Technologies

Rec Room’s big plans for the metaverse: ‘So much more than a game’

The social gaming platform started in VR, and has seen growth on mobile, consoles and more during the pandemic. Now it’s valued at $3.5 billion.

One of the biggest apps in virtual reality just got a boost in its bid to become one of the biggest players in the next big tech trend, the metaverse.

Rec Room, a Seattle-based social gaming startup founded by people who worked on Microsoft’s early HoloLens efforts, said Monday it has raised $145 million. That puts its valuation at $3.5 billion, more than the nearly $3 billion Facebook agreed to pay when it acquired VR startup Oculus in 2014. Rec Room’s new funding, which was led by Coatue Management and involved existing investors Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and Madrona Venture Group, will be used to grow the company and hire more employees.

CEO Nick Fajt, who co-founded Rec Room in 2016, said the company has seen a jump in users amid the pandemic as people logged on to play games such as paintball and laser tag and race in vehicle rallies while chatting with other players. Though the company declined to say how many people logged into its platform each month, it did say they’d jumped more than 450% in November from the same time last year.

Fajt said some of that growth had come from the company’s apps being added to iPhones in 2019 and Android phones this summer. He also noted that users had created more than 12 million rooms in which to play games or chat. «It comes down to providing a really strong community,» Fajt said.

But in its push to grow, the company will face competition. It’s the latest in a string of social-focused apps to find success amid the COVID-19’s perpetual isolation. Other apps like the world-building games Minecraft and Roblox, as well as the online battle game Fortnite, became havens for people to meet up amid the pandemic. Gaming network traffic jumped early in the pandemic and kept rising too.

People are also spending significant time in those games. When Roblox went public last year, the company said an average of 31.1 million people logged onto its service per day, up more than 80% from the same time in 2019. This November, a year later, Roblox said that number had jumped again to 47.3 million.

This boom of digital worlds where people can interact has led much of the tech industry to describe them with a new catchphrase, the metaverse. Fortnite maker Epic Games has discussed the concept when describing how its hit fighting game has also served up live music concerts, celebrity meetup events and even movie nights. Other companies have latched onto this idea, as well, with executives at companies from Microsoft to dating app Match to cryptocurrency specialist Coinbase and even the entertainment giant Disney talking about how they’re building their own metaverses.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was so excited about the metaverse that he changed his company’s name in October — to Meta. «In our DNA, we are a company that builds technology to connect people and the metaverse is the next frontier, just like social networking was when we got started,» he said at the time.

When Meta launched its Rift VR headsets in 2016, virtual reality was at the peak of its hype. Investors were pouring money into VR startups, while large companies like Sony, Google, phone maker HTC and Microsoft discussed their visions for VR too. But sales didn’t boom like they had for smartphones after Apple’s iPhone launched, and so people’s enthusiasm for VR to become the next big thing waned.

That’s all started to change, as we’ve been forced to rely on technology amid the pandemic. Joost van Dreunen, a professor at NYU Stern School of Business and author of the book One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games, said he’s become less skeptical about social worlds as he saw people adapt to social distancing and isolation by holding funerals on Zoom and children’s birthday parties in Roblox.

«It can be a purely social thing where my kid logs in on a rainy day and plays with his friends,» he said.

Creating the metaverse

For Rec Room, the sudden excitement around the tech world represents both a huge opportunity, and a warning that it’ll face challenges from some of the industry’s biggest names. Already, Meta has been working on a free experience called Horizon Worlds that, like Rec Room, offers people a way to hang out and play games in a shared virtual environment.

Fajt said one thing that will make his company stand out is that it isn’t tied to Meta’s platform, like Horizon is. Instead, it’s available for free on Android, iPhones, PC, Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, in addition to VR. It doesn’t rely on advertising for revenue either, making money instead by selling virtual goods like new looks for characters.

So far, it appears to be working. Console and VR users are averaging more than two hours in Rec Room, and mobile device users are averaging an hour. That’s similar to data Roblox revealed last year, saying its users average 2.6 hours in its game.

«If you’re going into Rec Room, you’re staying there for a while,» Fajt said.

