With the end of Samsung Gear VR, it seems the South Korean tech giant is also doing away with its VR video apps as well. The company is ending service for all of its Samsung XR apps across the web, mobile, and VR headset platforms.

The company quietly issued an update on the Samsung XR website on Monday, stating that all of its XR services will terminate on September 30th, 2020. The news was first covered by CNET.

Samsung XR (ex-Samsung VR) is the company’s VR video hosting platform which featured both premium and user-uploaded content.

At the time of this writing, Samsung has already pulled the plug on 360 degree video uploads and premium video purchases, and has stopped updates all Samsung XR and Samsung VR Video clients.

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Users who purchased premium content there will be able to access it until the September 30th cutoff date. Don’t go looking for a refund though, because Samsung says, as per the Samsung XR Terms of Service, that “all sales of purchased content are final.”

Starting June 30th, Samsung will be ripping support for the Samsung VR Video app from Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest, with its removal from the Oculus Store.

Image courtesy Samsung

The last nail in the coffin: on September 30th the company is pulling support for Gear VR and Windows VR headsets via the Mixed Reality Store. All Samsung XR user accounts will also be disabled and removed, which includes permanently deleting account information, associated data, and user videos published on the platform. The Samsung XR mobile app will no longer be supported on Android devices, and will be removed from the Galaxy Store and Google Play.

Samsung says that with the XR pullback, that the company is “rethinking its immersive video distribution service, especially given that Gear VR is no longer available.”

“We remain engaged with the ecosystem, exploring the potential of mobile AR and volumetric technologies,” the company says.

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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 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • David Lazarek

    “We remain engaged with the ecosystem, exploring the potential of mobile AR and volumetric technologies,” Who in their right mind would buy any of their apps again?

    • Andrew Jakobs

      So you wouldn’t buy apps with ‘in-app purchases’ any time soon? because almost every company that has released apps like that in the apps have pulled the plug on it.

      • I have a Google library full of paid daydream applications, but these things happen…

  • William R. Cousert

    I will never buy another Samsung product. If they can end support for a product like this, leaving me with a device that is totally useless, what will they do next?

    • sfmike

      Now you know how those of us who bought Samsung 3D TVs feel as they now pretend that 3D TV never existed just like they are doing to VR.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        It’s only GearVR, they’re still working on and supporting their ‘real’ VRheadsets.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      How is the device totally useless now? It’s only one app, and only the online part of that app won’t work. You have until 30 september to download the video’s you like and after that you can still watch them offline.. Everything else still works after 30 september. And I also don’t like it, but it’s not like any other company hasn’t done things like this, about every hardware manufacturer has done something like this in their past, so you would never buy any hardware at all..

    • NooYawker

      I bet they’re going to build their own ecosystem

    • GunnyNinja

      Ever heard of the NX1? This is par for Samsung…

  • calcanuck26

    Exactly how I felt when support was pulled from 3D TV by both Samsung and NVidia!

  • Sad news. Gear VR not useless yet in my opinion. For anyone that was dependent on Samsung VR to showcase 360 degree content for their organization, feel free to contact me at laurens@ez-360.com for a good alternative. For Gear VR, Go, Rift and Quest. We also have free options.

  • Wasn’t it already dead?

  • Ardra Diva

    This blows. So many good memories on my GearVR. So many VR apostles made from it :) seeing people slackjawed in amazement experiencing modern VR for the first time is one of my favorite things in the world :)

  • This is the kinda crap WebXR can rescue us from. Now that we have a mature open standard for XR content on the web, screw proprietary apps/platforms.

  • kaaput

  • These guys are straight up cock suckers. They are sabotaging existing installs and forcing people to re-install apps only to find that they can no longer use them.

  • HighScoreZ

    I still use samsung vr