Oculus planning a stricter, 'quality-first' approach for Quest app submissions

Devs will be required to go through a stricter approval process if they want to land a game on Oculus’ standalone Quest headset. 

The company now requires developers to submit a concept document before they can start the store submission process or access non-public development resources, a step Oculus says aims to assess the quality and potential market success of a potential Quest project. 

It’s a step detailed in a recent post on the Oculus Developer blog, and one that VR developers will want to take a look at before concept submissions open up in March. While Oculus says that a quality-first approach will ultimately benefit developers that launch Quest games, news of a stricter approval process could be worrying to those developers that were already banking on a Quest game launch or port down the line.

Oculus says it’s taking a quality-first approach with games and apps on the Quest with the goal of ensuring that the platform becomes a successful content ecosystem for both developers and players. To do that, the company says it’s important to curate its storefront and lead with high-quality, innovative titles from indie and triple-A developers alike.

“The goal of this change is developer success on our platform,” explains the post. “If we feel that your app is not a fit for Quest, we'd like to let you know that early in the development process, before you've made significant production investments, rather than at the end. That means it's important to submit a concept document for review as early in your development cycle as possible.”

The concept document is expected to be a 3-slide presentation that runs through the concept for a Quest application, team experience, investment, and other information.

The publishing guidelines for the Quest, meanwhile, are more or less the same as the Oculus Developer Content Guidelines, with a focus on “high-quality, polished experiences, especially those that demonstrate the deep, surprising, delightful, and moving experiences possible in VR and are custom-made for the untethered immersion Quest offers.”