[ocdtrekkie]

I'm actually surprised Google doesn't charge for more of side projects like this... revenue of some kind can often justify continued investment, whereas most of their random free app projects are shuttered quickly because they aren't monetized easily.

Also, a lot of VR projects, Tilt Brush included, had price tags in part because they were built with exclusive deals with hardware manufacturers as bundled launches. It's hard to say your VR headset bundle has a value added deal of a piece of software that you then give away for free.

My very distinct impression from companies that built exclusive VR titles for new headset launches, is that the revenue guarantees involved were big enough for that to be a reason in itself to build a given title. CCP Games built four... Valkyrie was originally exclusive to Oculus Rift and Gunjack was originally exclusive to the Samsung Gear. Gunjack 2 was then exclusive to Daydream. And Sparc started as a PlayStation VR exclusive. Apart from EVE Online, CCP hasn't made any successful launched games except for VR titles... likely profitable solely because of those exclusivity deals alone.