Separate from the main Quest store, Oculus App Lab gives developers an official ‘unlisted’ and uncurated means of distributing Oculus Quest apps. So far the company has proven that it will remain largely hands-off on app content—and apparently price too—making App Lab useful for much more than just gaming apps.

While the main Quest store—the one users can see inside the headset—is gate kept wholly by Oculus, the company introduced App Lab as an alternate means of distributing apps on the headset, and one that isn’t subject to curation based on app quality. The caveat is that apps are ‘unlisted’ which means you can only find them if you have a direct link.

So far Oculus has stayed true to that promise, having no qualms about hosting a Quest app that’s literally just a cube. But what about price?

At least for now the company seems happy to accomodate. A medical training app called Fetal Heart VR is now the most expensive VR app available on App Lab at $240.

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Launched back in June, the app is made by MWU Software and allows users to “fully simulate the maneuvers of an ultrasound probe and perform a virtual scan of a normal fetal heart and also hearts affected by Congenital Heart Diseases.”

While $240 might sound unheard of for a VR game, it might just be a bargain in the medical world. MWU Software says its goal with the app is to “change ultrasound training from expensive and stationary simulators available at medical universities, to a personal platform, portable and affordable to every sonographer and physician involved in prenatal sonography.”

The company even sells accessories to enhance the immersion, like an inflatable stomach and an attachment for the Quest controller that mimics the shape of an ultrasound tool.

A worthy mission and a very interesting use of VR, indeed. Not to mention a clear demonstration of why App Lab is important. An app like this would never make it onto the main Quest store because it doesn’t fit with the gamer audience that Oculus is targeting. And yet, thanks to App Lab, this app can still get out there easily into the hands of those that need it.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Holdup

    240? your greed will be your downfall your app will fail.

    • Sinshi Uzumaki

      They literally explained that it is cheap for 240$. Did ypu read the article?

      • Holdup

        That’s almost the price on of a new quest, the app look basic

        • krazy

          It’s a full ultrasound training simulator, do you know the intricacies of how an ultrasound works enough to build a virtual version that sufficiently replicates the real one to be useful as an educational tool? No, didn’t think so.

          • Anonymous

            He’s obviously dim-witted who only knows to judge everything superficially in terms of graphics and price. I doubt he even has a proper job, otherwise no one could be this stupid to not understand the difference between B2B and B2C pricing.

          • Holdup

            I do have a proper job 170k last year, these medical apps are neat but trust me it doesn’t cost $240, I did kind of learn a little bit of stuff from surgeon simulator vr but after like a week I lost interest, there’s a market for these but to price your app at these price you need a higher demand.

          • Pie

            Sounds like you’re pretty greedy to me. 174k is three times what average people get paid…

            The fact that higher demand doesn’t exist is why people would pay more. Notions of supply and demand don’t translate to software sales in the way you seem to believe.

          • guest

            Probably 170k Yen since he looks like a sumo wrestler!

          • Holdup

            Come on dude the app only take up 200 megabyte it can’t be that complex.

          • krazy

            You obviously have no idea what application development involves. Textures and models take space, code complexity does not but code complexity is also what allows highly accurate simulation. Maybe stop making a fool of yourself by speaking about things you don’t know anything about.

          • Holdup

            On my free time I’ll make it a project to recreate this app to show you how easy it is

          • Ross

            Good luck getting the copyright to the images for a reasonable price.

          • Sven Viking

            Excellent! You can sell it for $80 and make a lot of money while simultaneously helping out trainee ultrasound technicians and making the world a better place. I look forward to seeing the results.

          • PuiuCS

            real life medical tool simulation is extremely difficult to get right.

          • Holdup

            But it’s not real just a simulation, Sims are cool I just bought flight simulator it’s a very complex sim but honestly I wouldn’t pay more than $100 for flight simulator.

          • mrking_bob

            hey, wanna know something cool? FLIGHT SIMULATOR ISN’T ACCURATE TO REAL LIFE FLIGHT.
            yup, it isn’t an accurate simulation, it streamlines many aspects of flying a plane to make it more fun for the user. get the fuck off your high horse dude.

          • Holdup

            You get off your high horse I wouldn’t pay more than $80 for this app and that’s just me being generous

          • Goopsie

            god you’re so obnoxious

          • Roddels

            Not that I want to add fuel to this fire, but there is so much you haven’t considered. This is a medical app so potentially if you get it wrong you could cost lives. No matter how good a developer you think you are that is the smallest part of this app. You will need a subject matter expert, QA and testing to make sure the training is correct. This will only ever sell to a small market not a games style audience. I be surprised if this makes the money back on R&D if at all.

          • Roy Magnuson

            hey hey – just checking in – how is your $80 version of the app coming?

          • PuiuCS

            it is a sim targeted at professionals

          • Sven Viking

            Are the rest of you sure this isn’t just bait?

          • 170K but you can’t even finish a sentence with correct grammar? Yeah right.

          • xyzs

            170kills on Forntite he meant.
            This kid just lacks maturity to understand that specific domain softwares means less customers/dev hence the higher prices. He also juges the value of a software by the size in MB… well isn’t that enough to stop relying ?

          • Holdup

            Jealous!

      • Holdup

        One person can make that app in a week or less

        • Sinshi Uzumaki

          The problem is when people like you start talking about things they don’t understand.

        • Thud

          You’re right. Your version looks just as goo… wait. You don’t want the $200 or even $100 an app you could make for less than a weeks work? I don’t get it.

        • Ross

          Medical material is copyrighted and extremely expensive. A year of UpToDate access goes for $500. This is cheap for medicine.

  • Well, obviously it’s not for consumers, but it actually sounds like a pretty cool use of the technology, particularly the novel way of holding the controller to simulate using the device actual practitioners would use.

    • Retha Sullivan

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  • Sven Viking

    I don’t see why Facebook would have any issue with apps like this considering they take 30% of App Lab sales.

  • Twa Corbies

    Hey, i need an inflatable liver to use at parties.

  • Pablo C

    Many apps like this are funded by governments, so they are free for public usage (like all knowledge should be). I celebrate this group for trying VR as an “academic bussiness” though, but those two words (academy and business) are used toguether way more in the US than in the rest of the World.

    • Cooe

      This is horseshit. Plenty of cutting edge medical tech / software is crazy expensive in Europe. You’re talking out of your European elitist ass here. Stuff like this isn’t covered under your national healthcare systems.

      • Pablo C

        I´m latinamerican. you´re the elite.

      • Pablo C

        I´m actually from an poor country. Here companies are also poor, so government invest on new tech more than them.