Not ready to plonk down your first $100 on Quest games? Thankfully there’s an impressive number of free games, experiences, apps, and social VR platforms to keep you playing before you’re paying—all of them compatible with Quest 2, Quest Pro, and Meta’s latest, Quest 3.

Looking to make your Quest 3 gaming experience even better? Don’t miss our top picks for the most essential Quest 3 accessories.

Free Quest Games

Yeeps: Hide and Seek

As a Yeep, your belly is full of stuffing used to craft anything from pillows for building to bombs for destruction. Pull items from your vast imagination and toss them into the world. The game’s intuitive block-based building makes it easy to express your creativity at any skill level.

• Developer: Trass Games
• Store link

Maestro: The Masterclass

Step on the podium and become a true orchestra conductor in Maestro: The Masterclass. Play hands free or grab a chopstick and master the real hands motions that command the orchestra through an off the rail conducting masterclass that culminates with an epic symphonic concert in a packed opera house. Good luck, Maestro!

• Developer: Double Jack
• Store link

Gorilla Tag

Like your primitive ancestors, Gorilla Tag will have you lumbering around a tree-lined arena using its unique ‘grab-the-world’ locomotion style that lets you amble around like a great ape. Chase the other apes and infect them or climb for your life as the infected chase you. Pure and simple. Make sure you’re far from TVs, furniture, babies, and pets because you will punch something in the mad dash for sweet, low-poly freedom.

• Developer: Another Axiom
• Store link

Noclip VR

Riding off the success of cult-like status of ‘The Backrooms’ Internet lore, Noclip VR lets you and online players explore the liminal spaces, solve puzzles, and escape that which lurks within. To move, you’ll need to swing your arms, and always keep in ear-shot of your friends, otherwise they won’t hear you scream. Gameplay is a bit barebones, making it feel more like something you’d find imported on a social platform like VR Chat or Rec Room, although it’s definitely invoking Gorilla Tag vibes.

• Developer: SuperFPS
• Store link

Population: One

Population: One is basically VR’s most successful battle royale, letting you climb, fly, shoot, and team-up with whoever dares. The free-to-play game does feature microtransactions, but only for cosmetics, which is nice. It’s more than just a battle royale though: you can play in the sandbox for custom maps and rules, team deathmatch with customizable loadouts, a 12v12 war mode, and more.

• Developer: BixBox VR
• Store link

Gun Raiders

Gun Raiders serves up a healthy slice of multiplayer shooter action with multiple game modes that let you jetpack through the air, climb from wall to wall, and shoot down the competition. There’s the same sort of microtransactions you see in bigger games, but it they’re all avatar skin stuff, so no pay-to-win here.

• Developer: Gun Raiders Entertainment Inc.
• Store link

Gym Class – Basketball

Gym Class – Basketball is the solution if you’re looking to shoot some hoops and dunk like you probably can’t on a physical court. Online multiplayer lets you go head-to-head for a pretty convincing game of b-ball thanks to the game’s physics-based and full-body kinematics.

• Developer: IRL Studios
• Store link

Blaston

This room-scale shooter is now free-to-play, letting you take on friends, family and foes in head-to-head 1v1 dueling. Refine your loadout and jump into the action as you scramble for weapons and send a volley of hellfire at your enemies, all the while Matrix dodging through this innovative bullet hell meets futuristic dueling game.

• Developer: Resolution Games
• Store link

Hyper Dash

Hyper Dash is a multiplayer shooter that basically fills in where Echo Combat never could (never mind that Echo Combat was never on Quest, and is now entirely defunct on Oculus PC). Letting you quick dash, sprint, and rail grind around, Hyper Dash manages to serve up an impressive number of modes, including Payload, Domination, Control Point, (Team) Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, and Elimination. You can also take on both Quest and SteamVR users thanks to the inclusion of cross-play.

