Meta just killed one of the Biggest VR Games (for no reason)

So the Echo VR situation has gotten worse; Meta announced in an AMA that they absolutely will NOT be doing anything to keep Echo around. It will be removed from Quest 2 and PCVR Aug 1st no matter what.. So here is the response video to Andrew Bosworth's AMA.
This is where VR is going.
There IS actually a way to maybe save Echo. All we'll need is to emulate the servers; Here is the link:
www.vegapatch.ml/articles/EVR
Not that this will do anything.. but here's a change petition:
www.change.org/p/save-echo-vr...
GAMES AS A SERVICE IS A FRAUD:
• "Games as a service" i...
Here are my links to join my discord server to chat and have an awesome VR community- or if you'd want to support my channel:
My links:
Support Content Like this on Patreon:
/ thrillseeker
Discord:
/ discord
Twitter:
/ thrilluwu
Outro Music:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Jwg...
“Game that Changed VR Forever” montage video:
• The Game That Changed ...

[@ThrillSeekerVR]

PART ONE: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qn_WZp-HnJ5_f8U -EDIT regarding a conversation I had with the creator of VEGA Mod Loader: There is no guarantee that content will be moddable into Echo. Echo runs on a proprietary "Ready at Dawn Engine" so modding in content will be more difficult. For now the mod loader DOES allow loading levels. Being able to "switch servers" is actually something that can be done without the use of a mod loader. Still basically; we need to hope that RAD will provide keys or some crazy person can reverse engineer the Echo servers to emulate them I'm gonna be SO OVER when people realize that the only reason I criticize Meta is because I actually want them to succeed with all my heart and push VR to the masses but also just want them to make decisions that are pro consumer and not be evil for .2 seconds. Discord.gg/thrill

[@RoyHoy]

Just stop lying to yourself. I can see you becoming the villian of VR in 5-10 years once your company grows.

[@deletice]

@@RoyHoy ok bro

[@ManWithFace]

@@RoyHoythe leather from your favorite boot is infesting your brain

[@RoyHoy]

@@deletice It's the truth.

[@RoyHoy]

@@ManWithFace what?

[@MrStickVR]

You have no idea how much it means to this game's community that despite not even being a part of it, you're still making one of the largest efforts to save it. Thank you.

[@samsparks4071]

thanks

[@nohv7]

i agree mrstick

[@Bokobro181]

Agreed

[@romanlast]

If it means a lot for you guys. Collect money and make an offer.

[@earflapphat]

Agreed

[@juliapastel2151]

As someone in the PR field, META makes me tear my hair out. They are textbook exactly what not to do as a company trying to grow a community

[@Hiznogood]

Yeah, it’s mind boggling how bad Boz is handling this as he come from a position as advertising guy! I’m not working in PR or Marketing but even I know that the strongest advertisement and PR comes from word of mouth, just look at how Minecraft grew. Now you have 10’s of thousand of people that instead of being apostles for your brand, instead will spread the word how bad you handle your community and one shouldn’t invest in Metas products! He must have had very good staff that ran his former apartment else he clearly himself doesn’t have the brain for business!

[@k9medic39]

The company in general is a dumpster fire. Just recently my Instagram account was disabled and deleted, without any emails or explanations as to why. I never broke any of the guidelines, and mainly posted around twice a year. So many memories of friends, family, and good times, gone in the blink of an eye... But hey, being a multimillion dollar company as they are, they can do whatever they want huh?

