It looks like Meta might be set on winding down its VR efforts. According to Gematsu, the tech giant has announced that it is shutting down three of its VR game development studios—Sanzaru Games, Armature Studio, and Twisted Pixel. All three studios were known for their work on major VR games, including the Oculus version of Resident Evil 4, the Asgard’s Wrath series, and Marvel’s Deadpool VR.
Interestingly, the studio closure comes in light of a recent Bloomberg report that reveals that Meta is also making larger cuts throughout its Reality Labs division. These cuts are set to affect more than 1,000 employees at the company. Reality Labs is the main division in charge of Meta’s various VR efforts, including the Quest headsets and the various game development studios owned by the company.
It is worth noting that Meta had initially acquired Armature Studios and Twisted Pixel, along with Camouflaj, all the way back in 2022. The company had acquired Sanzaru Games all the way back in 2020. While Armature Studios hadn’t released a game since 2019’s Quest port of Resident Evil 4, Twisted Pixel had released the Quest 3 and Quest 3S-exclusive Marvel’s Deadpool VR just last year.
What the closure of these studios means for Meta’s Reality Labs division in the long term is currently unknown, including the fate of future Quest headsets, and even games developed exclusively for the platforms. In a statement, the company noted that this was part of a move to focus more of its investments on wearable technology.
“We said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward Wearables. This is part of that effort, and we plan to reinvest the savings to support the growth of wearables this year,” said a spokesperson for Meta.
Armature Studios had done quite a bit of prolific work with various major companies before it started focusing its efforts on VR games. It was known for its partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment, having worked on ports of various games for Sony’s platforms. This includes the PlayStation Vita ports for Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Injustice: Gods Among Us, and multiplatform ports for Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. The studio has also previously worked with Microsoft on its own IP: 2016 adventure game ReCore for PC and Xbox One.
Sanzaru Games, on the other hand, is known for many projects over the years. Before getting into VR, the studio had worked on titles like The PS3 remastered release The Sly Collection, and even the PS Vita ports for games like God of War Collection and The Sly Collection. It had even worked on spin-off titles like Secret Agent Clank on PS2, and even the fourth game in the Sly Cooper franchise, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, back in 2013.
The studio first began a relationship with Meta when it worked on titles like Ripcoil, VR Sports Challenge and Tron RUN/r back in 2016. The studio would catch Meta’s attention in a major way thanks to its VR-based action RPG Asgard’s Wrath, which was released on the Oculus Rift in 2019. A couple of years after its acquisition, the studio would release Asgard’s Wrath 2, which is considered by many to be one of the most ambitious VR titles released on Meta’s Quest headsets.
Twisted Pixel wasn’t quite as prolific when it came to releases before its extensive VR work. However, the studio was well-known for its action platforming game ‘Splosion Man, as well as unique titles like LocoCycle and The Gunstringer.
