Owlchemy Labs has been a powerhouse of top-selling VR video games, so when the Google-owned studio launched Dimensional Double Shift in beta final 12 months at no cost, it wasn’t instantly clear why the studio behind Job Simulator (2016) was making its first stride into freemium territory. With over 500,000 downloads now although, it’s evident they noticed the writing on the wall: free-to-play on Quest is extra profitable than ever due to Quest 3S.
Like Job Simulator and its sequel Trip Simulator (2019), Dimensional Double Shift duties gamers with jobbing round a patently wacky universe, this time working a mixture storage and diner station, the place you and three different gamers can repair up each vehicles and grub for alien patrons.
There’s a bit of extra beneath the hood than simply being basically a free-to-play multiplayer model of Job Simulator although. Whereas Dimensional Double Shift replicates the type of immersive and straightforward to select up mechanics of the studio’s most profitable titles, additionally being one of many first designed solely for hand-tracking, the launch of Quest 3S has seen a big inflow of youthful customers, which undoubtedly has been a giant driver.
And because it goes, youthful players sometimes spend extra time in social video games, much less cash on premium purchases, and extra on in-app purchases—which means free-to-play video games are seeing a giant enhance proper now.
In addition, Dimensional Double Shift’s 500,000 obtain milestone follows a rising pattern of veterans and indie studios alike hoping to strike it massive with freemium titles, ostensibly aiming to copy the viral success of One other Axiom’s breakout hit Gorilla Tag, which generated over $100 million in gross income final summer season.
“We’re constructing a social-first platform, and these youthful customers usually tend to spend time with buddies in multiplayer experiences and social hangout apps,” Meta’s Metaverse Content material chief Samantha Ryan stated final month. “They’re contributing to the rise of free-to-play titles—a sample traditionally widespread on different platforms. We’re additionally seeing progress of youthful customers in Horizon Worlds.”
And Meta is aware of full properly it wants a Gorilla Tag—or a number of Gorilla Tags—of its personal on Horizon Worlds too. Meta just lately introduced a $50 million fund to incentivize the creation of recent and improved content material in Horizon Worlds, aiming to draw builders to construct on the social platform what they could in any other case launch as self-contained apps, with the fund designed to pay out bonuses to creators of worlds that drive excessive visits, retention and in-app purchases.
