Last month, I wrote the following in an editorial on the current state of social VR:
So, it would appear that those social VR platforms that do have in-world economies can’t attract large numbers of users, and the ones that don’t have in-world economies might be popular, but obviously can’t keep running indefinitely without a means of generating profit.
And back in August, I noted that VRChat is looking to hire staff who can work on building a virtual economy and a marketplace for user-generated content.
Well, today I took a gander at the Jobs page on the Rec Room website, and guess what I found? Job postings for the following positions:
- Game Designer, User Generated Content, with the responsibility to “utilize a broad range of game design techniques to make complex and intimidating User Content Creation tools approachable & easy to use for everyday gamers”;
- Games Developer, Marketplace, where the successful applicant will “build the tools that allow creators to sell wares via the in-game economy”; and
- Senior Gameplay Engineer, User Generated Content, whose job will be to “design, build, implement and maintain creative tools that players use to collaboratively build within Rec Room”.
So it would appear that Rec Room, like VRChat, is also planning to implement an in-game economy, including a marketplace where user-generated content will be sold. Note also the mention of staff who will be working on easy-to-use, collaborative building tools for user content generation.
Of course, having an in-world economy would be an important step on the road to Rec Room becoming a profit-generating company. It will be interesting to watch as the company attempts to grow its userbase!