Rec Room also hopes to stand out through its community. The company set strict guidelines about abuse and bad behavior, providing tutorials on how to use its tools to mute or even vote to kick out those causing trouble. Rec Room has also started testing automatic voice moderation, using a mix of community reporting, human moderators and automated tools to identify offenders.

«A big part of it is being proactive,» Fajt said, adding that the company moderates more heavily when a person first joins the platform in an effort to set the tone. He also doesn’t want to repeat mistakes that have led to mass harassment campaigns, disinformation and other dangerous behavior that Meta,Twitter, YouTube and other social media companies now struggle with.

It’s still a lot of work. A Facebook employee once internally told colleagues they’d not had a «good time» using Rec Room on the Oculus Quest headset, because someone was chanting a racial slur, according to disclosures by Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who shared redacted internal communications with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congress and a consortium of news organizations and reporters, including CNET reporter Queenie Wong. The Facebook employee tried to report the «bigot,» and Fajt said that his team had banned someone using the same racial slur around the same time.

He also noted that Rec Room plans to improve its moderation systems as it grows, with a goal of correctly banning people who break the rules as quickly as possible.

«We didn’t say Rec Room is an open community to do whatever you want,» he added. «We have a code of conduct and expectations for content that we will and will not allow.»

Hopefully, Fajt says, those efforts will help create experiences that people will want to keep coming back to. «It’s one of the most important challenges. When we look at the next step for us, it’s going to be so much more than a game.»

Technologies

Why Are Switch 2 Games So Expensive? Trump’s Tariffs May Not Be Sole Factor

It still comes down to money.

Wednesday’s reveal of the Switch 2 had a lot of buzz from Nintendo surrounding its successor to the Switch. One shocking bit, though, was the high price of its games. There’s a lot of confusion, especially with news of President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on many trading partners, including Japan.

After the Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo released the full details of the upcoming console and games on its website. The price of Mario Kart World shocked gamers and led to some disdain, as the $80 MSRP was $10 more than what most new games cost today. This led many to wonder if this would be a new normal for game prices due to Trump’s tariffs or if Nintendo was just being greedy. The answer, however, might be something completely different.

Are Nintendo Switch 2 game prices hiking?

To start, some details need to be cleared up. Some people have posted on social media that the price of Nintendo’s Switch 2 games, at least in the US, will be $90. That is incorrect, as of right now.

One X user posted Switch 2 EU prices for Mario Kart World, which start at 80 euros for a digital version and 90 euros for the physical copy. Typically, US and EU games match in price, which caused some to assume that this pricing would be the case for the US.

Nintendo Switch 2 games will be more expensive physically than digitally.
Mario Kart World will be 90 freaking euros phisically. pic.twitter.com/iXuRwzlFqH

— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) April 2, 2025

US retailers, however, already posted their Switch 2 game prices, and Nintendo-published games are listed at $80.

Will Trump’s tariffs cause the Switch 2 to cost more?

As for Trump’s tariffs, that is unlikely to be a driver of this price bump. Tariffs are not applied to digital goods, and when the prices were published, there were no tariffs on Japan. Plus, games are similarly expensive in other countries like Canada and the UK.

With that cleared up, why are Nintendo games on the Switch 2 so expensive? One likely reason is game storage.

Read More: All the Nintendo Games You Can Update to Switch 2 for Free

The Switch 2 uses what Nintendo calls game-key cards, which are Switch 2 cartridges that don’t have all the game data on the cartridge itself. This helps save on production costs as storage is expensive. The original Switch cartridges went up to 32GB of storage, which doesn’t seem like a lot these days, with some games taking up 100GB or more of storage, but this is for the original Switch. Only a few games, like The Witcher 3, went above 32GB because the graphics for the Switch weren’t on the high end like with a PC, PS5 or Xbox Series console, where a Witcher 3 install size starts at 50GB.

