Back in 2020 and 2021, the NFT craze was all over the place. People wanted to make money, and the NFT universes were very abundant. That being said, NFTs are pretty much dead today, and people have lost a lot of money. It was also in 2021 that Facebook rebranded itself as Meta to take advantage of the term the Metaverse. One of their projects was Horizon Worlds, and five years later, they’re shutting it down, or part of it.
What is Horizon Worlds?
Horizon Worlds is a free game that was made by Meta. You had to register to make an avatar, and once you’re done, you can get into the worlds. There are different worlds provided by the game, but players can also make their own worlds. Other players can enter their worlds and do several things.
These things would include socializing, chatting, gaming, and others. This isn’t an in-your-face action game, and most of the games included are just party games. People can also make money on the Horizon Worlds. That is the very premise of these types of NFT games: play to get paid, as they say.
Speaking of making money, this is where companies could also come in and partake in the festivities. They can create their own worlds, and people will visit those worlds. It’s like an in-game ad, but it’s fun and you have stuff to do instead of just staring at a screen all day.
Why is Horizon Worlds shutting down?
Just to be clear, it is the VR (virtual reality) part of the game that is closing. The mobile version is still going. The VR part will end around June 15 of 2026. There are several reasons why they are shutting down the game, if you are interested.
VR Tech is expensive to obtain and maintain
When you want to use Horizon Worlds through VR, you have to buy the VR headset. That is expensive on its own, and most people would have a headache playing it for hours. The other thing is that it is also necessary to maintain these servers for VR gameplay. The mobile one isn’t too expensive to maintain, but VR can be such a pain.
Not enough players
We can’t find the actual numbers, but it seems VR numbers were decent in the early years. Maybe since people have moved on, people who played on VR probably stopped or just switched to mobile.
Not enough revenue
Companies also opted to get out of the VR format. There are those who have just left Horizon Worlds, and some switched to the mobile version as well. Considering that mobile is accessible and doesn’t require a lot of processing power, that’s the better solution.
Conclusion
What was once a promising plan turned to dust. NFT stocks are down and gone, so the Horizon Worlds is running on fumes. Maybe the mobile version is still running, but for how long is the question?