• Developer: Triangle Factory
• Store link

Ultimechs

Ultimechs should look pretty familiar: it’s basically Rocket League, but instead of driving around in cars, you’re given rocket-powered fists to punch balls into the goal. Online multiplayer includes both 1v1 and 2v2 matches, offering up tons of opportunities to earn cosmetic gear that will let you outfit your battle mech into something unique. There are also now two paid battle passes too, offering up a ton of cosmetics to set you apart from the competition.

• Developer: Resolution Games
• Store link

Battle Talent

Battle Talent is one of those fighting sims that let you go ham on ragdoll baddies, which in this case are wily goblins and loads of skelingtons. This physics-based roguelite action game lets you climb, run and slide your way through levels as you slash, shoot, and wield magic against your foes.

• Developer: CrossLink
• Store link

Cards & Tankards

Cards & Tankards is a pretty addictive social collectible card game, letting you collect and battle friends with over 180 cards. With cross-play against SteamVR headsets (also free on PC), you may consider hosting your regular game night playing more than a few rounds in the game’s characteristic medieval fantasy tavern.

• Developer: Divergent Realities
• Store link

Vegas Infinite

No real cash gambling here, but PokerStars’ Vegas Infinite not only let you go all-in on games of Texas Hold’em, but now a full casino’s worth of table games a machines that are sure to light up the dopamine starved pleasure centers of your brain. It’s all free play, so you won’t be risking real cash unless you buy in-game chips, which cannot be turned back into real money: it’s only to keep your bankroll flush for free play.

• Developer: LuckyVR Inc
• Store link

Bait!

Since the Fishin’ Buddies update, this classic VR title has gotten a whole new lease on life as a multiplayer VR fishing game that lets you sit back and crack a cold one with the boys as you reel in the big’uns. The additional social areas also let you sit back between your fishing adventures to take part in casual mini-games.

• Developer: Resolution Games
• Store link

Gods of Gravity

Gods of Gravity is an arcade-style RTS game where you compete in an epic showdown of between celestial gods (2-8 players). Scoop up ships and fling them to capture a nearby planet, or open wormholes to teleport them across the solar system. Hold planets and moons to boost your production. Mine asteroids for the powerful resources within. And if you dare, capture the sun for the ultimate buff. Then send a massive fleet to conquer your enemy’s home planet. Last god standing wins.

• Developer: Trass Games
• Store link

Social VR Platforms

Rec Room

Without a doubt one of the most fun, and most expansive VR titles out there… and it’s free. Sure, you can pay real cash for in-game tokens to buy spiffy clothes for your avatar, but that’s really up to you. Gads of mini-games await you in both first-party creations such as the ever so popular co-op Quests—that could be games in their own right—to user-created stuff that will keep your pocket book gathering dust. It’s social VR, so meet people and have a ball for zero dollarydoos. Fair warning: there’s a ton of kids.

• Developer: Rec Room
• Store link

VRChat

If you’ve been anywhere near the Internet in the last few years, it’s likely you’ve already heard about VRChat, the user-generated social VR space filled with… well… everything you can imagine, re-pro games included like Among Us, Mario Kart, and even a version of Beat Saber. Fashion your own avatar or download the millions of user-generated avatars out there so you can embody SpongeBob, Kirito from Sword Art Online, or any one of the million anime girl avatars that you’re bound to see there.

• Developer: VRChat
• Store link

Horizon Worlds

Horizon Worlds has changed a lot since launch. It now includes more tools, user-generated content, and some more compelling first-party games which has rounded out things to make it more competitive with Rec Room and VRChat. You may want to check in just to see the state of Meta’s first-party VR social platform. Whatever the case, the price of ‘free’ is hard to argue with.

• Developer: Meta
• Store link

Continue on Page 2: Free Experiences & Apps»

VRChat, one of the oldest and most popular social VR platforms, announced it’s laying off “around 30%” of its staff, citing issues with slower than anticipated growth, over-hiring during its boom in 2021, and the slow adoption of a more conventional corporate structure.

