Meta's Latest Game Is A Non-VR Horizon Worlds Shooter

Meta’s newest first-party recreation is a Horizon Worlds shooter solely playable on cell and internet, not in VR.

It is referred to as Tremendous Strike, and comes from Ouro Interactive, the studio Meta arrange a number of years in the past to construct high-quality Horizon Worlds video games.

Ouro constructed the flagship shooter expertise of Horizon Worlds, Tremendous Rumble. Launched in 2023, it was one of many first worlds to make use of the desktop editor, quite than being created inside VR, and it is playable on all platforms that help Horizon Worlds, together with VR.

That its new Tremendous Strike recreation doesn’t help VR is one other step in Meta’s ongoing diversification of Actuality Labs from a purely XR focus to a wider ambition of being a well-liked smartphone gaming platform, competing with Roblox, Rec Room, Fortnite, and app retailer video games, not only a social VR platform.

All Horizon Worlds worlds have been accessible on cell and internet since final yr. And this yr we have seen the launch of quite a lot of worlds not playable in VR, first from third-party creators, and now from Meta itself.

Meta has fostered and inspired the third-party worlds, awarding their creators a complete of $2 million throughout two competitions this yr to this point.

Each World In Horizon Can Now Be Joined On Net & Cell

All worlds in Meta’s Horizon Worlds “metaverse” platform now work in internet browsers and on smartphones, as an alternative of just some.

The primary, referred to as the Cell Style Showdown, awarded $100,000, $30,000, and $20,000 every respectively in June to the primary, second, and third place winners throughout 5 genres, in addition to $15,000 every to the winners of 15 particular classes.

The second, referred to as Elevate Your Cell World, awarded $100,000, $60,000, and $50,000 in August to the primary, second, and third place winners of “Most Satisfying Development System” and “Most Sharable Moments”, in addition to $20,000 every to a number of winners of 14 new particular classes.

Meta has additionally made it attainable to entry Horizon Worlds virtually immediately from hyperlinks inside Instagram and Fb, while not having every other app put in.

Earlier this yr, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth declared that “we’re nonetheless investing massively in VR gaming and do not plan to cease”, and Meta’s Director of Video games Chris Pruett claimed that the corporate funded over 100 VR & combined actuality titles that shipped in 2024, in addition to over 200 at the moment in “energetic manufacturing”. The corporate can be set to launch Deadpool VR in November, in collaboration with Marvel Video games, its subsequent blockbuster after Batman: Arkham Shadow.

Nonetheless, the corporate’s priorities are clearly shifting, and declining Quest headset gross sales may see Meta’s content material funding selections change even additional.

However will non-VR shooters, social media integration, and tens of millions of {dollars} of creator prizes actually flip Horizon Worlds into the following Fortnite, or will this be the true legendary misadventure of Meta?