Oculus Venues
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| Oculus Venues | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Type | Social VR |
| Industry | Virtual reality, live entertainment |
| Developer | Oculus (Facebook, later Meta Platforms) |
| Supported Devices | Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Quest, Quest 2 |
| Release Date | May 30, 2018 (Oculus Go and Gear VR); July 24, 2019 (Oculus Quest) |
Oculus Venues was a social virtual reality app from Oculus, owned by Facebook (later Meta Platforms), in which people watched live and scheduled events such as concerts, sports, stand-up comedy and film screenings together as avatars in a virtual audience. It launched on 30 May 2018 for the Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR, and came to the Oculus Quest on 24 July 2019.[1][2] Facebook did not film the events itself; the video came from partners, with NextVR capturing many of them.[1][3]
The app dropped the Oculus prefix in 2020, when a redesigned beta called simply "Venues" began rolling out on Quest, and it was later part of the Meta Horizon brand as Horizon Venues.[4][5] Meta closed the standalone app on 6 June 2022 and moved its event programming into a dedicated space inside Horizon Worlds.[6]
History
Announcement (2017)
Mark Zuckerberg announced Oculus Venues during the Oculus Connect 4 keynote in October 2017, describing it as a way to watch live concerts, sports, and film and TV premieres with friends and thousands of other people at the same time. The Oculus blog said "up to 1,000" people could watch together. The keynote demo showed a concert captured with a VR camera, then flat concert footage shown in front of avatars sitting together in a virtual arena. Oculus said the app would be released the following year.[7]
Launch on Oculus Go and Gear VR (2018)
Oculus presented Venues again at Facebook's F8 developer conference on 1 May 2018, with a launch date of 30 May for the Oculus Go and Gear VR. TechCrunch reported that NextVR, which had streamed sports through partnerships with the NBA, NFL, NHL and WWE and concerts through a partnership with Live Nation, was among the content partners. NextVR's chief executive, David Cole, called the app "a bold move to provide profound social VR engagement".[8]
The app went live on 30 May 2018. On Gear VR it ran on most compatible Samsung phones, with the Galaxy Note 4 and Note 5 as exceptions.[3] Content partners at launch included NextVR, AEG Presents, Major League Baseball and Lionsgate.[1] The first event was a Vance Joy concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado that evening. In MIT Technology Review, Erin Winick wrote that attendees "chatted with their virtual seat neighbors and sang along to the music", and that there "were a few connection issues, but for the most part the system operated as planned."[9]
The summer 2018 schedule mixed weekly series with one-off shows: School Night concerts from Hollywood and Gotham Comedy Live stand-up (both captured by NextVR), MLB games under a separate partnership, International Champions Cup football matches, and Lionsgate film screenings such as Reservoir Dogs and Apocalypse Now.[3] Events were listed in the Explore section of the Oculus home menu, where users could subscribe to upcoming shows, and community moderators were present under the Oculus Code of Conduct.[3]
In September 2018 Oculus announced a fall lineup that included 26 NBA games of the 2018-2019 season "produced in VR by NextVR", 14 Lionsgate film screenings, comedy nights including improv shows, concerts, and esports from the VR League in Onward and Echo Arena. Attending an NBA game unlocked a team jersey for the user's Oculus Avatar.[10] The same schedule carried the Oculus Connect 5 keynotes. Oculus product manager Mike LeBeau wrote that keynotes and esports were new formats for the app, and that the team had worked on showing game action and the players in the auditorium together within a 180-degree stream.[10][11]
Oculus Quest (2019)
Oculus Venues launched on the Oculus Quest on 24 July 2019, as part of that month's platform update. Oculus said that on Quest users had "full hand presence and 6DOF tracking".[12] Quest users could join Oculus Go and Gear VR users in the same virtual stadium seating; Road to VR noted that Oculus Rift owners were still left out.[2] The Quest launch lineup began with a live Liverpool vs. Sporting CP football match from Yankee Stadium on 24 July, followed by Tenacious D performing Post-Apocalypto at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, on 31 July.[12]
Venues beta and redesign (2020)
On 13 August 2020 UploadVR reported that a new version of Venues, listed as Beta Early Access, was showing on the Oculus Store for some accounts, while the original app remained as a separate listing. Its avatars moved away from the original Oculus avatar system to a more cartoonish look, which UploadVR said were very likely the avatars used in Facebook Horizon.[13] Facebook then confirmed it was testing a "new and improved version" of Venues on Quest with a small group of people, adding a lobby where users could meet friends and fans and putting more weight on social interaction.[14]
