Just two days after Meta confirmed to fans that it was shutting down Horizon Worlds for VR, Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said on an Instagram AMA that Meta has reversed its decision. As Bosworth explained, the community was adamant that they wanted access to Horizon Worlds on the Meta Quest headset.
Bosworth said, “We’ve decided, actually just today, that we’re going to keep Horizon Worlds working in VR for existing games.” He said that Horizon Unity Runtime games that currently exist will continue to work in VR and will not be ported to mobile platforms. Also, Meta is not currently planning to make any more Horizon World games for VR. And that’s because “producer and consumer energy was already big on mobile,” he said.
Fans have managed to save Horizon Worlds. That doesn’t mean Meta isn’t putting the vague identity of the Metaverse on other tentpoles, notably AR glasses, AI, and mobile devices.
Meta is still moving the metaverse to mobile
-
Meta also envisioned that people would care about the Meta Quest as a game streaming device for services like Xbox. © Adriano Contreras/Gizmodo
Meta was already transparent about its planned shift toward mobile platforms and away from VR. In an interview with Alex Heath posted more than a month ago, Bosworth said he’s seen huge growth on mobile platforms. The company started with social games like super strikeLess a VR-focused multiplayer shooter than the 2023 game super rumble.
In January, Meta cut about 1,500 employees, most of whom were from its Reality Labs division. Some of the employees who were laid off worked at several of the largest game studios acquired by Meta over the past few years. Developers who worked on landmark VR titles like Wrath of Asgard II And deadpool vr Was fired from job. Meta also ended support for some of its more popular apps, like the Supernatural VR exercise game.
The Whole Reality Labs division covers all of Meta’s XR (extended reality) ambitions, including the Meta Ray-Ban Display True AR glasses. Since 2021, Reality Labs has lost approximately $73 billion. Meta Quest was always a loss leader. The company hoped to create an entire economy of headset-wearing workers who would do their daily work in a VR space, then spend the weekend hanging out playing VR and AR games.
This never happened. Instead, headset sales will decline drastically from 2024 to 2025. In January this year, market research firm IDC reported The Register Meta’s headset shipments will be down 16% last year by 2024.
Horizon Worlds isn’t the meta’s biggest problem
“The energy from consumer usage has already shifted to mobile,” Bosworth said in her Instagram AMA. And yet, Meta won’t give up on the dream of a metaverse, where people are beholden to headsets to interact with friends in a drab, pastel-colored virtual world. “We envision a lot in the realm of virtual reality that you will want to interact with the people you care about.”
Boz further explained that Meta is considering “new technologies” for how consumers can make AR and XR headsets a little less isolating. Horizon Worlds was never going to be popular. Even a few months after its launch in 2022, it reportedly fell well short of its planned monthly active users. Meta’s cheaper Quest 3S headset hasn’t succeeded in spurring widespread VR adoption. Maybe it’s time we treated VR as it was meant to be: a fun toy that offers some enthusiasts some unique experiences and games.
<a href