There’s a ton of reasons for this-- but the easy one is thus: UGC!
User generated content (UGC) is a huge boon and is what makes VRChat great. In almost all instances, every single model, texture, and most shaders have been authored by users of VRChat. Our community gets to build all of their content in industry-standard development tools.
Obviously this has huge advantages, but also has some downsides. For one, do you know how you have to build an avatar twice, if you want full compatibility? Once for PC, then again for Quest?
Every avatar/world creator who wants to have their content seen by all VRChat users has to build for both platforms, and even do some extra optimization (if they’re doing it right) for Quest. If you only build for PC and not for Quest, then your content only gets seen on PC…
Well, PS4’s another build and optimization cycle. And so is PS5. And so is XBox and iPhone and Switch and etc etc etc*.
Additionally, you can’t just shove a PC avatar or world onto a PS4-- it isn’t about the power, it’s about compatibility. As an example, when you make a Quest avatar, you have to switch to the Android “build” in Unity, right? Well, that changes the whole process of how an asset is packed up. It’s totally different from PC. The same goes for all those different platforms-- they all expect a different format. (Slightly more technical detail: It’s mostly shaders, but eh.)
Anyways, there’s other reasons, but these are the BIG ones. We want to get on as many platforms as we can, but porting VRChat (the application) is just one small piece of the puzzle. The content is the real challenge.
* This does not mean we’re coming to these platforms, and this is not a platform announcement. Just for context. 