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A screenshot from the ‘Population: One’ game. Image: BigBoxVR
Reality Check
google facebook ar/vr

Facebook and Shopify Pick Up New VR and AR Teams

By
Mathew Olson
 |  June 14, 2021 11:01 AM PDT
Photo: A screenshot from the ‘Population: One’ game. Image: BigBoxVR

Last Friday brought back-to-back acquisitions in virtual and augmented reality: Facebook said it was buying Seattle’s BigBox VR, makers of Population: One, and would incorporate it into Oculus Studios. And Shopify is taking on the team behind AR home design app Primer. Both deals underscore the appetite of big tech companies for developers with proven AR/VR experience.

For Facebook, BigBox might be the most important addition to Oculus Studios, its VR games division, since Facebook’s very first VR software acquisition, of Beat Games in 2019. BigBox’s Population: One, is a battle royale game, closely modeled off the biggest and broadest gaming success story in recent history, Epic Games’ multiplayer online game Fortnite.

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