[@RurouniHiro]

What’s more if they keep this up, this will be a regular thing with Boz, any unsupported game that isn’t magically self sustaining, is just gonna be shut down for some fantasy “10s of millions of people”. This also ends up going back into both “service” games and any media that is no longer supported or sold (IE no capital or profit not being made whatsoever and is in the void). Why can’t these games/media be archived or sold if it’s no longer making the company Profit and it’s being shut down? And when players/the community does revive or sustain it on their own dime, the companies do whatever they can to shit it down as if they are losing (Entirely non-existent) Revenue (regardless of how long that media has been out of circulation or active support and or the company/publisher has been dead &shutdown for years…). Echo is only gonna fall into this as well…

[@ummwhodidnt]

Exactly. Also in my opinion I think boz’s thinking is those 10k people are gonna have to go somewhere and that’ll kickstart the new projects which is really messed up and is not gonna end pretty. That is not the way to treat the gaming community w the way we attach ourselves to our favorite game. Smh Facebook is killing keeps downward spiraling

[@ummwhodidnt]

Also Aldin is a whole W of a person. I’ve never played a second of vr but this looks like something I’d at least try but I’m sure I’d like it since I’ve been playing rocket league since the prequel on PS3, being my “favorite game”. But then again if I’m right about boz his intentions are very greedy and he wants to hold off echo’s community for his new projects. Good luck echo community and I wish the best outcome!

[@poriii]

"low 10 thousands?!?!?!?!" thats insane for vr! its really unfortunate the direction that meta is going right now and i really hope this doesnt result in vr dying out in popularity if it hasn't started already. really hope someone will be able to find a way to keep echo up

[@Vodhr]

Low 10 THOUSANDS still blows SOOOOO MANY recent AAA titles out of the water! And those fucking games are on PC, Xbox or Playstation! You know, hardware with WIDE COMMERCIAL APPEAL AND USERBASE!! To clarifying, Metas Quests are by far the biggest number of sold units in VR. But VR is still not as widespread as we would like it to be. The fact that ANYONE can look at low 10 THOUSANDS on gaming platform, who one can still call "a small market" is both insane, and idiotic!

[@Tyler-ke1ue]

What's even more mind boggling is that he believes whatever they end up doing will be catering to 10 MILLION people LMAO what a joke. He needs to take a step back and re-evaluate.

[@smoothridin]

Thank you for your support of Echo VR. We will be fighting until the end to keep echo alive. 6 LAN tournaments happened last year (3 by myself) and 3 are planned for this year. The game isn't even close to dying, it is growing as the biggest VR eSport.

[@Noqtis]

VR eSport 🤡

[@MigattenoBlakae]

@@Noqtis ratio

[@Noqtis]

@@MigattenoBlakae Mad VR baylords gonna be mad who cares? They seethe and cope right now because yt has disabled the dislikes LMAO Seethe and cope VR gaybaords seethe and cope 🤣😂🤣

[@MigattenoBlakae]

@@Noqtis clown

[@thetester1158]

​@@NoqtisI'm personally a vr enthusiast. I understand you are trying to troll, but please go to a bar and tell your jokes there, or even go somewhere where the topic isn't scummy pricks, making you look like one

[@Jinx1927]

Meta's detatchment from the VR community is absolutely disgusting. Meta's disconnect from the average consumer hurts to see, first, the killing of oculus, now the killing of a community. Having been an oculus user for two years, this hurts.

[@FXV56]

They're kinda ruling the vr space right now , this sucks even more

[@notlNSIGHT]

On top of that, increasing the Quest 2's price, the ridiculous price of the Quest Pro... They are the villains of VR. Hopefully we see a hero emerge from somewhere nobody expected.

[@FXV56]

@@notlNSIGHT valve? Maybe HTC? pico? Idk The quest pro got a price drop though Suspiciously big price drop

[@notlNSIGHT]

@@FXV56 Valve seems likely. HTC... Ehhh.. I don't know. Pico? If they can get to the States then yeah.

[@captainpicard6566]

You can’t just treat things like they are disposable. They bought Oculus, and have now killed it. You can’t just acquire a company and then kill it. That company made VR, and I won’t stand for it and you shouldn’t either.

[@e2rqey]

This is a symptom of a much deeper cultural issue with Meta's entire VR strategy

[@afallingtree9114]

lets not forget how Mark refers to the users of his platform way back when facebook was first gaining popularity. imo this issue goes much deeper than just their VR division, many would argue this issue goes deeper than Meta itself.

