Onward (2020), the tactical mil-sim shooter from Meta-owned Downpour Interactive, got its big 2.0 update in March, bringing improved visuals and a host of new content to the game. Now, Downpour Interactive announced that Meta is shutting down the studio, effectively halting development and moving employees to sister studio Camouflaj.

Downpour Interactive announced the news in a blogpost, detailing what’s happening next.

“Update 2.0 will be the last content for Onward,” the studio says, further noting that while the game will not be shut down, it will no longer receive dev support for new content or non-critical bug fixes.

This also means Onward no longer has a dedicated support team; the studio suggests contacting platform holders, such as Meta and Valve, for technical support in launching the game. Bug-related or troubleshooting issues should be directed at the Onward Discord or Onward subreddit, the studio says.

Furthermore, Downpour Interactive announced its developers have been moved to Meta sister studio Camouflaj, known for Iron Man VR (2020) and Batman: Arkham Shadow (2024).

In 2016, Onward made a splash with its early access release on PC VR headsets, becoming a mainstay for hardcore VR mil-sim players. Then, in 2020, the studio ported Onward to the original Oculus Quest with the help of publisher Coatsink, which notably came with a critically-received graphical downgrade affecting all platforms—something initially done to insure better PC VR-Quest cross-play.

With the acquisition of Downpour Interactive in 2021, Meta saw it as an opportunity to make Onward “one of the foremost multiplayer VR games” though, spurring the studio to tighten up the game to include better visuals, lighting, and smarter AI behavior.

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Meta acquired a rash of VR studios between 2019 and 2022, including Beat Games (Beat Saber), Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath I & II), Ready at Dawn (Lone Echo, Echo VR), BigBox VR (Population: One), Within (Supernatural), Twisted Pixel (Wilson’s Heart, Marvel’s Deadpool VR), and Camouflaj.

Amid turmoil in the wider gaming industry in recent years, Meta however conducted wide-ranging layoffs in 2023, which affected over 10,000 employees across the company.

Among them was a third of staff at Ready at Dawn, and an unverified number at Downpour Interactive. Studio founder and former CEO Dante Buckley, who started the studio in 2015, departed the company a month prior to layoffs.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Paul Bellino

    This is the Beginning of the end for Meta……How Stupid

  • Paul Bellino

    Instead of promoting the best tactical game ever. They dismantle it. Keep Promoting the kiddy show that is Horizon worlds. Oh what a complete joke Meta is.

    • Mateusz Jakubczyk

      Meta didn't promote Onward? Lol, you must be joking. They've been throwing it in for free with Horizon+ subscriptions for two years and pumping a ton of money into its development…

  • What the hell. If Meta didn't acquire it, this would still be one of the most successful VR indie games

    • VRDeveloper

      And it makes perfect sense that they’re dismantling the studio. You gamers need to understand once and for all: no, you are not Meta’s target audience. You were useful as beta testers, but they don’t care about the gaming audience, because gamers won’t generate as much profit as creating a device that replaces smartphones.

      Just look at the company’s marketing approach over the past few years. I’ve been pointing this out for a long time: the company heavily targets women and children. And that’s no coincidence, those are the demographic groups that engage the most with mobile devices and spend the most money.

      Everything Meta is doing is focused on developing the next smartphone. Understand this: you were just beta testers of a concept. You are not important to the company’s future. Even Meta’s condescending tone when responding to gamer complaints shows that clearly.

      That said, it’s worth acknowledging that Meta’s work helped developers around the world become interested in VR. They built an excellent system and opened it up, so the future of VR gaming should not be Meta’s responsibility, but rather in the hands of third-party companies.

      There’s a fundamental misalignment of expectations between the early adopters (gamers) and the company’s long-term objectives.

      • Octogod

        You're not wrong that Meta wants a broader audience, but everyone with a product wants this.

        Keep in mind though that they literally funded hundreds of games, bought game studios, and spent AAA money on production and porting and games for years. This is a multi-billion dollar investment.

        In fact, they're doubling down on gamers more than ever: Roblox kids. They buy IAP, play lower quality titles, generate their own content, and once established, these patterns will extend them into consumers for their whole life.

        > They built an excellent system and opened it up, so the future of VR gaming should not be Meta’s responsibility, but rather in the hands of third-party companies.

        If you were a VRDeveloper with published games you would know that this is not true.

        They built a hot mess of a constantly breaking OS, with weekly shifting APIs, that are undocumented. Most of the serious developers have left this space because you can't watch the building burn forever. I know multiple in the final stages of QA now which are leaving as soon as they can.

        • VRDeveloper

          I agree with you about the recent issues with the system, but I stand by my comment because there wasn’t a system dedicated solely and exclusively to VR before, that’s my point. They took an industry that was dead and turned it into one where we can potentially make thousands or even millions of dollars. There’s now an ecosystem, and yes, it’s currently having a lot of issues, but we can’t deny that it’s still an infinite leap forward compared to how things were before they entered the scene.

