Population: One, the developers of BigBox VR have announced that the game will become free on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro starting March 9.
Update: This article was republished on March 9 with an updated title to reflect the move to free play. The original article, published on February 28, continues below.
After launching in late 2020 for $29.99, Population: One will be free for everyone on the Quest platform starting next week. Current owners of the game (or those who purchase and open a copy before March 9) will receive the “Original Banana Bundle” as compensation, which includes the legendary character PJ (Potassium), the Prestige Arsenal (four legendary characters and 14 rare weapons), an exclusive spray, 1000 gold and more. You can check out all the details in the graphic below.
After March 9, new free-to-play players will be able to earn experience and unlock rewards up to level 10 on the progression track. Those who want to continue unlocking rewards will need to pay for “All Access”, which will cost 750 in-game gold (available for $14.99 in the Quest store at the time of writing).
Population: One is also available on Rift and Steam for PC VR, but won’t be free on those platforms and will see a price reduction to $19.99 instead. BigBox says that “as with other games, the price of these platforms (PC VR) will be used to prevent potential cheaters from easily creating a new account on Steam/Rift”. However, those who purchase the game on PC VR will receive 1200 in-game gold, which equates to $19.99 in value.
The move to free play on March 9 also comes with a game update that includes sandbox changes, a new single-player mode with dynamic bots, map changes, balance changes, and a graphical update with improved resolution and real-time shadows.
BigBox says more modes, features, and maps are planned for the rest of 2023.