‘Moss’ Developer Polyarc Announces Closure Following “major project” Cancellation
Moss developer Polyarc Games announced it’s closing shop following a “major project” cancellation earlier this year.
Polyarc announced the closure in a LinkedIn post (via Good Virtual Reality), marking the end of an 11-year stint in VR game development, most of which was spent creating its VR puzzle-platformer series Moss.
You can read the full message below:
Today is the end of an era for Polyarc.
After nearly 12 years riding the joyous rollercoaster of emotions that is making video games, our time together has come to an end. As we wind down active development, we are saying our farewells to each other.
Working together over all of these years has been an honor. Bringing surprise and delight to those who played our games has been a privilege. Thank you to everyone at Polyarc, our work is now finished.
Polyarc has been home to exceptional developers across all disciplines. If you are hiring, please see the link below.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey.
While the exact number of affected staff is uncertain at this time, the LinkedIn post mentions 29 employees in its reverse recruiting spreadsheet.
Founded in 2015 by ex-Bungie veterans, the Seattle-based studio garnered near-universal praise with the release of Moss in 2018, which landed on all major VR platforms at the time, including PSVR, PC VR, and eventually the original 2019-era Quest.
Building off the pint-sized hero’s success, Polyarc released its sequel Moss: Book II in 2022 and multiplayer real-time battler Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss in 2025, which offered up a roster of 12 Champions for squad-based arena battles.
Early 2026 proved to be a difficult year for many in the XR industry though, as Meta announced it was shifting priorities at its Reality Labs XR division, which included the closure of a number of several internal game studios in addition to pulling funding from a number of projects already in progress.
Notably, Polyarc hasn’t confirmed whether it fell victim to Meta’s change of course earlier this year, although the studio mentioned in April it was forced to lay off two-thirds of staff due the cancellation of a “major project.”
Seemingly in a last ditch effort, the studio ported Moss & Moss II to flatscreen with the launch of Moss: The Forgotten Relic for consoles and PC, released in July in partnership with fellow indie studio Blackbird Interactive.
That said, the studio’s closure is an all too familiar story, as it joins a growing list of now-defunct VR veteran developers.
Among them is Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath), Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR), Twisted Pixel Games (Deadpool VR), Vertigo Games – Amsterdam Studio (Metro Awakening), as well as two internal nDreams studios.
The post ‘Moss’ Developer Polyarc Announces Closure Following “major project” Cancellation appeared first on Road to VR.
Filed under: XR Industry News - @ 14. September 2026 13:14