[@punishedkid]

You can end that sentence 5 words early.

[@swarm69]

or arguably gaming in general / live service in general, i mean just look at square enix's recent behaviour with shutting down games or EA for that matter

[@selectionn]

@@swarm69 Is that an issue though? live service games being shut down because they failed? Its a good thing to me, I was happy when I heard that one sh*tty babylons fall game died in like a single week and got shut down. live service games are a cancer and I wish they would die sooner

[@t395delta]

@@swarm69 unfortunately i think this is the future, maximise profits.

[@maxxbmd]

The second you talked about that mans background, I quietly stood up and my jaw dropped. Meta isn't just in bad hands, It's in malicious hands

[@jex-the-notebook-guy1002]

Most stuff is in malicious hands. Why live poor when you can be rich at the cost of being a puppet for the illuminati. To be in the illuminati you have to kill someone close to you. The evil doesn't stop there

[@rocketwastaken]

Echo VR was the first game I played when I got a VR headset, it holds a special place in my heart, and I've felt so happy watching as teammates become more than teammates and become friends, I loved how exhilarating it was to grab onto an enemy and punch the guy to grab the disk. It makes me extremely sad to see this masterpiece of a game get shut down.

[@Happyhenzo]

It's crazy how the Quest 2 was revealed by Mark floating around in Echo Arena. And now, not long before the quest 3 launches, they are killing that same game

[@juancarlosalonso5664]

Never trust facebook, and no I ain’t calling them “meta”.

[@EggoBoi]

@@juancarlosalonso5664 I've lost all respect for them at this point

[@WESWANGKTA]

@@juancarlosalonso5664 there's nothing wrong with calling Facebook meta, because Facebook IS meta, and both Facebook and meta are dogshit, and meta is just easier to say. On the other hand there's oculus, which they have changed to meta and THAT is stupid because oculus is not meta, Facebook is meta, meta can't ruin Facebook because Facebook already sucks, but meta definitely is ruining oculus, which we'll always keep calling oculus

[@Clex-]

As someone who is deep in the community, it is so painful, like so much time wasted and destroyed. The ready at dawn developers are amazing people and cared about the game until they got ripped away.

[@Jdevil21]

Tell him sexy Clexy

[@KarmaStrikesGames]

That's life

[@vbscript2]

It's really too bad that Facebook/Meta ended up as such a dominant force in the VR gaming industry. It's pretty close to the bottom of the list of entities that can be trusted to do the right thing.

[@arehzi]

i’ve been playing echo for four years and please don’t stop this series this could be our chance to change how meta handles things and teach them how much better things could be done

[@gomersimpson777ram]

its back online

[@AdamHamSammich]

You’re not being ridiculous, nor blowing things out of proportion. If anything, more outcry like this is needed. We all had the very real fear that Facebooks acquisition of Oculus could cripple our beloved and still niche VR industry, and it’s incredibly disappointing to see those fears come into fruition. Glad to hear that there’s advocates out here trying to do something about the pain, Thank you for your consistent soldiering my friend.

[@b0xf0x13]

Came here to say this. If look at the history of corporations, you'll discover that there are typically only 2 things outside of them that can stop them from their typically anti-customer behavior: governments telling them they can't do something and customers telling them they shouldn’t. The first voice can afford to speak their minds quietly. The second voice can not.

[@666Daheretic]

I lost a lifelong friend due to an argument that spawned from me stating facebook would do exactly what it is doing now. That they would get greedy and strongarm their way into controlling the VR market with as much money as it took. He got all super offended and started yelling at me because "he was gonna make big money developing in the metaverse" and said "you're an idiot with no idea what you're talking about". You show me that level of disrespect over brand loyalty and consumerism I can't be your friend anymore.

