For more than a decade, the VR industry has searched for its defining moment. Every few years, a new game arrives carrying the weight of enormous expectations. This, we’re told, is the title that will finally push VR into the mainstream. And yet, despite some genuinely excellent releases and a growing install base, that breakthrough moment still hasn’t happened. If anything, the history of Meta’s first-party and funded exclusives tells a fascinating story. The company has spent years securing major franchises, funding ambitious projects, and bringing recognisable brands into VR. From Marvel superheroes to Batman and Deadpool, some of the biggest names in entertainment have already made the jump. The question is: if those weren’t enough, what will be?
Meta Has Been Chasing a Killer App for Years
It’s easy to forget just how much Meta (and Oculus before it) has invested in content. Back in 2016, Oculus launched with ambitious exclusives like Robo Recall, followed by critically acclaimed experiences such as Lone Echo in 2017. These games helped establish what high-end VR could look like, but neither was able to break beyond the existing VR audience.
Then came the big franchises.
In 2018, Oculus partnered with Marvel on Marvel Powers United VR, allowing players to embody iconic superheroes including Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Rocket Raccoon. While the game generated excitement among Marvel fans, it ultimately failed to become the system-selling phenomenon many had hoped for. The title would eventually be shut down entirely in 2021.
A year later, Meta funded the original Asgard’s Wrath, one of the most ambitious VR RPGs ever created. Critics praised it, but once again, the impact remained largely within the existing VR community.
The strategy continued with Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond in 2020, followed by perhaps Meta’s biggest success story: Resident Evil 4 in 2021. The remake demonstrated that established franchises could work exceptionally well in VR and remains one of the platform’s most celebrated releases.
Yet even Resident Evil wasn’t enough to push VR into the mainstream.
A Timeline of Meta’s Big Launches
For the sake of a visual aid, below is a chart revealing Meta’s big launches for the past decade. It’s a mix of original content, big gaming IPs and transmedia promotion.
| Year | Major Oculus / Meta Exclusive |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Lone Echo |
| 2018 | Marvel Powers United VR |
| 2019 | Asgard’s Wrath |
| 2020 | Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond |
| 2021 | Resident Evil 4 |
| 2022 | NOTHING? |
| 2023 | Asgard’s Wrath 2 |
| 2024 | Batman: Arkham Shadow |
| 2025 | Marvel’s Deadpool VR |
Essentially Meta has brought one big exclusive to VR every year for the last decade. All except one year, that is. So what happened to 2022’s big name title?
The Game That Never Happened
Perhaps the most interesting chapter in this story is the one that never arrived.
In 2021, Meta announced that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR was in development for Quest headsets. The reaction was immediate. For many observers, this felt like the closest thing VR had ever had to a genuine mainstream breakthrough opportunity. Unlike Resident Evil or Medal of Honor, Grand Theft Auto is one of the most successful entertainment franchises in history. The prospect of stepping into San Andreas in first-person VR captured imaginations far beyond the usual VR audience.
Unfortunately, the project quietly disappeared from public view before Meta later confirmed it was no longer in active development.
We’ll never know whether San Andreas VR would have changed the trajectory of the industry. But it remains one of VR’s biggest “what if?” stories.
Batman, Deadpool, and the Power of Recognition
More recently, Meta has doubled down on blockbuster intellectual property (IP). 2024 saw the release of Batman: Arkham Shadow, widely regarded as one of the best VR games ever made. The title delivered the kind of production values and polish that many critics had been demanding from the medium for years.
In 2025, Meta followed that success with Marvel’s Deadpool VR, bringing another globally recognised comic-book character into VR.
These games prove that major franchises can work in VR. They generate headlines, attract attention, and give existing headset owners compelling reasons to stay engaged. But they still haven’t created the mass-market explosion that many predicted.
Even Half-Life Couldn’t Do It
Perhaps the strongest evidence that there is no single “magic bullet” comes from Valve. When Half-Life: Alyx launched in 2020, it was widely viewed as the biggest VR release ever created. This wasn’t just another VR game; it was a new entry in one of gaming’s most respected franchises.
Critics loved it. Players loved it. Many still consider it the best VR game ever made.
Yet the broader gaming audience largely continued as before. Half-Life: Alyx undoubtedly helped VR mature as a medium, but it didn’t create the seismic shift some expected.
Maybe it’s Not About One Game
The assumption behind the “killer app” theory is that VR simply needs the right title. However, history suggests the reality may be more complicated.
The industry has already seen major releases from Marvel, Batman, Deadpool, Resident Evil, Medal of Honor, Half-Life, and many others. It has produced critically acclaimed exclusives, award-winning games, and experiences that would have seemed impossible a decade ago.
Perhaps the issue isn’t content.
Perhaps mainstream adoption depends on a combination of factors: lighter headsets, lower prices, improved comfort, longer battery life, better MR integration, and a steady stream of high-quality software rather than a single breakout hit.
After all, smartphones didn’t become mainstream because of one app. Streaming didn’t succeed because of one TV show.
Entire ecosystems reached a tipping point.
So What Game Will Take VR Mainstream?
The honest answer is that nobody knows. It could be a future entry in a franchise as large as Call of Duty, Fortnite, Pokémon, or Grand Theft Auto. It could be a social experience that appeals to millions of people who don’t consider themselves gamers. It could even be something entirely new that hasn’t been conceived yet.
What Meta’s history shows is that simply attaching a famous logo to a VR game isn’t enough.
VR has already had Marvel. It has already had Batman. It has already had Deadpool. It has already had Resident Evil and Half-Life. And yet the search for the medium’s defining mainstream moment continues.
The breakthrough may still come. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that the game that finally takes VR mainstream will need to be something far bigger than just another blockbuster release.
