8 Great Years - A Look Back at 2022

January marks our anniversary month at Resolution Games, and each year it provides us an opportunity to look back — not just at the year completed, but at our whole industry, and just how rapidly it’s grown since we first opened our doors in 2015. In less than a decade we’ve gone from making games for mobile headsets to cutting edge consumer-level devices that mix the real and digital worlds. With every new leap forward in technology, we’ve had the opportunity to test the boundaries of what’s possible on new devices, and have iterated on the learnings we’ve made on the hardware that preceded it.

Resolution Games really likes to do things that nobody else has done — and in 2022, we did more of that than ever before. 

Reaching New Players

There are lots of great console and PC games that have released updates to extend their playability to VR — but until this year, we’d yet to see a major VR release do the same thing in reverse. That changed with the April release of Demeo: PC Edition — a ground-up rebuild of our previously VR-exclusive tabletop game, tailor-made for flat-screen audiences. Given the multiplayer focus on Demeo (and much of our library), the team worked tirelessly to ensure that the PC Edition would be cross-play compatible with VR versions of the game, guaranteeing a thriving community for PC gamers on day one.

And because of our work on Demeo: PC Edition, the stage was also set for us to bring the game to home consoles — which we’ll be doing on February 22 when Demeo launches on PlayStation 5 and PS VR2. 

As a studio, we’re dedicated to providing play experiences where our players most want us to be. And while that might mean extending the reach of a game like Demeo to desktops and consoles, it also means doubling down on our efforts to create cutting edge VR, AR, and MR experiences. Whether it was creating proof-of-concept experience with partners like Qualcomm (Demeo AR) and Meta (Fish Under Our Feet), bringing our most popular titles to all-new headsets and territories (Pico 4 and Quest Pro), or putting out new games (Ultimechs) and updates that push the boundaries of what’s available today, 2022 was a great year in building the future of play.

Mixed Reality’s First Big Steps

Last October I shared my thoughts about the power of passthrough. Following that, we’ve now released two projects that we believe give players a taste of what the future of gaming holds. Demeo’s free Passthrough update made it possible for players on Quest 2 and Quest Pro to place the game board on any real-world surface, bringing the virtual tabletop experience to actual tabletops for the first time. Later this year we’ll be adding another layer to the immersion to Demeo’s mixed reality experience with the addition of hand-tracking. 

But while Demeo’s update proved a fantastic use case for adding passthrough to an existing game, we launched an open beta in December of what might be our most ambitious project to date — a game designed to test the limits of what’s possible in the earliest days of mixed reality design. Spatial Ops is the world’s first local multiplayer shooter in mixed reality. Imagine all the fun of in-person team activities like laser tag and paintball — now mix that fun with the edge-of-your-seat digital action of first-person shooters, and you’ll have an inkling of what’s in store when you try out Spatial Ops open beta release. I can say with all confidence that you’ve never played anything quite like it. 

Expanding Capabilities

With so much going on, you might be wondering how we manage to work on so many projects given the average size of a VR studio’s team — but as the industry has grown, so have we. Resolution Games has now surpassed 200 employees, and we’re still growing. 

Following the acquisition of Zero Index in 2021 (now known as Resolution Tech), this year we acquired fellow Stockholm-based studio ZenzVR and welcomed their team into the fold to help build out our growing AR division. 2022 also saw the formation of Resolution Games Inc. — our formal U.S. entity headquartered in Austin, Texas — giving us a physical footprint in the largest market for VR games in the world.

What’s Next?

As 2022 came to a close, we were thrilled to deliver the first-ever developer showcase event from a VR studio announcing a number of new projects and updates — including the sporty fun of Racket Club and the long-awaited PvP twist on a familiar favorite, Demeo Battles, both coming in 2023.

But as you’ve probably come to expect from us, we have a few tricks up our sleeve coming too. Watch this space! Or better yet, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram to keep up with our latest news throughout the year. 

Whether you prefer to game in a headset, at a keyboard, or on a couch, we’re looking forward to playing with you!