[@b0xf0x13]

@@666Daheretic I mean, condolences, but what kind of "life-long friendship" ends from a single minor argument?

[@cenciende9401]

Define 'cripple' considering Facebook dumping billions into Oculus/XR is the only reason VR is as big as it is and the only reason we are where we are now? They have done and still do a lot of things wrong, including making this joke of a guy CTO of VR, but let's not confuse things...

[@AdamHamSammich]

@@cenciende9401 you’re proving my point - as a primary financial investor in the industry, they’re a caboose. As such they’re in a position to impact many facets of VR/AR/XR. User expectations and impressions are being set for the first time in many cases and are setting very real precedents that will subsequently become very real industry standards whether good or bad, making every decision they make that much more impactful. Yes you’re absolutely right, by dumping billions into Oculus/Facebook Reality Labs, they grew the user base ten-fold and now have a majority share of the market on their hardware and App Store Platform. Again, that’s exactly where the danger of crippling the industry resides. Their decisions are amplified, and the residual outcomes will absolutely affect the industry for years to come.

[@ryze2434]

ThrillSeeker, thank you so much for this 2-part series. On behalf of the echo community, we love you, and are so happy that you are speaking up about this

[@topcatvr2983]

Agreed to much 😔

[@OroVR]

real

[@kmdl14]

echo community please stop screaming into your microphone

[@blade_the_intp2931]

@@kmdl14 VR community as a whole, please show respect for one another. If the game that brought you into a great VR community got shut down, we'd be there fight against it with you.

[@kmdl14]

@@blade_the_intp2931 ?

[@Fluke1x]

Thrill's a real one for speaking up. If we do nothing when they come for others, nobody will be there to speak up when they come for us.

[@tientam779]

Hey ThrillSeekerVR, as a former dev who worked on Echo VR Quest port and Echo Combat before Meta acquired RAD . I wanted to say that I enjoy your videos and glad you made one on about Echo VR. The game is near and dear to my heart as with most former and current devs at RAD. Unfortunately I feel that the game was always on life support in terms of live ops. The higher ups never gave it the full attention it deserved to grow, the content stayed stagnant for so long. I felt the last major shake up was when my team created the April Fools event in 2019. When I realized things weren’t going to change I left but I did have hope that it could change for the better, sadly that is not the case. As for Echo Combat: many of us felt it was a compelling experience but it was not design with Quest in mind and it was deemed too intense to port over, and even designing the lobby to work on Quest and Rift (which had Combat in the lobby) was a lot of challenge. Hope that gives people some context. I truly hope that Echo VR gets saved for all of us who love it so much but I don’t think that’s where it’s headed. I will say that RAD is a talented studio and if Echo VR comes to a close it does open them up to craft another amazing game so there is an upside.

[@SevenDos]

I don't know if you know, but Meta also killed Crayta last week after buying it a year ago. They intended to connect craytas building capabilities to their horizon worlds. They even announced all that in their last years events and they showed their horizon characters walking around in crayta. But last week, we (the game/content creators on crayta) got informed that they now killed it and will go offline in less than a month.

[@letsplayoldergames9172]

They really need to give up on horizon it will always loose to vrc always like make games we already have a social platform

[@blade_the_intp2931]

Man, 5 years in the arena for all of this. This community is what has been holding me down to VR. Without it, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do now.

[@mindfulrochester2368]

you are not alone bud

[@terencerenshaw91]

I guess we have to go outside...🏕

[@dailygtyler]

This game be the whole reason I bought a quest 2

[@Pig-hx5dt]

I feel you man, going on 5 years for me as well. Although I played it on and off I never forgot how much of an impact this game had on me and the vr community. Easily is my favourite video game

[@zoethepro7897]

try contracters and blade and scorcery

[@_T1m3_]

I come from a console homebrew scene and my first thought was "I wonder how we could make custom servers for this" Great video, as always, keep it up, thrillseeker and echo community!

