On March 18th, Meta confirmed that its metaverse platform (game) Horizon Worlds will gradually stop supporting the VR end. The VR version of this game will be officially cancelled on June 15th and removed from the Quest store.
Last month, Meta announced that it would spin off Horizon Worlds from the Quest VR ecosystem and turn the game into a mobile game to maximize the retention of active players on the platform while controlling costs.
According to the official schedule currently announced, starting from March 31st, the Quest store will no longer display personally created Horizon Worlds worlds and event content, and users will also be unable to access multiple official and popular scenes, including "Horizon Central," "Events Arena," "Kaiju," and "Bob Bay," through their headsets. By June 15th, the Horizon Worlds app will be completely removed from Quest devices, and users will only be able to use the Meta Horizon app on iOS/Android platforms to play the game in 2D mode.
At the same time, the Hyperscape Capture testing feature that was recently launched on Horizon Worlds will also be removed. This feature originally allowed Quest users to perform high-precision 3D scanning of the real world and share and collaborate with multiple people in a virtual space. Meta stated that in the future, users will still be able to collect and view Hyperscape, but social features such as "sharing, inviting, and sharing experiences with multiple people" will no longer be supported.
It is worth noting that Horizon Worlds was originally a Quest limited VR game, similar to the combination of VRChat and Roblox, allowing players to create their own characters and socialize in various popular scenes (maps).
Although Meta's "2026 VR Strategy" released earlier this year hinted that Quest core users may still be able to access its Horizon Worlds metaverse content in some form, the company's latest statement now indicates that "completely abandoning the VR version" is already in the company's planning, and also reflects Meta's shift of more funds and energy towards more growth potential directions such as artificial intelligence and AR smart glasses, gradually reducing investment in VR.
