VR battle royale Population: One goes free on March 9

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Big Box VR, developer of the VR battle royale game Population: One, today announced that its game will be free-to-play on March 9th. Specifically, it will be free for users playing on Meta Quest 2 and Professional Headsets. For those on Steam and Rift, it will be available at a discounted price of $19.99. Big Box is also releasing new updates for the game at the same time.

Population: One launched in 2020 and acquired by Meta in 2021. Players who already purchased the game before it went free will receive a free content pack called Original Banana Bundle. As the name suggests, this includes several banana-themed cosmetics. According to its Meta blog post, the developers hope to "bring POP1 to a wider audience and expand the social multiplayer experience".

While any free-to-play game will likely see an increase in numbers, Battle Royale games seem to be hitting a saturation point. Games such as Knockout City and Rumbleverse are shutting down for good (both games were free at the time). Meta also shut down one of its most acclaimed VR titles, Echo VR, earlier this month, citing player counts in the ten thousand.

In addition to the free-to-play mechanic, the March 9 updates include map changes, new game balances, new single-player modes, and an updated in-game store.

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