[@cbjueueiwyru7472]

It's now a reality

[@crazytortoise3477]

Once more, thank you so much for covering this. I know tons of other users from echo have thanked you, but truly we cannot thank you enough, this game has allowed me to meet some incredible people and form friendships that I truly believe will last a lifetime, having met people that are now like family to me, I orgininalky played echo because it was free, so sure, why not, then I saw that vrml was a thing and began working to that point, it was then that I began talking within the game, becoming active within the community and it rapidly became my favourite ever game, 2 years later, and I truly have met some of the greatest people in the world, and while I know these friendships will extend beyond echo, as they already do, the thought of not being able to just enter lobby and say hi to the users there, to say hi to the people that I perhaps only know as being those friendly chill people in lobby, to not be able to make anymore memories through this game is heartbreaking, and to see Meta willing to throw away such an insane community is horrible, so thank you so much for covering this and #SaveEcho

[@jaxondesselles2335]

I met my best friend in echo and I’ve known her for 3 years now. It crushes me that the birthplace of the most beautiful and unique friendship I’ve ever had is going to just disappear because meta is being lazy and uncaring for their customers. #saveecho

[@Blefooo]

@darthdude that's what your mom said to your dad and looked how that ended up.

[@ArmadilloJohn]

@darthdude5122 Did you miss the message of this comment or are you just stupid

[@danielm5161]

It isn't just Meta, RAD also lost interest in Echo VR. Was there even more than 1 map in that game after 5 years of release? Plus they have to build in a bunch of moderation features which they don't want to deal with.

[@MineCrapSteve]

@darthdude ⬅️ OOOH, WE GOT AN EDGY ONE OVER HERE

[@quinnfinity9750]

Get her contacts my dude, still crushing that your platform for connecting closely with them is gone but y'all can still stay freinds

[@mindfulrochester2368]

This is a VR point in History @Thrillseeker - You are on the right side of it. Thank you for your support. Echo is not just a game or a service... it is a Sport... a Community... and a Home... It really makes life worth living for thousands of ppl... And taking that away is criminal... thank you x1000 for seeing us and providing hope ❤

[@giggly3.142]

I 100% agree but also like to add- It's also people's jobs being stripped away. Either though tournaments or having their KZbin career based around playing echo. It's just stomach-turning what meta is okay with doing. (Edited-spelling)

[@IronLungProductionsOfficial]

@@giggly3.142 🤣

[@theancientticktack6154]

I haven't played echo vr in around 2 years, never really got into it and only ever played private with my friends for the most part but when I heard it was shutting down even I was angry, it has been one of the biggest games on the whole of vr I'd say for ages now and seeing people who have put years and years into this game just get turned away and have their progress just whipped off the planet, all of their cosmetics and the time they put into getting good at the game plus the fun memories and friends they made just boils my blood I really hope this game survives somehow and meta actually starts making good decisions.

[@47948201]

I don't own a Quest, and I've never played Echo, but this still really sucks because it will shake the faith of users and probably make them that little bit more hesitant to get really invested in any of Meta's future apps, and them being as big as they are, that's just bad for the whole VR community... ...In fact, it reminds me of a lot of Google's failed projects. You'll never attract those millions of users if nobody can trust you to keep your product around.

[@TabularJoker]

I played echo last night just so I didn’t forget to play before it shut down. While I had to the usual squeaker encounters, there were some encounters that equally warmed and broke my heart. The one that stood out was a guy on my team who just started belting out the song “Hellfire” from the movie/musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I recognized this and we started singing together. It was by far the funniest interactions I’ve ever had in virtual reality. To know that this kind of experience is going away is so depressing. I hope we can find some way to save Echo.

[@plumper303]

This legitimately made me tear up a little bit.

