Meta's Metaverse Leaves Virtual Reality
(Friday February 20, 2026 @10:30PM (BeauHD)
from the rethinking-its-VR-ambitions dept.)
- Reference: 0180833580
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/20/2235224/metas-metaverse-leaves-virtual-reality
- Source link:
Meta is [1]pivoting Horizon Worlds away from its original VR-centric metaverse vision and toward a mobile-first strategy, " [2]explicitly separating " its Quest VR platform from the virtual world. TechCrunch reports:
> By going mobile-first, Horizon Worlds is positioning itself to compete with popular platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. "We're in a strong position to deliver synchronous social games at scale, thanks to our unique ability to connect those games with billions of people on the world's biggest social networks," Samantha Ryan, Reality Labs' VP of content, said in the blog post. "You saw this strategy start to unfold in 2025, and now, it's our main focus." Ryan went on to note that Meta is still focused on VR hardware. "We have a robust roadmap of future VR headsets that will be tailored to different audience segments as the market grows and matures," Ryan wrote.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/meta-metaverse-leaves-vr-horizon-worlds-mobile/
[2] https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/2026-vr-state-of-the-union-horizon-mobile-focus/
> By going mobile-first, Horizon Worlds is positioning itself to compete with popular platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. "We're in a strong position to deliver synchronous social games at scale, thanks to our unique ability to connect those games with billions of people on the world's biggest social networks," Samantha Ryan, Reality Labs' VP of content, said in the blog post. "You saw this strategy start to unfold in 2025, and now, it's our main focus." Ryan went on to note that Meta is still focused on VR hardware. "We have a robust roadmap of future VR headsets that will be tailored to different audience segments as the market grows and matures," Ryan wrote.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/meta-metaverse-leaves-vr-horizon-worlds-mobile/
[2] https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/2026-vr-state-of-the-union-horizon-mobile-focus/
But.. (Score:2)
by commodore73 ( 967172 )
But how long before it leaves real reality? Meta gaming platform driven by social? Seriously? In 2026?
About time (Score:2)
by TwistedGreen ( 80055 )
Should've done this from the beginning. It never made sense to require VR for something that you desperately need users to populate your empty virtual worlds.
Re: (Score:2)
by 0123456 ( 636235 )
The point of buying Oculus for the VR hardware was to create the Metaverse where everyone would put on a VR headaset and log into Facebook to do things with their friends and relatives. But that market was taken by apps like VR Chat.
Obviously the plan was dumb, but it was a plan.
Wait, what? (Score:2)
Horizon Worlds still exists?
Re: Wait, what? (Score:2)
Personally I'd never even heard of it...