We've been waiting a long time for something to bring virtual reality into the mainstream: Roblox, the hugely popular gaming platform that more people participate in every day than Canadians in Canada, will be coming soon to Meta Quest VR headsets.

The VR version of Roblox will be available on the Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets, and on the new Quest 3, which will be available later this year. Initially offered as an open beta, Meta says it is "a great opportunity for the Roblox developer community to optimize existing games for Quest and build new games for VR."

Existing Roblox "experiences" (officially called "experiences") will work as is and will be automatically published for the Roblox VR lineup. Meta said, "Roblox has been adding great content to the Roblox VR library since day one because we found that these experiences usually work well in VR without modifications." Roblox for VR is also compatible with other Xbox, iOS, Android, and desktop It is also cross-compatible with platforms and will "make VR more social than ever."

Roblox is certainly a major coup for Meta's VR efforts.Half-Life: There were vague hopes that Alyx might help push VR gaming into the mainstream, but three years after sparking an increase in VR ownership, completely fizzled out; according to a survey by Steam Hardware and Software, the total number of Steam users equipped with VR headsets remains less than 2%.

However, whereas Alyx is a one-off game, Roblox has millions of different "experiences" available and tens of millions of people eagerly playing it every day. The scale of these existing libraries and audiences, and the fact that, generally speaking, Roblox players tend to be younger than other mainstream gamers and are therefore more open-minded to embracing new technologies, may, just may, makes me think that this may be the place where the VR tide is turning. [Robox, the Meta Quest VR headset, is restricted to players 13 and older, and access can be controlled through the existing Meta Quest parental monitoring tool. No rollout date has been announced, but Meta has said the open beta will begin "within a few weeks." More information will be shared as the open beta gets closer.