[@ArezX3]

You people really need to do some social activities that don't include a screen or monitor. This is just a simple and random thing and you're talking about it like it was a life changing experience. The incel culture is thriving because of weirdos like you and the guy who said your comment made him tear up lol

[@plumper303]

@@ArezX3 Thank you for sharing your opinion. It was absolutely 100% needed and I definitely respect it. People like you who, for some reason, feel the need to shame people’s passions really make the world a better place. Also, I want to say that if you play a sport, anybody you have met through that activity or any fond emotions towards it are completely invalid, and you and others seriously should stop playing such physical activities because you could potentially get an injury, just like people staring at a screen too long can damage their eyes. (Plus, kind of leaving the trend of praising your opinions here, the incel culture one is just expressly false, as people have literally gotten married through this game.) You truly are a visionary and voice of the future.

[@savedbyhisbloodjc1708]

True, but this game isn’t the only game with people having the funniest interactions. Its not like you will never have any funny interactions anymore, just not in this.

[@lucashawkins-smith3647]

I had a similar experience in onward, the whole lobby was singing come and get your love as loud as they could and it was amazing

[@picko11123]

One of the craziest things to me, is that I don’t even think Meta of all companies, knows how communities are formed. If it already has a small community and you trample that, it surely hinders genuine growth from within. As in, the people who actually loved and cared for the community will not bring more people in. It’s like they’re trying to form an artificial community and I don’t even think those words go together

[@TheFrantastic]

I can confirm, ever since I got a quest 2 myself, I've never recommended it to anyone. "I wouldn't recommend it, because you would get one only for stand alone, I'll use it only on pc when I can. Standalone means trusting Facebook, and when was that ever a good idea?" This is also why I've limited my purchases on the store. (and long and behold, after only 3 months of use, my controller is completely unusable and support is circling back and forth with it for 2 weeks now, while there is a 2 year legal warranty on their head).

[@Secarious]

A lot more companies do this then you'd originally think. Overwatch did it when they made too many characters easy to play, to pull new people in, making all the skilled players frustrated and irritated. Which destroyed it's reputation and murdered it's community. Nerf is doing it with making all these limited edition blasters modeled after minecraft or halo or DnD or other franchises to pull new users in, instead of giving who they already have any kind of decent blasters, causing us all to now consider the company dirt. Robocraft did it when they brought in loot boxes and dumbed down the game modes to try to make it appealing to new people, but it took the game so far away from what it originally was it completely annihilated it, it is now dead. It really seems like that companies in general once they have a following completely forget that they need to nurture that following instead of ignoring them to try to pull new people in. They seem to assume that we'll stick around now that we're here, and it's kind of insulting really. And it doesn't matter how many times it happens, companies never seem to learn the pattern.

[@sepadamus]

Thank you Thrill for your support! Lets keep on fighting for good! #saveEchoVr

[@gomersimpson777ram]

its back online

[@alonelytrashcan]

I'm sobbing. This game is so important to me. I used to sell vr and demonstrate with playing this game. It was flashy and fun and it's early beta community made me so happy. I NEVER play online competitive. Ive always felt unwelcome and frustrated. This was the first game that I felt like we were all on the same level learning and growing together. Saying you were a new player with this community didn't grant scorn or laughs. Often people would drop what they were doing to help you learn. It was exciting and welcoming. Don't get me wrong, as a woman in gaming I had my share of negative experiences, but in comparison to the rest of the pvp market where chat was encouraged? I don't want to lose this. I hope people try to keep these things alive. I still want to play online. It would never be the same as an isolated pirated version with bots.

[@mihtor2462]

Thank you Thrill. People must realise that this could be the beginning of the end of many other vr games too. If Meta gets away with this who knows which game will be next on the chopping board next? I don't want a future where it is a normal thing to lose access to games I love, never to return to them again. Not to mention that VR makes games feel more like experiences, not just regular media.

[@ninjaclownghost5925]

Spot on! I hate this digital game time we are in where it can just be deleted it's not fair.

