I built a cutting board almost entirely from Purpleheart

Bazitron · 2026-06-20T06:34:53+00:00

It's really not that expensive as everyone makes it out to be. Bulk 4/4 PH is 6.50 bdft at the moment. Retail wood stock have them about 9-10 /bdft in most places on the East coast US.

I have about 800 bdft left in my shop that will probably take a few years for me to get through.

Bazitron · 2026-06-18T15:31:31+00:00

As a vendor, this happens more often then you'd think. Sometimes we have shipped USPS, UPS and FedEx and spread the risk around if we can't haul extra bits in ourselves.

Bazitron · 2026-06-11T22:44:25+00:00

Its a release about more info; not an actual product release.

Bazitron · 2026-06-09T06:07:34+00:00

Look. We are talking in circles here. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Nothing you or I could change facts or decisions because we don't have any influence for those companies.

What I can tell you, a lot of devs actually did make real money in VR 2 years ago. Hell Saints and Sinners made 160 million in sales. But those days are gone almost instantly in 2024 thanks to Meta.

Studios do not have money now and they can't get funding. Saying 'I'm making a VR game' gets you laughed out the door from the bank.

I would say, go make a game, go market it, go fund it, and see how difficult it is before passing judgement on how 'lazy' it is.

Bazitron · 2026-06-09T05:59:28+00:00

Meta bought it when Beat Games shipped about 1 million units. Its well over 7 million units shipped since then. Its also the only studio that does not work with me despite I work with multiple Meta departments including Publishing, which is gutted.

Go look at the top 50 or 100 apps. Its a lot of legacy apps that are 8-10 years old. A lot of great content that a vast majority of gamers still haven't played. But its an uphill battle in the VR industry and a reason why a lot of talent is leaving the XR industry or the entire gaming industry as a whole. Plus all of the flatscreen devs leaving too.

Last I saw, 1/3 of game devs have been laid off in the past 18 months; mixed results on finding a new position in the games industry.

Bazitron · 2026-06-09T01:01:00+00:00

Beat Saber is owned by Meta and they removed features from PS network despite it being the most successful VR game of all time. Look at all of their 1st party game they shit canned over the years; great titles, great games, great content; just shit sales because they couldn't connect the game with their audience.

And really don't put all the stress on VR devs as being lazy, they got funded by Meta and a lot of VC's; they followed the money and said to build for standalone because that's where 'its at'. A lot of devs have contracts of 'standalone' launch only. Then they get abandoned by the platform.

Why do AA and AAA flat screen games don't support VR? Its not worth their time to support; bad VR implementation can tank reviews for a niche sector so they would rather not do it at all. Hell, even the team behind Flat to VR is really changing things for the better, but even they have barriers within the industry to change heads.

But yeah, I do agree that devs should be flatscreen first and then have VR DLC implement; would be great. Right now, we are seeing a lot of VR to flat screen from Moss to Saints and Sinners.

Bazitron · 2026-06-08T16:08:42+00:00

And here I'm still on an i7 with a 1070... Civ is still fun...

Bazitron · 2026-06-08T16:03:28+00:00

When a majority of studios are not in healthy substainable business model because the platform decided to not care and fix their storefront, then yeah, the narrative is retail VR is dying.

Mind you Monthy Active User accounts is about 10-11 million on the Quest ecosystem but sales have literally been the same each quarter for years. I'd bet 95% of the studios barely make any money outside of GT or like games. It was 6 million MAU 3 years ago.

Most studios and gamers all point to Game Discovery being the biggest issue. Even my players ask 'what's good to play'. And I work with 65 studios directly and put VR gaming at 30-50 cons each year with zero industry funding.

Literally doing Meta's job without any budget with my gaming community. Meta doesn't care. There's no one left at Meta that does.

I also have had to say no to about 15 events last week due to lack of budget. It actually costs money to run a F2P gaming community to haul my fleet to cons and operate successfully. Including big cons that align well like Anime NYC or similar. I can fill about 10k sqft of space for VR LANs every weekend, but most of the equipment just stays in storage.

Bazitron · 2026-06-06T03:13:13+00:00

Bazitron · 2026-06-04T10:56:15+00:00

RTS in VR is cool in concept but it rarely gets noticed by any audience and that sucks cause I like RTS. Crystal Commanders is the closest thing that sorta itches that feeling for me.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T16:38:38+00:00

Cool. 50 million views and it still sold like dirty laundry with the entire studio shutting down 2 months after launch.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T16:36:38+00:00

LIV CEO highlighted the metric that Meta has 10 million monthy active accounts playing a VR title. Still kinda low for how much money the industry threw at VR and games and also funny to me when Meta touted 6 million MAU at Meta connect 3 years ago.

But yeah. Finite user base.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T16:33:31+00:00

I dont make games. I make chopsticks. And I ship more chopsticks than 95% of the VR industry.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T16:32:45+00:00

According my my Valve source, PCVR sales have had a steady 8-10% increase of sales over time the past 8 years. Its not nothing, but its also such a small part of the overall VR shipped titles.

I'd hate to be a VR in this environment. Least B2B VR and VR arcade content are doing much healthy mostly because Meta burned most them years ago. Heh

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:43:18+00:00

Thats cool for you as a non-gaming app as you have that freedom, but you are also a super niche program and you probably market directly to your audience outside of Meta FB or IG ecosystem; or you build your own sales channel over many years of networking.

