With the shutdown getting closer and closer, looking at the larger picture, investors killed this games identity and it's passion.
It's no surprise that money will always come first, especially in games. Though the downfall of this beloved VR game fell victim to pressure from investors and their money wanting to be multiplied or generated back.
RecRoom shooting up and raving in players with the 2020-2021 boom gave off a false narrative to investors, thus the game being ballooned and swelled up to a monumental $3.5 billion valuation from hype, not generation or valid numbers. It was a huge guess and a flawed one at best.
RecRoom received well over $250 million in funding. As time progressed and as COVID dwindled out, so did the hype. And as the hype died down, the pressure from investors and money payback grew larger and larger. With this mass amount of funding and expectations, RecRoom needed to expand—they needed to generate more money for these investors. They needed to multiply their cash; it wasn't all of their decisions that made it into game updates (Maker AI, Roomie). As time went on, layoffs began to appear and the push from investors grew and grew. Funding had stopped coming long before; the game was pushed into a hole it never dug authentically.
RecRoom lost its track ever since investors entered the picture. The push for AI grew, the costs grew, their size grew, and their costs multiplied. When AI came into the picture, which was an investor-type ideal to fit the needs of the AI boom to stay relevant, costs skyrocketed. The game was never about fitting ideals of the community after the soul of RecRoom and its developers were overruled by investment pressure and who led the design lead/updates.
The tragedy is that RecRoom did not fail because players stopped loving the core concept. It failed because it was forced to carry the weight of a $3.5 billion empire. The platform became a ghost of its former self because every update was viewed through the lens of maximizing investor payback rather than protecting the soul of the community. And with the abandonment of the investors and the game's funding, the game was left a huge money bleeder, too large for its own body—left by investors to sit swelled as the money only fell shorter and shorter. RecRoom wasn't meant to be a monopoly (like Roblox). Game expansion isn't bad—game expansion without a clear idea, motive, nor cost is.
RecRoom's soul was gone when its own body was infected with the ideals of investors and swelling their profits. A VR gem was killed by the greed of the system—we lost a good one, a very good one.
- Sometimes, shooting for the stars isn't the best idea to follow—goes to show being niche isn't a terrible idea.
Thank you RecRoom, seriously for everything—too many games have been screwed over by investment swelling.