[@DisturbedNeo]

"All Meta has to do is the bare minimum" _Looks at Meta's track record_ Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath

[@roibenblitz6863]

There was this thing that happened in the D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) community very recently. The company, Wizards of the Coast basically tried to turn the community into a constant revenue via a new License stating they had to pay a high % of their media and community contents income. It also stated that any homebrewed content is now actually the companies to own and use. *...The community fought back.. HARD.* *and WON.* Lesson learned: Massive company or not, the community and people CAN AND DO have a say, but only if we speak as one.

[@animorph17]

Nah, fighting back against a major company is communism or something, and trying to boycott anything makes you evil. Or at least that's what half the US keeps telling people.

[@Kurama126]

Please don't stop the videos, thank you for making these. It makes no sense they're making this change and I hate how corporate everything has become

[@sizzledash]

Thank you for standing up for us, Thrill! We need to fight this. #saveecho

[@MarkHidden]

I play Eleven it’s almost the only reason I use VR but I have played echo it was fun but I didn’t want to spend the time getting good at it because I wanted to play eleven. You’re doing the right thing. I hope they listen to you.

[@sizzledash]

@@MarkHidden yeah, I hope so too. Echo is the only game keeping me in the Meta/ Oculus ecosystem, and if they follow through with shutting it down, I will be permanently switching to Steam VR.

[@zschmidt6324]

As someone who has played echo for coming up on 3 years now. I want to say thank you, for fighting for us and along side of us, though you may not be apart of our community. We are grateful to have you fighting beside us

[@FXV56]

Even if the servers shut down people will find a way as he said it, hopefully

[@greenshyguyfrommario]

Thanks for making these videos, after watching critical’s video on it i watched both your videos on it to be more informed, you’re efforts are more important than you know

[@roymedhurst]

I only have fairly short bursts of using VR, about twice a year, as I'm away a lot of the time and very busy for the rest. Echo VR is always the first thing I go back to though, mostly for the combat part (actually the combat training in the lobby over the actual missions). I played this during the pandemic and it actually blew my mind how much it felt like I was really there with people, talking to them, gesturing etc. during a time when it just wasn't possible to do that in real life. I'm a bit too introvert to do VR Chat most of the time but playing this kind of forced me to end up interacting with people, in a good way, and I've met some really great people and had memorable interactions and fun games. Any time a friend gets into VR I always get them to join me in Echo VR first off. It's such a great introduction to the world of VR, and I've not played anything which comes close to how it feels to just float around in zero gravity like this. I seriously hope that Meta change their mind about this move. Why not just pass it to another developer if it's about the resources? Their excuse doesn't make sense when there are clearly many options available for a win-win scenario. It really does feel like they're just choosing the easiest pathway from an entirely selfish standpoint. If this is the way the early adopters of VR are treated then there's no way I'm going to carry on investing in this medium, despite how much I've enjoyed it. It feels like a cheap relationship with a company who clearly doesn't care. Why would I ever give them more time or money? I sincerely hope they realise what impact they're going to have through moves like this, even to people like me who only play a few times a year. Let's hope they realise this and change for the better before everyone completely loses faith in them.

[@spacehootle309]

I'm at a point where I'm suspecting Meta to have a negative-publicity campaign running. There is No way a company with so much hired talent is That stupid and self-sabotaging. It's sus I tell ye, sus.

[@ThrillSeekerVR]

YEP. I actually had an entire segment that I cut from this video where I suspected exactly this, that it all feels like bait. It’s sus asf- but I’ll save that thought for a later time

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

@@ThrillSeekerVR Also got the impression they really wanna fail and try the hardest they can. But why?

[@0x0michael]

It's called guerrilla de-marketing, it's even more effective in this age of social media forums and comments. It's the only way for the smaller companies to fight Meta

[@juancarlosalonso5664]

Guys, did you seriously forget that facebook is one of the most hated and incompetent companies on the planet? The reason they changed their name was because of the bad rep associated to the old one, and they were among the first companies to sell users data on a mass scale to other companies. Don’t be surprised by how evil/incompetent they can get.

