moss book 2 review (7) — Moss: Book II (2022) | Image courtesy Polyarc

‘Moss’ Developer Polyarc Lays Off Two-Thirds of Studio Following “major project” Cancellation

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Apr 1, 2026

Polyarc, the studio behind VR puzzle-platformer series Moss, announced it’s significantly reducing the size of the company, marking another VR pioneer currently experiencing existential turmoil.

The studio released word via a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, noting that layoffs come amid an “unsuccessful team-wide effort to secure funding following the cancellation of a major project.”

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Polyarc says layoffs are affecting 30 employees. According to DevOps Director Alex Holodak (via UploadVR), the studio let go two-thirds of staff, putting the remaining team somewhere around 15 people.

Polyarc isn’t alone in its recent financial troubles. Rec Room, one of VR’s most prominent social platforms, announced this week it’s officially shutting down in June. Meanwhile, VR veteran nDreams, the studio behind recent action-adventure game Reach (2025), signaled earlier this month that it’s going through significant layoffs and studio closures.

Notably, Meta’s recent shift in priorities at its Reality Labs XR division not only came alongside the closure of a number of several internal game studios, but also the revelation it was pulling funding from a number of projects already in progress.

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Some of those now-cancelled projects include an unannounced Batman: Arkham Shadow sequel from Sanzaru Games, an unannounced Harry Potter VR game for Quest from Skydance Games, as well as a hard fork applied to all new Horizon Worlds content, effectively leaving only legacy Worlds for Quest users as the company shifts focus to mobile users.

Polyarc hasn’t confirmed whether its now-cancelled project was a result of Meta pulling funding.

Founded in 2015 by ex-Bungie develo[ers, the Seattle-based studio self-published the first Moss in 2018, receiving not only near-universal praise, but also more than 120 global industry awards and nominations. Moss was released across all major VR platforms at the time, including PSVR, PC VR headsets, and the original 2019-era Quest.

Then, in 2022 Polyarc released the hotly-awaited sequel, Moss: Book II. which managed to nab the The Game Awards’ Best VR/AR Game and the VR Awards’ VR Game of the Year. Moss: Book II is widely regarded as a stellar follow-up, getting a solid [8.5/10] in our full review.

In 2025, the studio followed up with its multiplayer real-time battler Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss, which offered up a roster of 12 Champions for squad-based arena battles.

Sonyboy

VR is done
- Leisure Suit Barry
  
  It's been done for a few years now, a gradual decline
- NL_VR
  
  Nope its not.
  bad games and decisions isnt gonna move it to the grave as there are the opposite out there.
  but doom and gloomers cant see because they are no vr gamers and are only interested and want flatscreen games
  - Rayza
    
    Cope harder. I love VR and i've owned 5 headsets, it's absolutely cooked, wake up.
    - NL_VR
      
      WWhat do you mean?
      focus on the good thing instead of the bad.
      a couple of good vr games releasing this month.
      Re vr mods got also an easy installer.
      so are you really interested or is making polyarc which hasn't been releasing anything good since Moss 2 to be an example that set the stage for you? If so idt you really are that interested. Owning 5 headsets means nothi g, VR wasn't maybe what you thought it would be? Maybe it gets there in future
xyzs

FUCK !!!
Apart from Half-Life:Alyx, Moss 1&2 were my favorite VR games, I bought them even both on Meta/Steam to support the studio.

Every day in VR is a bad news day…
It's not even a joke anymore, it's legit truth.
- Leisure Suit Barry
  
  The VR industry has never been in a better position then it is now . . . according to some
  - Herbert Werters
    
    Yeah, and I really do wonder what on earth they’ve been drinking.
    
    VR is now nothing more than a broken mobile platform with ugly little games. No wonder nobody’s interested in VR. After all, this rubbish ends up on the PC exactly as it is.
    
    Have a look at YouTube and its VR channels. No more gameplay videos or reviews. No viewers. Gamers aren’t interested, and even VR enthusiasts have lost interest. That’s reality.
    
    Personally, I only use VR for a round of mini-golf and VR mods these days.
    
    There really have been better days for VR. Everyone can work out for themselves why that is.
    - Sonyboy
      
      Yeah its total trash….I mean full scale slop. Top to bottom…High end to low end VR/XR/AR is garbage. Quest is priced right but has just bombed on the software side….Apple bombed even worse on the software side while the headset is a scam. Apple being as big as they are with endless money to over price their VR headset as much as they did they should have had 10 first party apps & games that are well known by now in the VR community.
    - xyzs
      
      Meta killed VR by transforming a high-end tech that impressed people into a low quality mainstream broken platform.
      
      Instead of VR developing with high quality tech and content, they immediately jumped into underpowered solution leading to 80 percent shit content, and people got bored by this low-quality VR landscape over time.
      