The news was announced in an extensive internal email outlining the decisions behind the layoff round, which was also published officially on the company’s website. We’ve also included the full email at the bottom of the article.

In it, VRChat CEO Graham Gaylor says the studio is “reducing the size of our team by around 30%,” noting that while studio leadership is “very optimistic on VRChat’s long-term success” and there is a two and five-year plan in place for further growth, the studio is “too large in its current form to support the health and growth of the business.”

Gaylor says this was due to a few key factors following the 2021 banner year for the social VR app, which the studio said slowed in 2022 alongside VR’s relative overall market growth.

According to data obtained from SteamDB, the platform has ostensibly seen a consistent rise in user numbers in recent years, suggesting the issue lies more with the studio having outpaced the market by over-hiring during the 2021-2022 period. Granted, Steam user data doesn’t tell the whole picture, as the platform has also been available on Quest devices since 2020, however Steam data suggests VRChat isn’t falling out of favor, rather experiencing less exponential growth than seemingly expected.

Gaylor reveals the company over-hired during its 2021 boom, which came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, having taken on too many individual contributors (ICs) in the 2021-2022 time period. Gaylor says the bulk of the company is made up of ICs.

“Not only did we not maintain 2021 levels of growth, we shrank year over year,” Gaylor explains. “A scaled team with a smaller user base led to an oversized organization & burn rate relative to revenue and product scale.”

Another factor was the late adoption of a traditional corporate structure, as up until mid-2023 the company considered itself a “flat organization,” notably lacking a product and people management layer to better mobilize its ICs.

“We need more time and runway to execute,” Gaylor explains. “With management in place, we now understand what we need for success over the next five years. We’re in a good cash position, but to execute effectively on our five-year strategy, we need an extended runway with line of sight to profitability. The current fundraising environment is tough, and we’ll likely struggle to fundraise without greatly improved metrics. To take control of our own destiny and not solely depend on market-driven outside investment, we’re placing an emphasis on capital efficiency to ensure VRChat thrives.”

As recompense, the studio is offering a severance package to former employees. This includes 12 weeks of severance pay, plus an additional two weeks for every year of employment beyond three years, and an additional three weeks beyond five years. It’s also paying for up to six months of healthcare coverage for “those who are eligible.” The studio is also making it easier for those affected to both vest and exercise stock options.

Founded in 2014, VRChat celebrated its first hit of virality back in 2018, bringing a 17x rise in usership over the course of just a month to a peak of 20,000 concurrent users of the game on Steam.

In 2021, the studio secured $80 million in Series D funding, led by Anthos Capital, bringing its overall outside investment to $95.2 million to date. In May 2023, VRChat announced it was releasing its digital economy in effort to finally monetize the free app, which came some six years after its initial release on Steam.

The app supports both VR and flatscreen users across PC, Quest, Android and iOS (currently in closed beta).

The original email follows below:

To: All VRChat Employees Personal and Company Emails
From: Graham Gaylor, CEO
Subject: Important Announcement – Company Update – June 2024

Hi everyone,

Today, I have some very hard and sad news to share. We’re reducing the size of our team by around 30% and saying goodbye to many talented team members in the process. This is the hardest change we’ve had to make at VRChat, and Jesse and I take full responsibility for the decisions that brought us here.

Our responsibility is to maintain and grow the space we’ve created in VRChat, where so many people have found friends, family, and happiness – and most of all, to bring that opportunity to everyone. Although difficult, this decision enables us to uphold our responsibilities for many years to come.

You all deserve to understand why we’re here and how we came to this decision. Below I’ll provide some broader context and outline what you can expect next.

