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Despite some spirited protests against it, Meta and its child-studio Ready at Dawn are set to shut down the popular multiplayer game Echo VR, with plans to turn off severs come August 1st. While the sporty Echo Arena portion of the game has always been free on both Quest and Rift, the squad-based shooter half of Echo VR, Echo Combat, will be free on PC from now until server shutdown.

Update (May 3rd, 2023): Ready at Dawn announced it’s granting free access to Echo Combat to everyone, which was previously sold as a $10 in-app purchase. Echo Combat is unfortunately PC-only, so there’s no native version for Quest, meaning you’ll need Link or Air Link and a VR-ready PC if you want to jump in with the small but dedicated crew of Echo Combat players.

Check out the trailer below to see Echo Combat in action:

Original Article (January 31st, 2023): Echo VR has had a storied journey, having originally launched as an Oculus Rift exclusive title all the way back in 2017. In 2020 the game made the leap to Quest, allowing cross-play multiplayer between Rift and Quest players. Shortly thereafter, Meta announced that it had acquired the game’s developer, Ready at Dawn.

And though it stands as one of the best-rated and most popular free titles on the Quest store, Meta has announced it plans to shut the game down for good on August 1st. According to the announcement from Ready at Dawn, the main reason behind the planned shuttering is because the studio is “coming together to focus on our next project.”

Although not mentioned specifically, it’s hard to imagine that the broader layoffs at Meta (and other major tech companies) has nothing to do with the announcement. Especially considering that Ready at Dawn released its last game, Lone Echo II, more than a year ago; ostensibly the studio has been well at work on its “next project” for quite some time now.

In addition to being one of the platform’s most popular free multiplayer games, Echo VR also had one of the most robust in-app purchase offerings of any VR title so far, with a battlepass-style system that allowed players to pay for the chance to unlock cosmetic rewards over the course of seven seasons. Unfortunately the studio has confirmed that refunds for in-game content will not be offered.

As a parting gift, at least, the studio says players who play the game between now and when it shuts down will receive a heap of premium cosmetic items for free:

From now until August 1, 2023, play just one match of either Echo Combat or Arena to unlock:

• All Epic + Superb rarity chassis/booster/bracer sets from Echo Pass seasons 1–6
  Season 7 rewards to be released at a later date
• All Chassis Variants
• All non-3D rewards from Echo Pass seasons 1–6
  Season 7 rewards to be released at a later date
• All Echo Shop items
  Including Starter Bundle
• All previous event rewards
• Some previously unreleased rewards

The following rewards will NOT be included in the event

• VRML rewards
• LE2 Chassis
• Legendary rarity chassis/booster/bracer sets from the previous 7 seasons
• Leveling Track Rewards

Leveling Track

• We will now be granting all leveling track items at lvl 1 so everyone gains access to these rewards without impacting matchmaking quality.

Echo Shop

• We will place all legendary chassis/booster/bracer sets for sale on the Echo Shop at reduced prices until the game shuts down.

And last but not least, Ready at Dawn confirmed that Echo Combat, the lesser-played FPS variant of the game (which never made the leap to Quest) will also be shutting down as of August 1st, and is already no longer available for purchase.

Additional reporting by Scott Hayden.