By: Tommy Steimer and Kai Payne

In 2020, IA Seniors were just graduating from 6th grade, and now, in 2 months, they’ll be the 3th class of Innovation Academy. Another historical event in 2020 was the take-off of a new way to immerse yourself and enjoy the company of other human beings from millions of miles away, and that was the Oculus Quest 2.

On September 12th 2020, Oculus (Now Meta) announced the release of the Oculus Quest 2, and the Oculus released in stores and on the Oculus Website on October 13th, 2020. Consumers could buy 3 models on launch: the 64 GB model, the 128 GB model, or the 256 GB model. The 64 and 128 GB models are $299, and the 256 GB model is $399. Being way different from the original Oculus Quest (1), which had a 64GB model for $399 and a 128GB model for $499, Oculus made the Quest 2 nearly $100 cheaper on all models with this new headset.

With the Oculus Quest 2 came the Quest (1)’s later added the feature “Quest Link” or “Air Link”, which allowed you to connect your headset to a qualifying device with the Quest App installed, linking your headset to your device. Device linking could be done via cable (recommended by Oculus) or via the internet, hence “Air Link.” This feature was released for the Quest 1, but due to its poor software compatibility, no backwards compatibility for previous Oculus devices and features, and how heavy it was on the head. With the Oculus being almost a full 70 grams (0.15 pounds) lighter, the “Air Link” feature could reach its new potential, and due to the release timing of the Quest 2 at the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it was an absolute hit with everyone playing. 

With the release of the Quest 2, several gaming companies jumped at the opportunity to make a massive profit off of this, with only a 30% being taken by Oculus for every purchase off the store, it was worth it to the already failing small companies. Enter Rec Room. 

Rec Room was and still is the best place to build and play games with your friends together in virtual reality. It was essentially modernized Roblox with proximity chat. Rec Room is based on college, where you get a dorm room to hang out in, and you can go on adventures from. Not only that, but it had a large array of rec room original mini-games, including paintball, laser tag, dungeons, bowling, battle royale and more than one hundred thousand player-created rooms! 

Meta wants to destroy it all… 

One of Meta’s original most popular games, Echo Arena, was shut down on August 1st of 2023 due to profit loss and physical safety concerns. The community was outraged. Three years later, Meta is shutting down their next most popular game, Rec Room, due to once again… Not enough profit. Rec Room will go offline after June 1st, 2026. Innovation Academy student Landon Penman stated, “I’ve always loved Rec Room, and I wish it wouldn’t go away. I have so many memories playing with my friends it was always super fun”. The Innovation Academy Seniors who were once playing Rec Room in the 6th grade are now graduating high school as we canonically graduate from Rec Room. Rest in peace, Rec Room.