If you’re a Poker fan we have good news for you- PokerStars VR is coming to the upcoming Oculus Quest $399 standalone VR headset.
The non-VR PokerStars is the largest online real-money Poker platform in the world, with around two thirds market share. The company worked with developer Lucky VR to launch a virtual reality version of the platform. It was released in November on the Oculus Rift and SteamVR platforms. It’s free to play, but you buy chips with real money.
Facebook shared this short clip of PokerStars VR running on Quest:
The graphics look to be noticeably downgraded compared to PC, particularly the lighting. That’s because Quest uses a mobile processor, making it significantly less powerful than a gaming PC. The actual gameplay however is identical, and Quest players play alongside PC VR players.
Poker is a natural fit for virtual reality due to the social nature of the game. While VR headsets don’t track expressions yet, being able to see head and hand movements and hearing opponents with positional audio is a big step up from playing on a monitor. The game uses the Oculus Avatars system to achieve this.
PokerStars VR offers five different environments, from China in the year 2050 to a yacht to a wild west saloon. You can order drinks, throw food, smoke a cigar, or interact with other similar novelty items. On both Oculus Store and Steam the game is highly reviewed, so it seems Lucky VR know what they’re doing.
The developer claims that Quest opens up “new level of accessibility” for the game- “Being able to set up independently means players have more freedom to play how they want and whenever they want.”
