There may be general similarities shared among VR headsets, but that doesn't mean that a game designed to run on the Oculus Rift is necessarily meant to run on the HTC Vive. It's technically possible, of course — the Revive software that showed up around the middle of April proved it. Naturally, Oculus wasn't pleased by Revive's stated goals — they called the software a "hack," and issued a warning that "hacked games won't work indefinitely." Now, their latest update to the Oculus app has introduced new security measures that render the Revive software useless.

Essentially, new "platform integrity checks" within the Oculus app update 1.4 check for an active connection to a Rift headset before applications will run. Without having a Rift attached to the system, the software simply won't launch. Speaking to Motherboard, Revive developer Libre VR confirmed that the update had squelched the functionality of his software, and posited that Oculus knew what the new security checks would mean for Revive.

"While this helps prevent piracy from people who didn't buy an Oculus Rift, it doesn't do anything to prevent piracy from those who did buy an Oculus Rift," Libre VR said. "And this clearly excludes anyone who bought the game, but didn't buy an Oculus Rift. Even if Revive wasn't targeted, they were probably more than aware of the collateral damage."

Oculus representatives provided this statement to Gamasutra:

"Our latest software update included several new features, bug fixes and security upgrades, including an update to our entitlement check that we added to curb piracy and protect games and apps that developers have worked so hard to make," adding, "This update wasn’t targeted at a specific hack."

There may soon come a time where VR software is compatible with all the most popular headsets, but that time hasn't arrived just yet. Among other issues, VR hardware manufacturers need their software exclusives to draw new consumers to their brand. Until such a time when (or if) VR technology becomes more standardized, software similar to Revive will likely meet the same fate.

Oculus puts the kibosh on 'hack' that let vive owners play Rift games, Gamasutra