Switch 2 games are going to be bigger in size — there is little doubt about it. CD Projekt Red confirmed it would put its Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on one 64GB cartridge, and there will likely be other games to surpass that 64GB. With the max size of the cartridge doubling in size, it adds to the price of the physical card, as not only does storage have to be bigger, but they will need to transfer data faster. That can get more expensive for physical copies, unlike optical discs, which are still the same price whether it has 20GB or 100GB on the disc.

What does all this mean for gamers?

This leads to a dilemma for publishers: Put the entire game on the physical card and sell it at a loss, increase the price of the physical copy with the full game on it or use the game-key card to have a card with minimal storage, requiring gamers to download the entire game.

Read More: The 17 Best Nintendo Switch Games Right Now

It appears that Nintendo went with door No. 2. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, knowing the company. Anyone who wants to save money on games knows that Nintendo will seldom bring the price down of its own games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for example, is 8 years old and is still full price on Nintendo’s website.

According to an industry analysis from Niko Partners, this new pricing could become the new normal in a couple of years when it comes to physical cartridges.

«While there has been some sticker shock regarding the price of games increasing from $60 to $70 or $80, these price points are set to become industry standard over the next two years, especially so for Nintendo first-party games,» Niko Partners said in a statement Wednesday. «One reason for the higher price is the increased cost of the new and faster Game Cards themselves, with higher capacities being more expensive to manufacture than a PS5 Blu-ray disc.»

Nintendo didn’t respond to a request for comment about the higher price of its games.

That said, this doesn’t explain the lower price of Donkey Kong Bananza, which comes out in July; that’s listed on Nintendo’s site for $70. This could mean the game isn’t using a larger storage card, but that can’t be said for sure until the game comes out. It’s unclear how things will change in the future.

Technologies

Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-orders in US Delayed Due to Trump’s Tariffs

The Switch 2 launch is still happening on June 5, and preorders outside the US seem unchanged.

Nintendo Switch 2 preorders in the US were to start April 9, but it appears those plans have changed due to the new tariffs imposed this week by President Donald Trump. It’s unclear if this means Nintendo will also have to increase the price of the Switch successor, which currently starts at $450.

Nintendo said Friday that it’s delaying Switch 2 preorders in the US, but its June release date is unaffected.

«Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,» the company said in a statement. «Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.»

Nintendo didn’t indicate if preorder dates outside the US would change, but Eurogamer reports that preorders are live at various retailers in the UK.

A tariff of 24% has been applied by the US to goods from Japan. Were that rate to be applied directly to the Switch 2’s announced price, it would rise to $558, but it would be up to Nintendo how much of the tariff it will pass on to consumers.

This is a developing story.

Technologies

Twelve South’s Foldable Wireless Charger for iPhone and Apple Watch Is Up to 27% Off at Amazon

This handy accessory makes it easier to travel with your Apple gear and stay charged wherever you go.

Whether you’re traveling for business or off on a wonderful family vacation, charging your stuff shouldn’t be something you have to worry about. Taking extra chargers and cables can be a pain, and they all take up space in your bag. But the handy Twelve South Butterfly SE charger is a compact alternative that can wirelessly charge an iPhone and an Apple Watch at the same time. And it’s available with up to 27% off right now at Amazon.

That top line discount applies to the pink version, though the white model is only $7 more and other colors are seeing 15% off the usual $100 price tag if you have a strong preference. It’s not clear how long the discounts will last, though.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

The charger itself offers a way to wirelessly charge a iPhone and Apple Watch from a single AC outlet, and you can even charge your AirPods when your phone is done, too. And because this is a Qi2 charger you’ll get a full 15 watts of wireless charging for compatible devices — including the best iPhones.

When you’re not using the Butterfly SE, it folds up so it can be slid into a pocket, bag or luggage without taking up too much space. It really is the perfect partner for people who like to travel light.

Unfortunately, this charger doesn’t come with an AC adapter in the box, so you’ll need to provide your own. Make sure it’s rated for 20 watts or more. If you need to buy one, Apple’s 20-watt USB-C charger is just $15 right now.

Why this deal matters

We all carry multiple devices around with us these days. Anything that can make charging them more convenient is a win in our books, especially when you’re traveling. This charger takes up little space when it isn’t being used and charges quickly when it is.