Echo VR’s days are numbered, as Meta announced earlier this year it would soon be pulling the plug on one of its most successful games on Quest. But hardcore players of zero-G sports game Echo VR and its shooter variant Echo Combat aren’t going down without a fight.

Organizers behind a protest group called ‘The Fight For Echo’ are looking to keep their favorite game alive, and they’re apparently ready to take drastic measures.

On Wednesday, March 1st, the group commissioned an airplane-towed message to fly over Meta’s HQ in Menlo Park, California, which then circled the heart of Silicon Valley for over three hours for all to see. The message was directed at Meta founder & CEO Mark ‘Zuck’ Zuckerberg, stating: “ZUCK, DON’T KILL VR ESPORTS FIGHTFORECHO.COM”

You can see the plane in action, courtesy of a YouTube livestream by ‘rev2600’, one such dedicated Echo VR player:

The protest group explained the move on the Fight For Echo website:

While we are extremely passionate about these games and are very supportive of the team at Ready at Dawn and the Echo Games franchise on the whole, we think we can still help Meta and Ready at Dawn by continuing to be the testing ground and supportive community we always have been and provide a place where larger ideas for other VR games can be tested.

We cannot do that however without some kind of game server being provided to the community to host ourselves, or minimal infrastructure to play on and the permission to work with the people required to do it.

We understand that there is a future direction being taken; and that it is tied to regulations and compliance, and our intention is not to hold anything back. We only wish to continue to do what we’ve always done and be the ambassadors of VR that you want us to be.

SEE ALSO
Quest Pro Update to Bring MR Passthrough Recording, Quest 2 Support for Pro Controllers

The Meta-owned developers Ready at Dawn announced in late January that it was shutting down the popular free-to-play multiplayer game Echo VR, which is slated to go dark on August 1st.

At the time, the studio said the decision to shut down the game “was made for many good reasons and chief among them is the studio coming together to focus on our next project.”

Undeterred by the airplane-towed plea, Meta sent out the following message to Echo VR players last night:

We are reaching out to let you know that Echo VR servers will shut down on August 1st, 2023 – 10:30 AM Pacific. On this date, both Echo VR and Echo Combat will no longer be playable.

Add-ons are no longer available for purchase in the Quest store. Echo Points are no longer available for purchase in the Echo Shop. Any Echo Points currently in your account can be used until August 1st, 2023 – 10:30 AM Pacific, with items heavily discounted in the Echo Shop.

It has been our pleasure to see this community grow and compete over the years. Thank you for your time and passion. For more information, please read Ready At Dawn’s blog post at https://medium.com/@EchoGames/an-update-on-the-future-of-echo-vr-7f074dca1ed1.

While a reversal of the shutdown seems less likely now that Ready at Dawn has completely neutered the free-to-play game’s in-game currency, the founders behind ‘The Fight For Echo’ initiative have setup a change.org petition so others can show their support. At the time of this writing over 25,000 people have signed.

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. See here for more information.


  • Vibinator

    We the Echo VR won’t go down without a fight! This game as spawn countless leagues, communities across the world and brought people together!

    #FightForEcho
    #FreeCombat

    • There is nothing else like it. Very sad to see it go. Such a complete waste.

  • Paul Bellino

    Totally Agree, as an early adopter and total VR Veteran. Meta is now shooting itself in the foot yet again. Who is making such dumb decisions. First the Meta Quest Pro and now this. You cannot make this shit up. The axe must fall in order to save the company. Dear Mark please step in rehire John Carmack and make him CEO. Then get rid of the lead weights that are heading it now. Its the only way to install Confidence in the Company NOW.

    • ViRGiN

      You’re out of touch. Carmack isn’t interested in working on vr.

      • Ookami

        mainly thanks to being burned out by working on Meta, where no one listened to him.

        • ViRGiN

          mostly because AI is a much nearer future, but continue, go off talking about personal choices of a guy you never met.
          if you’re looking for someone burned out by vr, that guy is palmer luckey who is into killer drones right now and is doing pretty well financially.

          • kool

            Didn’t he just make a real sao VR headset?

          • ViRGiN

            I mean, he said he did. But he is the kind of guy who says tons of things and not follow them

          • Paul Bellino

            Why should I go back and forth with a guy not in the know. I won’t let you bait me. What I say is sound.

          • ViRGiN

            No, you shouldn’t let me. You should stay within your bubble and your comfort zone. Don’t ever step out of it – the world out there is dangerous.

      • Paul Bellino

        I am not out of touch VR was and is his dream from the days of Doom. with a guy like him all he needs on money and position. get real

        • ViRGiN

          Dude it’s very rich, what are you even talking about…

          • Paul Bellino

            Told you. you do not know what you are talking about or to whom you are talking to

          • ViRGiN

            No, you don’t know what are you talking about or whom you are talking to, because i said so.
            Now, touch some grass.

  • jos f

    Their whole scheme seems ass backwards from the beginning. Give a great game away free but then be too cheap to keep it running. I would have paid for the game. Id pay for the game now… one of 2 vr games with infinite replayability ….(other is pop one)

  • Just open it up so you can host the server’s on your own.

    • Ookami

      such a simple solution for Meta to implement? So why don’t they? They just really don’t care about their community.

      • psuedonymous@mailinator.com

        Cue the bitching when it turns out the server implementation assumes that its being run on Meta’s servers using Meta’s infrastructure (e.g. account management, matchmaking, etc) and the code is functionally useless without those present.

        • Ookami

          uh, no. People are asking for the ability to host servers on their own computers, not Meta’s servers.

  • Meta sending the e-mail about shutting down Echo the same day there was this plane protest says a lot about what they think

  • It’s a shame. Why not release it for free on Steam, letting users to create servers? Why killing a good working online esport? Its fame could grow, now. In the next years, thanks to PSVR2 and other headsest coming, many new users could know about VR games, and EchoVR could have a rebirth with them.

  • Tommy

    Lol. hysterical

  • Scientism

    This new age of game “ownership” where servers last for just 3-4 years, with no ability to run dedicated servers is just atrocious and has to be protested somehow.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    I wonder if at some point the Meta PR people will step in and say “We have to continue to support Echo VR, this is now by far the cheapest options we will ever get for tons of free press and immediately getting back into the goodwill of the VR community, which has been rather pissed off by all of our recent moves and now even starts to preemptively criticize the Quest 3. Who cares about the game, just hire a couple of interns and keep it running like before, that will be enough.”

  • An airplane sign? Yah, that’ll do it. :/

    It’s not the most complex game on the planet, why not just make your own? Maybe Open-Source it, seems like you might get some volunteers, if the fans are willing to go to the trouble of the “Air-Banner”.