On March 17, Meta announced Horizon Worlds would lose VR support on June 15 and refocus the platform to mobile and web.
An uproar of grief and dismay resulted; Meta then clarified that “existing games” would remain available on headsets after the closure date. That still means that many Horizon Worlds will lose VR access entirely, though, effectively splitting the platform according to how players are able to access it.
What becomes of a userbase that has managed to persist in a platform that, while plagued with issues, has still managed to gain its own unique community?
Log in to Horizon Worlds now and you might see signs like this at mainstay bars such as Gatsby’s. It’s one of the many ways Horizon communities are planning ahead. While some groups are deciding to remain where they are, others are moving altogether or building twin maps on rival platforms.
I took a look at the people who run venues within Horizon Worlds, their take on the impending closure date for VR access, and what they intend to do afterwards.
Hoping For The Best
Nikki goes by Thickaz24 online and runs the venue Mirage On The Water. Mirage is a late-night urban club; when I enter the map to speak with its owner, a game of spades is in play in the back lounge. The world is awash in animated ocean life, underwater foliage, and neon colors that throw everything under a blacklight filter.
Mirage is one of the many venues Nikki runs in Horizon Worlds with the architectural help of community member Tone2tymes. Her entertainment network is part of a larger cluster of party spaces that Horizon users flock to for hip-hop, reggae, soul, and slow classics. “I’ve always believed that creating moments for people to come together, have fun, and feel seen is something that comes from the heart,” Nikki explained in an interview. “For me, being a party promoter in Horizon Worlds felt like a natural extension of who I already am.”
She notes some of her friends are moving to VRChat as Horizon Worlds shifts its attention to mobile. For now, she’s waiting to see what happens. “I put so much time and effort and money into Horizon, I can only be optimistic. It’s a revolving door in Meta Horizon Worlds, so new people circulate all the time.”
Relocating And Reinventing
For European Horizon users, The White Lotus was a mainstay for lowkey events and casual conversation. Bar owner 3 Eyed Tiger has run the virtual establishment for three years and held a higher minimum age than most (25+) to ensure mature patronage. Where Mirage On The Water is an after-hours daydream, The White Lotus was a lounge fashioned as a pantheon featuring a large pool and balconies overlooking its courtyard.
By the time she heard of Horizon’s closure, 3 Eyed Tiger was already running bar nights on more than one platform. She’s less than impressed with Horizon’s recent announcement that certain experiences would remain available for VR.
“The news from Boz feels like a very glossed-over way of saying the platform is still being sunsetted,” she wrote to UploadVR. “By the time we face the lack of updates, the inability to build or change anything, and the disappearing monetization incentives in April, there will be no one left to run communities or build VR-focused games by the June 15th cutoff.”
Nowadays she runs a Twitch stream while working to reassemble The White Lotus in VRChat. Until then, she hosts social events while playing games such as Fish! or relaxing in crowd-friendly worlds. “I think this will be a telling time. Many are realizing that a strong, well-built community is now the only factor that truly matters. Most of the biggest social communities don’t even have their own dedicated worlds in VRChat—it’s a completely different angle altogether.”
Not All Is Lost
The news of Horizon Worlds sounds familiar to another group who’s suffered a similar fate. Altspace veteran SereneLiminal has been in VRChat since her favorite immersive platform was shuttered 3 years ago by Microsoft.
She recalls when the news hit and how the feeling of loss soon transformed into a need for action. “It was a shock to everyone, and people quickly united to save worlds hosted in Altspace, tried to figure out how to clone avatars. People came together to help each other, people who didn’t know each other, people who previously didn’t get along, we all came together. It was a unified grief for all of us.”
The last moments of Altspace are explicitly something that sticks out in Serene’s mind. “We remember the last minutes before Altspace Servers shut down. Gathering with friends in our favorite worlds, singing, talking or just being near each other. Then at the moment of shut down everyone’s avatars freezing, disappearing and then you were in the room by yourself then the sad and awful last message from the Altspace team.”
Since 2023, SereneLiminal and others have come together to retain their identity while settling into new virtual lands. One example of how they’ve kept their memories alive is the Altspace Legacy Venue. The space serves as both a small museum of Altspace avatars and photos, a stage for gatherings, and a memorial for Altspacers who have passed away.
Losing a beloved platform hurts. When you’re online, your favorite place in cyberspace is like a second home. You form memories of that world and soon enough, those memories sit in your heart right alongside the important moments of your physical life. Having a community to help transition from one platform to another can not only ease the grief, but provide hope for building anew.
As Horizon veterans look for new places online to settle, SereneLiminal hopes they’ll find a light at the end of the tunnel the same way her community has. “We may all be expats or digital refugees from Altspace,” she says, “but it’s the people that make a platform, not the platform itself.”