      Just look at Meta situation 12 years after buying Oculus…
      A 2kLCDheadset with only 110 FOV, that weigh more than 500g, barely able to run Gamecube level graphics…
      Dozen of Billions invested (into WHAT ?) and invested to killing competition and studios, and all we have is pathetic hardware running a pathetic OS, and a pathetic empty future…
      
      With 1 Billion you can fund 100 indie game studios to each work on a 10 million dollar project, and get many gems such as Moss to enjoy.
      
      With 100 Billions, they could have revolutionized the VR world, and created the most amazing hardware, and look at the pathetic situation they ended up with…
      
      …Quest 3 and 3S with ugly shit Horizon World…
      - Herbert Werters
        
        The HMDs are fine. The content is the biggest problem.
      - NL_VR
        
        Standalone is part of the future.
        whoever that was gonna start vr standalone would have to take the hit by "vr enthusiasts" saying it look like mobile shit.
        Standalone VR will improve as the tech and systems mature.
        you can still buy wired high end vr headsets for pc right? So whats the problem really?
    - NL_VR
      
      YYou thinking there are no good games really is a "you problem".
      its very common 2016 hype train "VR Enthusiasts" really isn't really what we would call today real vr gamers.
      GorillaTag kids are more VR gamers than many "2016 VR hypertrain enthusiasts".
- Oxi
  
  Yeah the Steam Frame is the best headset simply because the selling point is bringing your own software, old software, etc. It's the headset that will inherit the ruin that is VR.
- NL_VR
  
  IIts not like the studio ks shutting down.
  there is a bigger.chance we get Moss 3, its back to basic for polyarc.
Oxi

The Esport game just seems like a massive misstep. I don't see what it had to do with the Moss genre, it was dependent on user buy in and later monetization, and it's not really any kind of untapped market in the VR space.
dextrovix

That's a real shame, I was always hopeful for a third Moss, especially after the second really raised the bar.

However, VR has never been widely adopted and I can understand why developers who put so much effort in the create a good experience can never reap the rewards in terms of revenue generated afterwards.
NL_VR

If you dont release games you wont bring in any money.
Moss 1 and 2 is good and this doesn't mean there can be no Moss 3.
but they got to confident. To think champions of moss was something that was gonna bring in big money was wrong.
This is something doom and gloomers will point out VR is dead butVR hasnt been any bigger than this.
for Polyarc its just back to basic, work on Moss 3. If they didnt burn up all money and competent people on champions of moss they probably still in same or better position as when they made the first game.
Rayza

Nothing has ever been more cooked than VR is right now
Gamergirl101

SO FIRST OFF im sorry for those laid off at this difficult time.

SECOND who the fckkk thought glass champions of moss was what anyone wanted vs anything else of MOSS 3!?!?!
IT was a lazy cash grab free to play microtransaction nightmare which was never any good and mid dev was changed to be a paid title when they realized vr was struggling and no one wanted their bad scammy game!!!

SHAME ON THE studio for such atrocious management and I promise you the people who made these terrible decisions are still there!!! but the people who worked so hard on champions were fired due to bad management and a bad game.
In vr in 2025 you cant afford to have a massive failure. In 2026 you cant afford to even make vr games!!!

5 years ago Valve proved you could make mind blowing perfect VR games which sold. And 5 years later no one has topped it or come near…including valve who now have the audacity to relase an insanely expensive dead on arrival new headset when we need it most but it isnt any better than the quest 3 and doesnt even have colour passthrough for prob 1000$!!!

So whose to blame ? the total lack of good vr games across the board, vr exclusives, META fascism and piracy along side every dev who released a broken incomplete buggy vr game which made people feel sick.
That wasnt moss… but it was champions of glass and it was like 90% of the rest. VR didnt die. It killed itself!!! YOU CANT Make bad games in VR and expect people to put their literal head and brain into that broken ass sick educing space!!! But devs keep doing it.

Thank goodness for UEVR and modders who on their own in their moms basements keep making better vr experiences (even you luke ross!!!) than way to many AAA devs. (i see you rogue incursion!!!). VR isnt dead…. but its on life support.
- NL_VR
  
  Yes I also wonder what they were thinking with champion of moss.
  it feels like no one that liked Moss wanted a game like champions of moss. I know all i wanted is a Moss 3.
  this isnt unique to VR.
  i think polyarc got some investment by promising we take our popular Moss brand and make it a live service game to earn money. But theyvlost their core audience on that project and nonone else was interested or even know what moss are.
  recently a game based on the PubG brand got canceled, it was a top down shooter.
  you know why? People who like PubG like thst game for what it is and are not interested in top down shooters even its based on PubG.
  Sony canceled TLoU li e service game. You know why? Luckily they realized people who like TLoU isnt interested in live service games instead of a TLoU 3. And those whwho like that type of games arent interested in TLoU or even know what it is.
Gamergirl101

After champions of glass they brought this on themselves and the people who chose to make that should be fired , not the people who did what they were told and worked hard to make that always going to be a failure game the best it could be. Vr is less dying and more being actively killed by bad management.