It was a little over a year ago when Facebook triumphantly announced that games and apps made for Oculus Go would live on in Oculus Quest. But now with Go long gone and Quest 1 out of production, the company has decided to no longer support Go titles through Quest 2.

Quest 2 has been in the hands of consumers for less than a week, and while there’s plenty of great content to play, some were left wondering where the dropdown menu for Go games disappeared to on Quest 2.

Legendary programmer and Oculus Consulting CTO John Carmack responded to one such complaint via Twitter, saying Go apps are indeed not supported on Quest 2.

“I totally lost the internal debate over backwards compatibility,” Carmack reveals.

Quest (2019) and Go, Images courtesy Oculus

If you haven’t followed the growth of Oculus over the years, among other things, Carmack was an instrumental force in both driving the company to build the smartphone-based Gear VR headset in 2015 and eventually crystalize that into the 3DOF standalone Oculus Go in 2018.

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Launched nearly one year later, the original Quest included a compatibility layer that essentially made Quest report as a Go, which also allowed for Go controller emulation in older games. At the time it made sense to bring Go’s library of 3DOF games and experiences to help fill out the Quest’s comparably much smaller block of native content.

That’s certainly not the case today though, as Quest has managed to attract loads of developers looking to build for the headset, which generated over $100 million in app revenue in its first year alone.

Still, even with a boat load of Quest-native titles bringing near-PC quality to the table, it’s sad to see some of the legacy games that never got proper Quest ports like Smash Hit (2015) inevitably begin to fade away into what Facebook Reality Labs’ (then Oculus Chief Scientist) called “the good old days” in his 2015 Connect keynote. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can give it a watch here.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • silvaring

    Carmack is a true warrior, endlessly fighting in the trenches of hell. Only someone like that could have made Doom way back in the early 90’s and still have the energy to fight within the montrous data harvesting operation that is Faceborg.

    • xyzs

      Carmack is not a kid. He decided to work for Facebook, he gets paid, and he knows the company.
      Since he works part time as CTO, he very probably lost some power, and i t’s logical.

      • silvaring

        Was I implying anywhere that he was a kid? I understand everything you’ve said in your comment, and I still don’t know what point you’re trying to make.

        • xyzs

          I meant that JC is not fighting among his ennemies at Facebook like you think, he’s just working with his friends.

  • a247slacker

    i still use my Go it’s great! lightweight and there are a ton of titles in the store for it! its great for youtube, amazon etc. I like the quest and the quest 2 as well but the Go is still so light and comfortable!

  • Cdaked

    I really like to play Daedalus now and then. I was hopping to play it in Quest 2.

  • This makes more sense why that magical checkbox to allow Go on Quest didn’t become more wide spread, they are really going to kill those apps.

    • VR5

      Some of them might get proper 6dof ports though. Daedalus, Smash Hit, Coatsink games, Viral, Adventure Time would all be nice additions to the Quest library. Virtual Virtual Reality and Ultrawings were already ported.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Well at least now I know why I can’t find those games.I think we at least get standalone,pc oculus link,pc remote standalone via virtual desktop,sidequest with hundreds of games,4K gaming,no sensors required and only 300bucks. Jesus saved my life and soul.

  • Nelson Tutorials

    Yeah i think i will pass Quest 2, still have my GO, which i like but dont use very often. There is more important things to buy right now. The FB login and no GO apps/games support is just one more reason for skipping Quest 2.

  • Jonathan Winters III

    One classic game is “Smash Hit” – wish they’d bring that to Quest.