          Who would have imagined a system that centralized everything? Who would be crazy enough to invest in something so niche? Remember, other companies are working on VR headsets because of them and will rely on Meta’s system, and I see that as the future for gaming. Accept it: we’re the minority. And it’s possible we’ve spent years creating something that will be abandoned and forgotten. I don’t know about you, but I’m already getting the whiskey ready to come to terms with that reality.

          As for the idea that they supposedly invested in the gaming audience before, I strongly disagree. They never had a proactive stance on communicating to traditional gamers that this is a gaming device. They don’t do that precisely because they want to create a smartphone-like platform, and that’s evident in everything from their marketing, which is more targeted at women and children, to the influencers they choose to work with people we gamers couldn’t care less about. Meanwhile, they ignore highly relevant VR gaming influencers. Their entire messaging is designed for a broad audience. Even if they’ve invested in titles, that alone isn’t enough. You have to communicate that this is a video game if you want to attract gamers, the ones who, at the end of the day, are going to buy the kinds of games that people like you and probably me are making… games that focus on quality and cost more to produce than casual experiences.

          To finish off, their investment in AI is precisely because they fully understand that the casual audience doesn’t care about quality.

          • Octogod

            My apologies for the harshness of my last message and I appreciate your thoughtful reply.

            For all of my Meta complaints, they believed and spent tens of billions to make real products hit shelves, so they rightly call the shots. If this means culling their studios (and soon devices!), so be it.

            On other headsets, Meta doesn't want to be in the headset manufacturing game. Since the early days they have done everything they can to outsource this to partners. Samsung (Gear), Xiaomi (Go), Microsoft (imploded), LG (imploded), and now we'll see if their licensing their OS or competitors like Google's or Samsung's second wind can take hold.

            The women and children play (2021) happened after the mainstream gamer play (2019). Too fast after, as gaming should have been the core for a decade. Meta wanted to quickly broaden the base, but it just muddied their message. Purchases like Supernatural fit in well, as they could argue this was required for growth, but that external growth has an adoption problem.

            My understanding on their social outreach is that major VR influencers are happy to get recognized by senpai, get exclusive access, and paid for an occasional PR push. Meta's spend is focused on growth outside the VR bubble. But again, stickiness never happens, which is why they keep redesigning the UI, which leads to further loss of the core.

            You're right on about AI. Meta are aiming to keep developers distracted, hoping we don't notice them funneling consumers into a system that prioritizes actually non-functional games and experiences.

            Here's hoping we don't need that whiskey, but it's looking sweeter by the day.

      • Cl

        Maybe when the technology is there. Meta has a whole store dedicated to vr games. They shut down the vr game studio and moved them to another vr game studio… sure I agree with what the end goal is, but right now it is what it is, which is for games and media consumption. I think everyone already knows they want to create something to replace the smartphone. I don't think they shut down the studio because of that though.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      I doubt it, they would probably already be out of business.

  • I think it's wayyyyy beyond fair now to say that when it comes to software,
    Reality Labs doesn't know what the motherless fuck they're doing.

    What an COMPLETE & UTTER WASTE of absolutely stellar talent, resources, etc., etc., etc. ….

    Fuck you, Zuckerberg.

    • Mateusz Jakubczyk

      This studio hasn't released a new game in 9 years, struggling only with patches for Onward, which still has a ton of problems. I hope they'll be more useful in making a sequel to Batman Arkham Shadow.

      • Octogod

        Well, they fired a solid chunk of that team, including head of story, so…

        • Mateusz Jakubczyk

          The head of story in Onward's case isn't really a big loss, because Onward didn't have any story, so…

          And Camouflaj can handle most of the things, but they can also use Downpour's employees' many years of experience working on the Unity engine.

          • Octogod

            To clarify: the let go head of Camouflaj’s story, who wrote Batman: Arkham Shadow. And many others.

            Sadly, this is less about “we need as many talented Unity devs as we can get” and more “these studios don’t make enough, cost a ton, so we’re merging them”.

  • XRC

    Acqui-hire by big tech 2021, founder exited 2025, company wound down 1 month later?

    Typical aquisition playbook, pixie dust wears off founders during 3-4 year share vesting period, time to depart with the loot…

  • ViRGiNCRUSHER

    This game has been a hot mess before and I figured it get better over time and well after META acquired them IT DIDNT!!!. It was my most played VR game and then it was my least played VR game after they made all the changes. Patch after shitty patch. Good fucking bye!

  • Ahmed Hassan

    Consumer: Google? Nah, they abandon their projects only few years after, I'm going for Meta
    Meta: .. :)