Meta Has Announced the End of the Metaverse, and I’m a Little Sad
In a post today on its community blog, Meta announced the closure schedule for Horizon Worlds for virtual reality users. THE Horizon Worlds The app and associated events will disappear from Quest headsets by March 31, and VR users will not be able to use the social hub at all after June 15, 2026. Horizon Worlds will continue, Meta says, but only for mobile users.
“We are separating the two platforms so that each can develop in a more focused way, and the Horizon Worlds platform will become a mobile-only experience,” the company explained in the post. “This separation will extend to our entire ecosystem, including our mobile application.”
Horizon Worlds launched in 2021 as a VR-only platform where users could interact in a virtual space, but it faced early technological and design limitations (most famously that this user’s Metaverse avatars had no legs). However, at the time, the company hoped that the Metaverse would eventually attract more than a billion users, and Horizon Worlds was considered an integral part of it. Obviously, that didn’t happen. At its peak, Horizon WorldsThe monthly number of users was only around 200,000.
What happens to users’ digital purchases and creations?
Long lasting Horizon Worlds users are surely wondering what will happen to their digital objects in the world. The good news is that your Worlds-specific purchases and creations will not be instantly deleted; Meta indicates that your digital items or currency will remain linked to your account. The bad news is that you’ll only be able to access them through the mobile app in “mobile-optimized” worlds, so if a creator hasn’t updated their world for mobile, your assets may effectively become inaccessible.
After June 15, you will no longer be able to create or edit worlds in VR. Meta encourages the use of its web tools, but the immersive building experience that defined the platform is officially ending.
The move is part of an overall strategy shift at Meta, which will dedicate more resources to AI and smart glasses. In January, Meta shuttered its AAA VR game development companies and stopped updating its proprietary subscription-based fitness app. Supernatural, and laid off 1,500 people from its VR Reality Labs division.
Even given all that, Meta says he’s not retiring from VR gaming entirely. In a February 19 blog post, Samantha Ryan, vice president of content at Reality Labs, promised that Meta would “double down on VR” but would still move away from proprietary development to focus on hardware, support third-party developers, and add features to the Quest itself. “It’s no secret that we’re still in the hardware game,” Ryan wrote. “We have a strong roadmap for future VR headsets that will be tailored to different audience segments as the market grows and matures.”
The somewhat sad ending of Horizon Worlds
I searched Horizon Worlds when I bought my Quest 3 headset a few years ago. “Oh, I can decorate a little house or meet people,” I thought; then I logged out and never went back. I have a real house that I can decorate and I use virtual reality because I don’t. as people. But a few months ago, when it became clear that Meta was moving away from the VR space he’d created, I got curious, attached the face computer, dusted off the old avatar, and set off on a Horizon Worlds safari. I’m glad I did it.
What do you think of it so far?
Go to Horizon Worlds it’s strange. It’s like visiting someone else’s dreams, especially Mark Zuckerberg’s dream and its sub-dreams. Worlds volunteer creators. “The defining quality of the metaverse will be a sense of presence… Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That’s why we’re focused on building it,” Mark Zuckerberg said at Connect 2021, and he believed in it enough to spend billions (perhaps as much as $25 billion) on his dream word, where nothing ever gets dusty and everyone is an endlessly smiling cartoon ready to funnel money real to The Overseer for the latest digital sneakers.
Then there are the thousands of creators who have spent countless hours building over 10,000 worlds that you can visit: nightclubs, basketball stadiums, restaurants, etc., even though they are almost all empty. As flashy as it may sound, no one is lining up at the velvet rope of the digital disco. Horizon Worlds is a gigantic dead mall, a congregationless capitalist cathedral, the ultimate liminal space.
Such a strange ambiance is reason enough to visit, but there is an authentic side to Worlds Also. I finally discovered a world where people overcame the unsettling nature of virtual reality and created a true community. The Soapstone Comedy Club isn’t huge, but it’s thriving and one of many places where small groups gather. Horizon Worlds. There are chat rooms that people use to hang out, comedy shows scheduled in the evenings, and a collection of friendly regulars to chat with. It also grew from scratch, as Zuck predicted. Well, comedy is rarely funny. But the people are good.
Some Soapstoners are homebound and disabled, and virtual reality offers them opportunities that the real world denies. Some seem like weirdos who probably have trouble finding real friends who can’t turn them off at will. And some are regular people blowing off steam after work. I’m sad for them all: comedy club on a phone screen just isn’t the same. So, before the digital wrecking ball destroys everyone’s hangouts Horizon Worlds“Remaining residents, you should stop and say hello. There is not much time left.
