Meta's metaverse VP Vishal Shah on a reboot of Horizon Worlds, starting with a Super Rumble game, a new mobile app, and a transition from VR only to VR first
Who's ready to rumble? … Earlier this week, I was hiding in a tree, dodging bullets, while frantically trying to score some last-second points in a free-for-all brawl.
Context & Ripple Effects
This interview is the opening move of a multi-year repositioning of Horizon Worlds: metaverse VP Vishal Shah frames a reboot that starts with a flagship game, Super Rumble, and a new mobile app, explicitly dropping the VR-only constraint for a 'VR first' posture. That framing matters because it concedes the headset install base alone cannot carry the platform.
The arc that follows validates the pivot: within weeks Meta took Worlds to the web and Android in early access (previously exclusive to its VR headsets), then backed creators with a $50M fund amid what CTO Andrew Bosworth reportedly called a make-or-break year for XR, before rebuilding the tooling around an AI-prompted Horizon Engine.
First-order effects
- Super Rumble becomes the reboot's proof point — the first Horizon Worlds experience built to be judged as a game rather than a VR social space, with the new mobile app putting it in front of users who own no Quest.
Second-order effects
- Going 'VR first' instead of VR-only forces Meta to compete directly for the same players and creators as Roblox and Fortnite on their home turf of phones, where retention economics — not headset bundling — decide success.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the platform logic inverts entirely: by early 2026 Meta is reported to be explicitly separating Quest VR from Worlds, making Worlds almost exclusively mobile — the headset becoming one accessory among many rather than the platform's center of gravity.
The trend: Metaverse platforms are decoupling from the headsets that launched them, restructuring as cross-device user-generated-content services to fight Roblox and Fortnite for creators and playtime.