The topic started up in a debate about the news that Giant Cop, a VR game first announced for the HTC Vive, will now be a timed exclusive for Rift, causing outcry from the VR community.
“It wasn’t easy, but we turned down a shitton of money, as we believe that truly good games will sell by themselves and make profit in the long run regardless,” Kotlar wrote. “And also because we hate exclusives as much as you do.”
He wouldn’t confirm the final sum of money that was offered to the developer.
Exclusivity deals such as this are proving highly unpopular in the vocal VR community, especially in the case of PC-based VR. Oculus has been working with a wide range of developers under an ‘Oculus Studios’ banner to create full exclusives for the Rift, recent examples of which include The Climb from Crytek and Edge of Nowhere from Insomniac Games. Valve and HTC, however, are taking an exclusive-free stance with the HTC Vive, which has put Oculus under even more pressure. Fortunately, Serious Sam VR won’t be subject to this controversy.
Serious Sam VR was announced today and is instead being published by Devolver Digital. It’s a first-person shooter in which players are cast as the titular character, fighting off waves of alien enemies with dual-wielding weapons using position-tracked controllers. An Early Access version of the game will be releasing in Summer 2016 on both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the type of exclusivity agreement Oculus sought with the developers of Serious Sam. Oculus sought a timed exclusive for Serious Sam that would have it launch first on the Rift.
