Meta is abandoning its VR-first strategy for Horizon Worlds, shifting the social gaming service to focus almost exclusively on mobile platforms. The company says it will divorce Horizon Worlds from its Quest VR headset ecosystem, marking a significant pivot away from its metaverse ambitions.

This move comes amid reports that Meta has lost $80 billion on Reality Labs investments and laid off over 1,000 employees in January. The company maintains it's doubling down on VR development for third-party creators while reducing its own first-party VR content production. Meta claims 86% of VR headset usage time comes from third-party apps.

The shift follows Horizon Worlds' successful mobile app launch, which attracted users interested in social gaming without the VR requirement. While Meta plans to continue designing and selling VR hardware, the company appears to be abandoning its vision of an all-encompassing metaverse in favor of smart glasses and AI technologies.