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🚨 Meta initially announced that Horizon Worlds VR access would end by June 15, 2026
🤷♂️ CTO Andrew Bosworth reversed this, stating Horizon Worlds VR will be supported for existing users and games for the “foreseeable future.”
😅 Bosworth claims the initial announcement led to “misinformation” and insists both Horizon Worlds and VR are not “dead,” despite recent layoffs and studio closures
⌛ While the VR version remains accessible, it will receive no new content, and its long-term future remains uncertain as Meta focuses investment on mobile and next-gen hardware like the Quest 4
Mere days after announcing that Horizon Worlds would no longer be accessible in VR after June 15, 2026, CTO Andrew Bosworth has revealed Meta has done a U-turn and that the company plans to support Horizon Worlds in VR for the “foreseeable future”.
In a post during an AMA on Instagram, Bosworth said: “We have decided, just today in fact, that we will keep Horizon Worlds working in VR for existing games, to support the fans who’ve reached out. For people who already have games they like that they’re using in Horizon Worlds, [they] will be able to download the Horizon Worlds app and use it in VR for the foreseeable future.”
Meta released a statement that Horizon Worlds and its metaverse experiences would be available via mobile moving forward, and made it quite clear in its announcement that the VR version was shutting down on June 15.
However, according to Bosworth, the reaction to the announcement has led to “a lot of misinformation”.
“We announced, ‘hey, we’re moving away from Horizon Worlds in VR,’ and the headline is that Horizon is dead,” he said. “It’s not. And likewise, VR is not dead. We’re continuing to invest tremendously.”
Even though Meta laid off more than a 1,000 employees from its metaverse division and recently shut down three VR studios, Bosworth is still bullish about VR and the metaverse’s future, which he says is a “misunderstood concept”.
Bosworth attempted to redefine what the metaverse is, saying: “When somebody is using their phone and you’re physically with them, they’re at the dinner table with you, and yet when you talk to them, they hear nothing because they’ve transported themselves through the glowing rectangle into a digital space,” he explained. “Maybe that they’re scrolling media, maybe that they’re in the text world, but like they have transported themselves. So we’ve always had this internally – at least me and Mark – this very expansive construct of the metaverse.”
Even if Horizon Worlds in VR isn’t shutting down as early as planned, it’s clear the application is on borrowed time as there will be no new content, and some existing experiences will no longer be accessible, regardless of how Bosworth wants to spin it.
Bosworth also said that Meta is still working on the next generation of VR headsets, which will most likely include the Meta Quest 4.
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Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. He also runs a retro gaming YouTube channel called Game on, boy! Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.
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