Meta is shutting down three Oculus games without explanation

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Will there be refunds for one?

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

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POV: a pair of drawn demonic pistols above a card game in a saloon.

Dead and Buried is a Wild West arena shootout multiplayer VR game.
Image: Gunfire Games

Hope you didn’t enjoy playing Dead and Buried, Dead and Buried II, or Bogo on your Rift or Quest headsets — because Meta’s shutting them all down with no explanation, just like it already did with Echo VR (aka Echo Arena).

“We are reaching out to let you know that Dead and Buried will no longer be supported as of Friday, March 15, 2024,” reads an email in my inbox. “You can continue to hunt ghosts and other creatures in Dead and Buried on your Rift, Rift S, or Quest (via link) devices until 11:59 PM PT on that date.”

UploadVR and Road to VR report that owners of Wild West shootout sequel Dead and Buried II and virtual pet simulator Bogo are receiving the same shutdown messages about their games, too, with the same March 15th end date.

None of the messages contain any explanation for why. I guess the company didn’t decide to change its strategy after Echo Arena, where Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth had to spin up his own explanation after the fact.

Bogo isn’t even a multiplayer game that requires online servers to operate. Why take it away from people at all, ever, when it could simply mark it incompatible with newer headsets?

As for Dead and Buried II, it was a $20 game. Will buyers get any sort of consideration or refund? (The original Dead and Buried came free with many Oculus Touch controllers and some headsets; Bogo and Echo Arena were both free, as far as I’m aware.)

Meta didn’t immediately respond to that question or our other requests for comment. Now that four titles have vanished this way — not to mention Population: One, which was shut down for original Quest owners despite being one of the most popular titles on the platform — I might think twice the next time I’m tempted to buy a game there.

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