Add-ons: Downloadable Content (DLC) and In-App Purchases (IAP)

Beginning later this month, developers will see a new option in their Developer Dashboard⁠ for downloadable add-on content management, Add-ons. Add-ons combine downloadable content (or DLCs) and In-App Purchases (or IAPs) under one management function. The introduction of Add-ons aims to make the process of creating add-on content easier for developers. It also aims to make add-on content more searchable and purchasable directly from the application page for consumers.

Oculus began supporting DLCs in 2018 for mobile and PC. At launch, there were two available file types:

These files could be extracted off the main application build and served to audiences separately. Both of these file types enabled developers to provide new experiences, characters, levels, and languages for their application without increasing the initial download size.

However, we heard from our developers that although supporting DLCs and IAPs was important, the current configuration opportunities and discoverability were challenged.

We’ve been working directly with our developers to make this solution more usable. Add-ons allow for more granular configuration, accommodating screenshots, video trailers, and more. Add-ons can be shipped independently from the main app. In addition, Add-ons need only to be uploaded once, and the system will automatically propagate them to all the needed build versions.

If the add-on content has a downloadable part, and you develop in Unity or Unreal, both engines have built-in support for DLC which can be directly accepted by Oculus Platform. Please refer to the following documentation:

See our documentation for detailed instructions.

If it suits your business and application, set up Add-ons to re-engage your application audience and bring new people into your app community.

We’ll continue working on Add-ons and look forward to introducing Add-ons Bundles soon. As always, we'd love to hear your feedback⁠.

Thanks!

— The Oculus Team