Where we are today
Over the last ten years, we’ve built a product that millions of people love. We were one of the first popular apps on the SteamVR and Oculus stores and as the VR market grew, we grew with it. When VR growth slowed in 2022, and VRChat’s growth slowed with it, we were faced with the challenge of needing continued growth despite a core market that needed longer to mature. Our solution this year was to build a product organization to help us identify, focus, and execute on what would make us continue to grow despite market conditions. The result is promising.

We have strong new product leadership

We have a clear mission to bring the magic of immersive social connection to billions of people

We have a clear two and five-year plan to get us to rocket-ship levels of success

We’re building strong management support for our team and product

We’re validating where we’re spending our time for the most impact

For these reasons and more, I’m very optimistic on VRChat’s long-term success. We have a huge opportunity in front of us, but to seize it, we need to be fast-moving, nimble, and make smart (and sometimes difficult) decisions. The hard decision today is that our team is too large in its current form to support the health and growth of the business.

What’s driving this decision?
In March, we ran an analysis to better understand how VRChat would be able to achieve its goals over the next five years. We had four major learnings from this exercise –

We took too long to add management. Historically, we’ve been a flat organization, with most of the team being individual contributors (ICs). This appeared to work well, as we continued to see strong product growth with the market into 2022 without a management layer. Then VR growth slowed, and VRChat’s growth slowed and we found ourselves with a team of talented IC’s all doing their best to help achieve the company’s goals. It took us until mid-2023 to recognize that we needed a product and people management layer to help align all of our talented IC work towards our goals and what skill sets we needed to grow over time.

We over-hired ICs. We saw incredible growth in 2021-2022 and, in anticipation of continued growth, scaled our IC team significantly. The reality was different. Not only did we not maintain 2021 levels of growth, we shrank year over year. A scaled team with a smaller user base led to an oversized organization & burn rate relative to revenue and product scale. We hired tremendously talented people who worked on a lot of great ideas and projects, but without a management layer to align everyone towards the same goals, we did not set everyone up for success.

We need more time and runway to execute. With management in place, we now understand what we need for success over the next five years. We’re in a good cash position, but to execute effectively on our five-year strategy, we need an extended runway with line of sight to profitability. The current fundraising environment is tough, and we’ll likely struggle to fundraise without greatly improved metrics. To take control of our own destiny and not solely depend on market-driven outside investment, we’re placing an emphasis on capital efficiency to ensure VRChat thrives.

Some different roles and expertise are needed for the next part of our journey. Over the past ten years, we’ve built an incredible product with an incredible team, and we wouldn’t be here without each and every one of you. The next ten years are going to look different. As we focus on getting to scale, we need the right people in the right roles at each stage of the journey. This is painful, and at the same time, I do believe it’s the right decision to make VRChat as successful as we all believe it can be.

Jesse and I are so deeply sorry for the impact this change will have on all of you. We’re going to do what we can to ensure that each and every one of our departing team members are setup for success for whatever is next.

How did we decide on who was part of the reduction?
As we modeled our five-year plan balancing profitability with business growth, we arrived at the hard conclusion that we needed to reduce the team by around 30%. We determined which critical skills, expertise, and roles matched our future business needs and based decisions on these criteria.

These decisions are not a reflection of the quality of the team members who are leaving, but rather one of a changing business and market.

How do we plan to take care of the team?
We wouldn’t be here today without all of you and your passion, dedication, and creativity. While nothing can make up for losing a job, we’re going to do our best to treat departing team members as respectfully as possible and do our best to help transition them to what’s next. Some details include

Severance Pay. We will pay 12 weeks of severance for all departing team members, and an additional two weeks for every year of tenure beyond three years, and an additional three weeks beyond five years. For international team members, we are paying the greater of our package or amounts required under local law.

Healthcare. We will pay for up to 6 months of healthcare coverage for those who are eligible.

Stock Option Vesting. We’ll waive the one year cliff for anyone who hasn’t already passed the one year mark.

Stock Option Post Termination Exercise Period (PTEP). We’ll extend the amount of time departing team members have to exercise their options from 90 days to 1 year and longer for those with significant tenure.

