Meta has partnered with Coldplay in a big way, soon bringing the British pop-rock band’s music to Beat Saber, and an immersive concert to Horizon Worlds before the New Year.
The News
Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour became the most-attended concert tour in history this year, bringing the band’s live music to over 13 million people over the course of its 2022-2025 run.
Now, Meta announced it’s bringing Coldplay to the virtual stage on December 30th, as Horizon Worlds users can jump in for a free immersive concert, which is set to include hits like ‘Yellow’, ‘Fix You’, and ‘Viva La Vida’.
Notably, the concert was captured at Wembley Stadium with 15 VR cameras, which will bring virtual concert-goers front-row vantage points in 180 degree VR video.
When it goes live on December 30th in Horizon Worlds, available on Quest and mobile devices, fans will also be able to don free Coldplay-themed avatar merch to show their support.
The concert kicks off on December 30th at 11:00 AM PT (local time here)—you can RSVP here.
And the Coldplay digital takeover doesn’t stop there. Leading up to the event, block-slashing rhythm game Beat Saber is launching a 12-track Coldplay Music Pack on December 18th, priced at $15 (or $2 per song), with bundle discounts for new players. You’ll be able to find it on Quest and SteamVR headsets when it launches—just don’t expect it on PSVR 2.
Meanwhile, in the US and Canada, VR fitness app Supernatural will debut new Coldplay workout sessions on December 29th, mixing hits and recent releases into Boxing, Flow, and Stretch routines.
My Take
It seems like Meta is really looking to nail the holiday timing with its immersive Coldplay concert, not to mention embedding the band into its top-performing apps. While you may or may not like Coldplay, it’s a pretty smart move by Meta to leverage the band with pretty much the broadest appeal—since, well, the company isn’t funding exclusive game content like it used to.
Granted, there are a ton of great games on the Horizon Store for newcomers to grab, but Meta seems to have tightened the belt on content funding lately, which is odd since major competitors are just now entering the market—certainly interesting times ahead.
On one hand, we have Samsung Galaxy XR possibly making way for the release of more (and cheaper) Android XR devices, which could serve as more direct competitors to Quest in the future.
Launching early next year though, we have Valve’s Steam Frame, which is likely to drive Quest developers to update their PC VR versions to include Frame-compatible play. I don’t expect Frame to unseat Quest as the most popular XR platform, as the company has built a core usership of younger consumers, although it does represent the first time in recent history when Meta may actually need to defend against platform apostacy among upgraders.
Meta is aiming to do this with some powerful new hardware in the future, but it could come later rather than sooner, according to recent reports—so there’s no telling how Meta will position itself in the future to maintain market share superiority.
