Captive Reality

I want to speak about the "Open" nature of the Quest. I would call this framing dishonest at best and doublespeak at worst. Zuck, Boz, and Yann are factually incorrect. Let me break down the reality: 1) Connectivity: No other VR controller is allowed on the Quest, in fact the demo I recently did with the glove connected to the Vision Pro is not possible with the Quest due to the locked down nature of the bluetooth stack. 2) Store: Their App Store is ran like North Korea. The entire premise of getting into the Quest Store is completely obscure and not based on any tangible metrics. Unlike the Apple/Google App Store which as a clear developer guidelines. App developers will meet the requirements of App Lab (their version of TestFlight), just to sit there for 5+ years and be ghosted. Even after providing them significant information on their company and business model. App Lab still charges 30% to developers even though it gives people who download the App a big warning and no search-ability in the store. 3) Cameras: The camera access on the Quest is blocked, I wouldn't say this is a rare occurrence because almost all other headsets do this except the Lynx R-1. Still it's not "open" by any measure, doesn't even have a proper API. 4) Networking: One of the ideas I worked on in the past was a AR sports game that could be played outside. The issue with this is that the Quest doesn't allow WiFi direct (all Android phones allow this, so they specifically blocked it). In addition the headset freaks out if you aren't connected to the internet. So that means you can never use the headset without being routed to the internet. The headset also doesn't share it's positioning maps so it can't easily communicate location to other devices. 5) Copying/Killing: The entire premise of their App Store is to watch and kill/buy the best ideas. They essentially have a kill switch on you on all times as a developer. This is something I have experienced personally where they copied our app, tried to poach all my engineers, and de-platformed us by breaking us with firmware. They have a black list that also controls what developers get featured placement on their banners. This featured placement can mean the difference between a developer succeeding or not. 6) Media/Propaganda: A significant amount of the ad dollars for VR, grants for developers, or capital toward "Meta Ambassadors" is funded by Meta. The Meta Ambassadors have a line in their contracts that specifically says the have to "keep Meta in a positive light" as per terms of their contract. This means that the majority of the success VR developers or content creators will never speak poorly about Meta. 7) "Alternative App Stores": The only thing "Open" about their ecosystem is supposedly this idea of alternative App Stores. This is categorically false. The ability to use PC was simply because they had a PCVR app, which they killed off. SideQuest requires you to create a developer account, turn on developer mode, sync it with your phone number and dev account, then find the apps in some obscure part of the UI "Unknown sources". SideQuest also doesn't have paid apps. Calling this "open" is absolutely dishonest. If Meta wants to run the show like North Korea fine. But this extremely manipulative doublespeak they are doing in the media right now is blatantly dishonest, and I had to say something.