I stumbled upon something the other day—news about Onward (2020), you know, that tactical mil-sim game by Downpour Interactive. The plot twist? Meta is pulling the plug on the studio, shoving folks over to another place called Camouflaj. Not randomly though; Camouflaj is apparently known for some big-name VR stuff like Iron Man VR and that Batman thing coming in 2024. Go figure.
Anyway, Downpour’s pretty candid in their blog: Update 2.0 is the grand finale for new content for Onward. They’re not shutting the game down, but no more sprucing up or bug quashing unless it’s absolutely crucial. Like, the support team’s basically non-existent now. So, if your game glitches or your laser sight looks like a flashlight from the ’90s, they’re like, “Hey, talk to Meta or Valve.” Or, maybe head over to Discord or Reddit if you’re feeling chatty or need to vent about a particularly immortal bug.
Oh— and all the devs? Yeah, they’re on the bus to Camouflaj. Downpour really kicked off back in 2016, getting VR heads all worked up with its mil-sim magic. Then, 2020 rolls around, and they somehow manage to squish it onto the Oculus Quest. Sure, the graphics went a bit… Picasso, but hey, it worked cross-platform. I mean, they had to, right?
Meta snagged Downpour in 2021, dreaming of turning Onward into a VR titan. “Up the graphics, smarten the AI,” they said. Big dreams. And Meta was on a bit of a spree, collecting VR studios like it was going out of style from 2019 to 2022. Beat Games, Ready at Dawn, you name it. And then, bam, 2023 hits, and it’s layoff city—10,000 jobs axed! Ouch. Ready at Dawn lost a chunk, and Downpour wasn’t immune either. Dante Buckley, the guy who started Downpour? He peace’d out just before the ship hit rough waters. I guess he saw the writing on the wall.
Anyway, what was I saying? Right—so now, here we are, wondering what’s next in the VR chaos…
