Rec Room, the popular social VR platform, is set to take its next big step outside of VR by offering a version of the app for iPhone and iPad.
Against Gravity’s Head of Community Shawn Whiting says it should be available in the App Store soon, and that the studio is currently undergoing internal testing.
Beta invites are due out sometime this month; Whiting maintains that depending on how the beta test goes, it should land on the App Store shortly afterwards. You can sign up for iOS beta testing here.
“It’s kind of mind blowing the first few times you play it on a phone,” Whiting explains. “You’re so used to Rec Room being this giant network of rooms and games that it feels crazy to be able to visit it on something that fits in your pocket. But then you get use to being able to just get a text from a friend and hop right in no matter where you are and it’s a really powerful feeling.”
Continuing: “Players kept telling us they wanted to hang out with their friends who didn’t have a headset. Last year we took that feedback and launched screen mode, allowing anyone on a PS4 or PC to play Rec Room along with our VR players. We’ve seen really great growth and creativity in the community on screens and we’re looking forward to seeing how that plays out again on mobile.”
The studio hasn’t mentioned when Rec Room will be headed to Android devices, however Whiting notes that the three most requested platforms by far were iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch.
However you slice it, the upcoming support for mobile devices is no doubt a byproduct of Against Gravity working to optimize Rec Room for Oculus Quest, which launched just yesterday. In that light, it’s possible other Quest-optimized social VR platforms could follow suit in order to capture yet more concurrent users.