Career Support. We’ll offer a career support service, and do our best to connect departing team members with other companies.

VRChat Specific Support. We know that VRChat is more than just a company to many of you and hope that even post separation, you maintain your love and passion for the product and community that we’ve built together. For those interested, we’ll support departing team members with a few VRChat specific perks.

Lifetime VRChat Plus. Departing members will get a lifetime subscription to VRChat Plus.

VRChat Alumni Badge. An in-VRChat badge that signifies the individual is a member of the VRChat alumni group, once our badging system is available.

Higher Creator Economy Rev Share. For departing team members who want to start a business using the VRChat Creator Economy, we will reduce VRChat’s transaction fee for any purchases made from your store.

Most importantly, although this is not the separation we would have wanted or imagined, we want everyone who is leaving to know that we care about you as former colleagues and appreciate everything you’ve done for VRChat.

What to Expect Next
Immediately following this announcement, everyone will receive an email from HR to your personal email and your company email, confirming whether or not your role has been impacted. For those impacted, you’ll receive an additional email to your personal email with the details of your severance package and instructions to attend a meeting to discuss the details of your departure. If you don’t know what personal email was used, please email the VRChat HR Team.

For those of you staying, it’s going to be a little bumpy while we navigate a lot of change all at once. Our focus today is supporting departing team members and setting them up for success. We ask for your support and patience and to help us do right by our users and departing team members throughout this process.

Moving Forward
We are where we are today. But we can learn from this to reduce the chance of needing a reduction again in the future.

Management. We now understand the importance of management in supporting a large team and will ensure we appropriately balance management and ICs on the team. I expect to leverage the expertise of our new management team to bring best practices to VRChat.

Overhiring. Moving forward, every single new hire will be scrutinized through a variety of lenses. Is the role critical to our goals? Is there a business need? Are they the absolute best person for the role? Can somebody internally fill the role? Can we contract out the role? We’ll move back to our early team growth philosophy of staying lean and scrappy instead of growing for growth’s sake. When we see our product growth take off again, we’ll reinvest in our team more efficiently and mindfully.

Runway. For most of our history, we’ve always only had 1-2 years of runway. The strategy was that we could always easily raise additional capital. While the capital markets will surely get better over time, our capital strategy will shift towards taking control of our own destiny and being more efficient with our capital. We’ve started pushing on capital efficiency by focusing on revenue growth and lower infrastructure costs for our H2 goals. With our smaller team and our H2 goals, we have a line of sight to profitability and a clear path to an extremely strong business and platform. We’ll regularly share financial projections with the team to empower high-quality decisions with full context

Changing Roles and Expertise. As our company grows and changes, so do its needs from its team. We plan to support our team with more people-focused managers and are actively investing in career growth and trajectory tools to help our team understand how they need to grow and how to do so, what’s expected of them, and what great looks like. We’ll also hire with the future in mind and work to bring in new expertise as needed.

Focus Without Fear. One of our goals for this reduction is to only do it once so we can focus on our mission without the fear of future reductions hanging over our heads. It’s impossible to know what the future holds, but we’ve chosen to reduce our team size enough today that we won’t have to do this again for the foreseeable future.

While today is painful as we say goodbye to our talented friends and colleagues, we are setting up VRChat for long-term success. We have our work cut out for us, and now we have the foundation and time to execute towards our goals.

Our mission remains the same, and it bears repeating: to enrich the world through immersive social connection and bring that magic to billions of people. Our responsibility is to maintain and grow the space we’ve created in VRChat, where so many people have found friends, family, and happiness, and to bring that opportunity to everyone.

To those leaving VRChat,

Thank you again for all of the love, dedication, and time you’ve put into helping us build VRChat. We wish you all the best on what’s next and will do our best to support you on your journey there.

With love and sadness,

Graham and Jesse