For those who bought the new Oculus Quest 2 hoping to enjoy some of the Oculus Go titles may find themselves disappointed. The company revealed that the Quest 2 will not have any access to the games and apps that the previous system was able to use from Go.
Back in June, the Oculus Go was discontinued but users were able to access its contents through emulation on the Oculus Quest. However, not every game and app was going to be backwards compatible with the Quest. Despite that, Quest owners were still able to access a decent enough of the collection of games and apps that Go had to offer during its lifetime. Thanks to the original Quest’s UI interface, it was possible to enjoy the games from Go. That all changed once production on the original Quest ended in September this year with the release of the new Quest 2.
With the release of the Oculus Quest 2, many users figured out that there was a lack of the UI interface that allowed anyone to access the Go apps and games. In a response from a user on Twitter, Oculus CTO John Carmack then tweeted that the company wouldn’t be supporting any Go titles moving forward on the Quest 2. This latest update may upset users looking forward to playing any of the games on Go with the new Oculus Quest 2. Not much information was available on why support was not included other than the fact that Carmack “totally lost the internal debate over backwards compatibility.”
The Oculus Go made its way to the public in 2018, becoming the first standalone VR headset in the market. It was in 2019 when Facebook brought the Go apps onto the first Quest. They were accessible until this past June when Facebook decided to discontinue support over Go in order to focus their attention on the Quest.
While this is unexpected, it doesn’t take away the fact of how advanced the new Oculus Quest 2 is with its new hardware. Carmack has been a supporter for bringing Go emulation to the Quest by bringing it to the original headset, so it does come off as a bit of a surprise. Despite having many games to play on the Quest 2, it seems like the only way to enjoy any Go-exclusive app or game is with the first generation devices.