The beta dropped the Oculus prefix and was called simply Venues. According to Road to VR, it added lobbies for socializing before, during and after events, emoji expressions, confetti, fist bumps and high fives, photo and selfie tools, a more detailed avatar creator, and smaller group viewing areas. Venues still required a Facebook login, which Road to VR said had drawn user backlash against the original app. A September 2020 update said access would expand to more people in the following weeks, ahead of that year's Facebook Connect.[4]
Horizon Venues (2021-2022)
When Facebook renamed itself Meta on 28 October 2021 and began phasing out the Oculus brand, Road to VR described the Meta Horizon brand as including Horizon Worlds, Horizon Workrooms and Horizon Venues.[5] In February 2022 UploadVR described Horizon Venues as a Quest-exclusive platform for watching 180-degree livestreams of NBA games, concerts and VR esports together, using the Meta Avatar and requiring an active Facebook account.[15]
On 4 February 2022 Meta introduced a Personal Boundary for Horizon Worlds and Venues, which stops other avatars' forward movement at the edge of an area that Meta said gave the feeling of an "almost 4-foot distance" between avatars. A March 2022 update said the boundary was on by default for everyone in Horizon Venues.[16]
On 13 February 2022 the Foo Fighters gave their VR debut in Horizon Venues with a pre-recorded performance of about 40 minutes after the Super Bowl. The show ran in the app and in web browsers. According to UploadVR, the Venues experience opened only at 8 pm PST, the scheduled start time, and many people could not get in after the lobby crashed; Meta's Horizon vice president Vivek Sharma blamed "unprecedented" demand, and the show was repeated a few hours later.[17]
Closure and move into Horizon Worlds (2022)
On 6 May 2022 Meta announced that Venues events would move into their own space inside Horizon Worlds and that the standalone Venues app would close on 6 June 2022. Meta said it had tested portals between Horizon Venues and Horizon Worlds over the previous months. Venues in Horizon Worlds was open only to people over 18 in the United States and Canada with Horizon Worlds access on Quest 2. Users elsewhere, users aged 13 to 17 and owners of the original Quest lost access to Venues programming when the standalone app closed, although highlights and replays remained available in Oculus TV. A 6 June 2022 update to the post said Venues in Horizon Worlds was live.[6][18] UploadVR noted that the change cut owners of the original Oculus Quest off from Meta's social VR spaces three years after that headset's release.[18]
Features
Venues placed users in a shared virtual venue, such as stadium seating, facing a video feed of the event, and let them talk with the people seated around them.[9][2] Partners such as NextVR captured the events; Facebook did not set up its own cameras.[1] The Oculus Connect 5 esports were shown within a 180-degree stream, and in 2022 UploadVR described Horizon Venues as a place to co-watch 180-degree video livestreams.[11][15] Some events were live and others were scheduled replays or screenings, with times announced in advance and listed in the Oculus menus and the Oculus companion phone app, where users could subscribe to them.[3][10]
| Version | Period | Platforms | Notable additions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oculus Venues | May 2018 to 2020 | Oculus Go, Gear VR; Oculus Quest from July 2019 | Shared virtual seating; community moderators; Oculus Avatar items such as NBA jerseys; on Quest, hand presence and 6DOF tracking[3][10][12] |
| Venues (beta) | From August 2020 | Oculus Quest | Lobbies, emoji and gestures, photo and selfie tools, new avatar creator, smaller group viewing areas[4] |
| Horizon Venues | Until 6 June 2022 | Quest headsets | Meta Avatars; Personal Boundary on by default; tested portals to Horizon Worlds[15][16][6] |
Notable events
| Date | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 30 May 2018 | Vance Joy, Red Rocks Amphitheatre | First event in the app[1][9] |
| Summer 2018 | School Night, Gotham Comedy Live, MLB, International Champions Cup, Lionsgate films | Launch season schedule[3] |
| September 2018 | Oculus Connect 5 keynotes | First keynote streams in Venues[11] |
| 2018-2019 season | 26 NBA games | Produced in VR by NextVR[10] |
| 24 July 2019 | Liverpool vs. Sporting CP, Yankee Stadium | Quest launch event[12] |
| 31 July 2019 | Tenacious D, Post-Apocalypto | Palace Theatre, St. Paul[12] |
| 13 February 2022 | Foo Fighters | Pre-recorded post-Super Bowl show; access problems[17] |
Reception and usage
MIT Technology Review called the launch concert the first time viewers of a live event could "join and talk with large numbers of other digital event-goers", while concluding that VR could not match the thrill of physically attending a live event.[9] In August 2020 Road to VR reported that the original app had a rating of nearly two out of five stars on its Oculus Store page and suggested that user backlash against the required Facebook login might explain it.[4]
