Meta is formally sectioning off Horizon Worlds, the closest factor it has to a metaverse, from its Quest VR platform, in keeping with a brand new weblog publish from Samantha Ryan, Meta’s VP of Content material, Actuality Labs. Whereas the choice runs counter to Meta’s unique plan to personal an immersive digital world that might function the longer term residence for all on-line interplay, it suits with the current cuts it made to its expensive Actuality Labs division, and Mark Zuckerberg’s public dedication to focus the corporate on AI {hardware} like sensible glasses going ahead.
“We’re explicitly separating our Quest VR platform from our Worlds platform with a view to create extra space for each merchandise to develop,” Ryan writes within the weblog publish. “We’re doubling down on the VR developer ecosystem whereas shifting the main focus of Worlds to be virtually solely cell. By breaking issues down into two distinct platforms, we’ll be higher capable of clearly give attention to every.”
Meta has been growing cell and net variations of Horizon Worlds in parallel with its VR app since not less than 2023. Switching Worlds to being a mobile-first software program platform is not good for VR diehards, but it surely does make it a extra pure competitor to one thing like Roblox or Fortnite, which additionally supply user-created and monetizable worlds and video games. It is also a enterprise Meta believes it might probably extra simply scale due to its skill to attach video games to “billions of individuals on the world’s largest social networks.”
Whereas Meta shuttered a number of of its personal VR recreation studios earlier this 12 months, it nonetheless needs to assist third-party builders publishing video games on its platform. The corporate says new monetization instruments, higher discoverability, a “Offers” tab and extra methods for builders to speak to their prospects ought to assist make a distinction. Sustaining the Quest’s library of video games is also crucial going ahead. Enterprise Insider reported in December 2025 that Meta was engaged on a gaming-focused Quest headset, and Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth confirmed earlier this February that the corporate nonetheless had a number of Quest gadgets on its roadmap.
