Rec Room Announces Closure After Ten Years of Operation

Rec Room, the free-to-play social gaming platform often compared to Roblox, has announced it will be shutting down after operating for a decade. The decision comes despite the game attracting a substantial user base of 150 million players.

In an official blog post, the development team explained the difficulty in achieving financial sustainability. They stated, "We spent a long time trying to find a way to make the numbers work."

The team attributed the closure to recent turbulence in the virtual reality market and wider economic pressures. They concluded that "the path to profitability has gotten tough enough that we’ve made the difficult decision to shut things down."

Immediate Changes and Transition Period

The official shutdown date is set for June 1, but significant platform changes are already taking effect immediately. Users can no longer create new accounts or establish new friendships on the platform starting today.

Furthermore, subscriptions to the premium service are no longer available. However, developers are making a gesture to their community by unlocking many features previously restricted by the paywall until the final closure date.

Asset Preservation and Developer Acquisition

The developers are implementing measures to allow users to preserve their work created within the game. Users will have the ability to download certain assets connected to the rooms they designed.

This provision theoretically opens the door for creators to potentially migrate their creations to different platforms in the future. This development follows news that Snap, the owner of Snapchat, acquired hundreds of employees from Meta's Reality Labs division.

Rec Room's History in VR Gaming

Rec Room first appeared in 2016, predating the launch of the standalone Meta Quest VR headset. The game achieved significant success on the PlayStation VR (PSVR) platform before expanding to various other hardware.

The platform also offered a traditional version accessible to users not utilizing virtual reality hardware.