In February 2022, according to a source who spoke to The Verge, Meta executives said at an all-hands meeting that Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues together had 300,000 monthly users, and a Meta spokesperson confirmed the figure. UploadVR noted that combining the two apps prevented a direct comparison between Horizon Worlds and Rec Room.[15] The Foo Fighters show that month drew coverage for its connection failures.[17]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lucas Matney (2018-05-30). "Oculus launches Venues app with a robust lineup of summer events". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/oculus-launches-venues-app-with-a-robust-lineup-of-summer-events/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ben Lang (2019-07-24). "Quest Gets 'Oculus Venues', Finally Connecting Quest Users with Oculus Go & Gear VR". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/oculus-venues-on-oculus-quest-social-vr-with-oculus-go-gear-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Scott Hayden (2018-05-30). "'Oculus Venues' Live Event App Now Available on Go and Gear VR, Event Schedule Here". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/oculus-venues-now-available-go-gear-vr-live-event-schedule/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Scott Hayden (2020-08-14). "Facebook Expands Access to 'Venues' Beta Ahead of Connect Next Week". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/oculus-social-vr-app-venues-gets-overhaul-preparation-facebook-horizon/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ben Lang (2021-10-28). "Facebook Rebrands as 'Meta', Oculus Branding to be Phased Out". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/facebook-rebrand-meta-quest-oculus-phase-out/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Announcing Venues in Horizon Worlds". Meta Quest Blog. Meta. 2022-05-06. https://www.meta.com/blog/announcing-venues-in-horizon-worlds/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Dominic Brennan (2017-10-12). "'Oculus Venues' Will Let You Watch Sports, Concerts, & More in VR With Up to 1,000 People". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/oculus-venues-social-vr-viewing-1000-people-oculus-connect-4/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Lucas Matney (2018-05-01). "New Oculus Venues app organizes live VR events under one roof". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/01/new-oculus-venues-app-organizes-live-vr-events-under-one-roof/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Erin Winick (2018-05-31). "Oculus just kicked off an experiment in social VR". MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/05/31/104342/oculus-just-kicked-off-an-experiment-in-social-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 "Announcing the Oculus Venues Fall Lineup: NBA Games, Hit Movies, Comedy Nights, and More". Meta Quest Blog. Meta. 2018-09-26. https://www.meta.com/blog/announcing-the-oculus-venues-fall-lineup-nba-games-hit-movies-comedy-nights-and-more/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "OC5 Speaker Spotlight: Mike LeBeau on the Evolution of Oculus Venues". Meta Quest Blog. Meta. 2018-09-18. https://www.meta.com/blog/oc5-speaker-spotlight-mike-lebeau-on-the-evolution-of-oculus-venues/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 "July Platform Updates: Oculus Venues Coming to Oculus Quest, Plus New Features for the Rift Platform". Meta Quest Blog. Meta. 2019-07-23. https://www.meta.com/blog/july-platform-updates-oculus-venues-coming-to-oculus-quest-plus-new-features-for-the-rift-platform/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Jamie Feltham (2020-08-13). "Oculus Store Leaks Revamped Version Of Venues With Horizon-Style Avatars". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/oculus-venues-revamp/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Ian Hamilton (2020-08-14). "Oculus Venues Revamp To Add Lobby And 'More Social Features'". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/venues-revamp-social-quest/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 David Heaney (2022-02-17). "Horizon Worlds & Horizon Venues Hit 300,000 Monthly Users". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/horizon-300000-monthly-active-users/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Vivek Sharma (2022-02-04). "Introducing a Personal Boundary for Horizon Worlds and Venues". Meta Newsroom. Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2022/02/personal-boundary-horizon/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Jamie Feltham (2022-02-13). "Meta's Foo Fighters Quest Livestream Plagued With Connection Issues". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/foo-fighters-quest-vr-livestream-issues/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Ian Hamilton (2022-05-06). "Meta Retiring Venues App & Building Events Into Horizon Worlds". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-venues-horizon-worlds/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.