Regardless of some spirited protests in opposition to it, Meta and its child-studio Prepared at Daybreak are set to close down the favored multiplayer sport Echo VR, with plans to show off severs come August 1st. Whereas the sporty Echo Area portion of the sport has all the time been free on each Quest and Rift, the squad-based shooter half of Echo VR, Echo Fight, will likely be free on PC from now till server shutdown.
Replace (Might third, 2023): Prepared at Daybreak introduced it’s granting free entry to Echo Fight to everybody, which was beforehand bought as a $10 in-app buy. Echo Fight is sadly PC-only, so there’s no native model for Quest, that means you’ll want Hyperlink or Air Hyperlink and a VR-ready PC if you wish to soar in with the small however devoted crew of Echo Fight gamers.
Take a look at the trailer under to see Echo Fight in motion:
Authentic Article (January thirty first, 2023): Echo VR has had a storied journey, having initially launched as an Oculus Rift unique title all the best way again in 2017. In 2020 the sport made the leap to Quest, permitting cross-play multiplayer between Rift and Quest gamers. Shortly thereafter, Meta introduced that it had acquired the sport’s developer, Prepared at Daybreak.
And although it stands as one of many best-rated and hottest free titles on the Quest retailer, Meta has introduced it plans to close the sport down for good on August 1st. In line with the announcement from Prepared at Daybreak, the primary motive behind the deliberate shuttering is as a result of the studio is “coming collectively to give attention to our subsequent undertaking.”
Though not talked about particularly, it’s onerous to think about that the broader layoffs at Meta (and different main tech corporations) has nothing to do with the announcement. Particularly contemplating that Prepared at Daybreak launched its final sport, Lone Echo II, greater than a 12 months in the past; ostensibly the studio has been effectively at work on its “subsequent undertaking” for fairly a while now.
Along with being one of many platform’s hottest free multiplayer video games, Echo VR additionally had some of the strong in-app buy choices of any VR title to this point, with a battlepass-style system that allowed gamers to pay for the prospect to unlock beauty rewards over the course of seven seasons. Sadly the studio has confirmed that refunds for in-game content material is not going to be supplied.
As a parting reward, at the least, the studio says gamers who play the sport between now and when it shuts down will obtain a heap of premium beauty objects without cost:
From now till August 1, 2023, play only one match of both Echo Fight or Area to unlock:
- All Epic + Excellent rarity chassis/booster/bracer units from Echo Go seasons 1–6
Season 7 rewards to be launched at a later date- All Chassis Variants
- All non-3D rewards from Echo Go seasons 1–6
Season 7 rewards to be launched at a later date- All Echo Store objects
Together with Starter Bundle- All earlier occasion rewards
- Some beforehand unreleased rewards
The next rewards will NOT be included within the occasion
- VRML rewards
- LE2 Chassis
- Legendary rarity chassis/booster/bracer units from the earlier 7 seasons
- Leveling Observe Rewards
Leveling Observe
- We’ll now be granting all leveling monitor objects at lvl 1 so everybody beneficial properties entry to those rewards with out impacting matchmaking high quality.
Echo Store
- We’ll place all legendary chassis/booster/bracer units on the market on the Echo Store at diminished costs till the sport shuts down.
And final however not least, Prepared at Daybreak confirmed that Echo Fight, the lesser-played FPS variant of the sport (which by no means made the leap to Quest) may also be shutting down as of August 1st, and is already not obtainable for buy.
Further reporting by Scott Hayden.