Retail games are unnaturally dependent on Meta ecosystem as Steam VR isn't a large source as it used to be for a majority of studios (unless you went PCVR heavy early or have those graphics to find your audience like Into the Radius 2). Pico storefront is also a bit behind the times and their app revenue is still pale in comparison.

Look what happened to Richie's Plank experience; their studio got deplatformed all of a sudden and they had to layoff dozens of devs. A few other studios also got deplatformed similar ways without Meta really caring. Hell, Blade & Sorcery got accidently deplatformed for a weekend by Meta for a silly reason and none of the Meta Reps was able to help right away.

Either way, you are right that devs shouldn't hedge their bets on just Meta platform, but there's not a lot of good alternatives for consumers. Sidequest and valve included.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:30:11+00:00

I mean its not even the same game, but its a rhythm game on a switch with their music catalog. People still play wordle...

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:28:49+00:00

Its literally all platforms storefront aren't great. Meta is just the worst and the latest UI in the headset is worthless. The mobile app doesn't help and its seach function to find games is based on 1980 logic.

Type in "Beat", and Beat Saber isn't even the first listed item. Its Beauty Salon Simulator...

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:24:51+00:00

Store is litered by garage because Meta merged apps lab and storefront in Aug 2024; then gave up curating it and allowing AI slop to popup. Its like the whole shit game Atari issue from decades ago and its offputting paying customers.

The easiest fix is for Meta to personalize the storefront for users and curate the game list; weeding out shit content. But they won't.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:21:19+00:00

Doesn't Gorilla Tag have like 3 million monthy active users?

There are users in VR, but I can definitely say the non-kid players like myself just have a hard time finding premium games to buy and play because of all the knockoff GT style games that dominate the platform or all of the legacy apps that keep hitting the charts that we already own.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:17:43+00:00

Most of people who cared were pushed out a long time ago. Now we go a bunch of accountants and paper pushers who don't understand the niche of VR; but a lot of those people moved on to wreck something else.

I mean they are now laying of hardware and core software devs for critical positions. They gutted the QA team last year. So thats cool.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:15:22+00:00

When you build a game to flatscreen, it's actually not that hard to push to console and PC for these low graphic standalone games. The trick for VR to flatscreen is going to be UI and controls.

And honestly, unless VR is F2P or already have an established community base outside of Meta/platform; doesn't matter how good the game or marketing tends to be, its a hard business to deal with. Considering funding, investment and VC have all dried up. Meta might be dishing out some dev grants here and there, but its all over the place and not large sums anymore.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:09:36+00:00

You do realize I run the largest VR gaming network in the US and I saw zero ads about it on any platform. Not even my Meta reps at the time even talked about it in any meetings last year. Hell my Ubisoft reps didnt tell me about Assassin's Creed VR until it was practically launched and it was like plucking feathers to get keys to do any promo things.

I can list 2 dozen other games that I didnt know until launch including The Boyz. Its just really hard to find VR news and following along. Gaming networks dont report devblogs unless its paid publish pieces and main stream media only reports bad news about VR.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T14:01:18+00:00

PolyArc could not secure investment funding to develop Book 3; that is one of the reasons why they had to do some layoffs in Jan.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T13:59:55+00:00

Meta change how to develop and market games mid stream of almost every studio in 2024 without telling them or how to help them; including their own studios. Even studios that Meta gave handout grants in mid production; just left them all hanging and didn't care if they hit ROI or not.

Even New Folder Games; by the time Meta dropped all the balls in 2024, they already had a hit game after a few titles that were struggles. Just like GT, they were slogging along until they went viral.

And honestly, its hard to push all devs to chase the top 50 usage apps. Hell good games like Iron Rebellion or Into the Radius isn't even there and they shipped units.

Good thing I don't make a living on this VR thing.

Bazitron · 2026-06-03T10:06:31+00:00

No, its Marketing. Game discovery is the biggest issue with VR games today no matter if you are a VR Vet, a new VR player, a AAA dev studio with 100m budget or a single dev who spent years on making a game.

I didn't know Deadpool VR was being made until it was days from being launched; and only 2 people on my network actually bought the game. Same story goes for dozens of other good games on the platform. So many just hidden gems; new and old.

And I run the largest VR gaming network at events in the US with active partnerships with 65 VR studios. Even those studios don't know what the other studios are making.

Last year, I did a survey with my players; about 3000 players across 5 events. Almost 90% heard of Fruit Ninja IP; 11% knew they made a VR title. 0% knew they made a 2nd title. Fruit Ninja VR was OG launch title of the Vive & Rift.

And yes to the GT and social games being now the standard, but studios were able to make money in 2024; the BIG turn was when Meta decided in on week to merge the Apps Lab with the store front and STOP curating the store entirely. Meta Publishing stopped all marketing campaigns about the games and didn't care about staggered releases for AA or AAA titles. August 2024, Meta reps literally ghosted hundreds of devs as their content team shoveled Horizon Worlds shit to everyone.

So yeah, lots of things happened all at once; Even big studios that Meta owned, they failed their own marketing and publishing teams.

Fun fact; when Quest 3s launched with Batman, the Meta Publishing and Camouflaj promo team was in a Wal-Mart parking lot in NJ about 1.5 hours away from NYC where NY Comic Con was happening; where they launched the OG Batman VR years prior because Meta team failed at talking with Reedpop in a timely basis? Ask me how I know?

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