In a recent announcement, Meta has shared its decision to discontinue a few classic virtual reality titles from its roster, including the Dead & Buried series (both Dead & Buried 1 & 2) and the beloved virtual pet game, Bogo. This follows the company’s earlier move to sunset Echo Arena, a decision that had already drawn the ire and disappointment of many dedicated players.
A Shift To Horizon Perhaps?
The Dead & Buried series, with its wild west shootouts and supernatural elements, had found a fan base among VR enthusiasts and was one of the first games to show off the Rift CV1’s touch controllers. Its sequel, Dead & Buried II, launched with the Quest and had expanded on the original’s features, making it a notable title in the VR gaming landscape. Bogo, offering players a chance to nurture a virtual pet, had its own set of dedicated fans, especially among younger audiences.
Meta’s decision to discontinue these titles, coming after the removal of Echo Arena, seems to indicate a re-focus from Meta on their Horizon platform, but a lot of people have wondered if it was really necessary to sunset these games (especially a non-multiplayer game like Bogo) when the VR ecosystem is still so fragile. Echo Arena, known for its unique zero-gravity sports gameplay, was one of the early successes on the platform and had a very strong following. When it shut down, 30,000 people signed https://www.change.org/p/save-echo-vr and people even paid for an airplane to fly over Meta’s head quarters with a “Save Echo VR” banner trailing behind.
Meta seems completely focused on Horizon right now, which represents Meta’s vision for the future of online social interaction, aiming to create a vast, interconnected digital universe where users can communicate, collaborate, and create. By streamlining its VR gaming portfolio, Meta could be looking to allocate more developmental bandwidth and financial resources to Horizon. The question some people have though is whether they’re actually transitioning well.
Community Reactions
Whatever Meta’s reasoning, it’s always sad to see a piece of VR history go away and these titles (though not as impactful as Echo Arena) were still a solid piece of VR history and will be missed by many. Here are just a few of the reactions that we’ve seen go up online in the last couple of hours.
Perhaps this is the real reason that they decided to sunset Bogo:
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