Meta has decided to move events from Horizon Venues to the Horizon Worlds platform and shut down of the original app will happen in June. This move effectively cuts off Meta’s original Oculus Quest from access to the company’s own social VR spaces three years after the headset went on sale.
As a shared network of user generated spaces, Horizon Worlds is how Meta supports, trains and tests in order to pay creators. Horizon Worlds launched on Quest 1 and support for the headset was revoked in January this year. Currently, Meta is only granting access to users with Facebook accounts aged 18 and above living in the United States or Canada.
Although Meta is bringing Horizon Worlds to more devices and more countries, it only runs on their Quest 2 and Rift headsets as of now.
The official post notes, “People over 18 in the US and Canada who have access to Horizon Worlds on Quest 2 will be able to access Venues programming in the Horizon Worlds app on June 6. If you’re not in the US or Canada, are 13 – 17 years of age, and/or are on Quest 1, you’ll lose access to Venues programming when the standalone Venues app goes away on June 6, though you’ll still be able to catch highlights and replays of Venues events in Oculus TV.”
The Venues app which was originally Oculus Venues and later called Horizon Venues, was a host to a series of Social VR watch parties for various events such as concerts, sports as well as the recent Foo Fighters concert that was streamed in Venues after the Super Bowl plagued by technical issues.
Changes big and small
The Venue’s events calendar will now continue inside Horizon Worlds that allows people to “jump between a game world to a hang out space – then head right into a big show with your friends,” according to the blog post.
Executives at Meta have also stated that they’ll be cutting the requirement of its headsets needing a Facebook account before users can use them. Although we’re yet to get a clarified update on how exactly that will work.
Meta is also preparing to launch a high-end VR headsets to launch later this year which is currently called Project Cambria. The company plans to invest more than $10 billion yearly to build out efforts and eventually become a leading creator of wearable computers.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