[@Sail_VR]

Here's Three Easy Update Ideas for Echo: - Add Combat to Quest Version - Obstacle Courses / Races - Add a Tag Game Mode

[@firstkeepitreel]

I had never heard of this game up until now, but from the first minute I immediately recognised what it was based off of. I remember watching Ender’s Game when I was younger and dreaming that the zero-gravity training they did could one day be experienced, and now this game that could’ve finally given me and many others that chance is now shutting down…. Its such a shame.

[@gomersimpson777ram]

its back online

[@PHAEN0M]

Your support means the world to our community Thrill. Thank you for putting real work into these videos. Having our game ripped from us is a pain that I want no other VR community forced to feel. But that pain is nothing compared to the people telling us how small we are (we aren't) or non VR users shouting, "why is it such a big deal it's just an old game?" This kind of content from creators like you is a truly appreciated source of validation for our outcries. While we might the current martyr this isn't just about Echo VR, its about all of people that understand the importance of what VR brings to all of us. So thank you and all of the other VR communities that understand what this could mean for the future of not just our game, but the future of VR as a whole. WWJCD? Well, we know. He'd leave.

[@deletice]

Can’t believe this, especially after all the creative mechanics and efforts that were put into the game

[@RoyHoy]

Ok bro

[@deletice]

@@RoyHoy lmao bro really found my comment

[@onesqrtgurt]

@@RoyHoy bro you're weird, just argue for the sake of arguing. Also it's nice to see you openly support actors grooming minors real good stuff

[@RoyHoy]

@@onesqrtgurt 1) Who's arguing? 2) What actor am I supporting grooming minors? Cause I know Drake Bell isn't. Educate yourself, buddy.

[@sirweebs2914]

@@onesqrtgurt who cares bro

[@knoxianpanda]

You got the moist shoutout, big hype, happy for you, and hope that signal boost broadens to even more people to be made aware.

[@liamturner1342]

You don't grow a forest by uprooting every sapling someone else planted.

[@EVVAea]

Thank you so much thrillseeker. You don't understand how much this means to us, all of us appreciate it and we love you.

[@Technoton_one]

EVVA

[@EVVAea]

@@Technoton_one hi techno

[@iso_dash]

Omg evva my baby

[@EVVAea]

@@iso_dash iso my beloved

[@Skadidd]

"Its measured in the low 10 thousands." and Horizons Worlds is measured in the low 100's.

[@thespecialmedic]

Shut down horizon

[@marleeey_]

I think of Meta as burning building, but instead of the firefighters (Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Bosworth) spraying it with water and trying to stop the fire, they spray it with gasoline.

[@ShrekBigscary]

RIP Echo Vr you will be missed. 😢😭

[@engineeredaf1920]

The b-roll of boz and zuck playing echo was a nice touch. Really digging through the archives there. And I’m pleasantly surprised by the concrete solution that’s presented here - I really hope meta takes notice.

[@nateappleton1688]

Your support and passion mean the world to the echo community, thank you for raising awareness for us.

[@MISSIONVR]

They are also killing population one. They won’t let the devs do anything to improve the game. Meta needs to understand they are killing VR.

[@Maveric]

I really love Echo VR's concept of being an actual e-sport that requires legitimate skill. Personally, I think the only thing that was missing was it being slightly procedural in the placement of the barriers on the field. I think if you have that level of unpredictability, it would have made the game better.

[@sexygrandpa169]

one of lifes greatest lessons: when you love something that doesnt love u back

[@AloysiaTea]

Hey Thrill, whatever you have of “melodramatic” is exactly what shows your passion for VR and why it’s been a pleasure to follow you for the past couple of years! ☺️ Hopefully things improve on the Meta side of things, VR and VR gaming deserve to be nurtured!

[@corriedotdev]

AMAZING SUMMARY TYTY! Had no idea boz as vp ads. They totally want to put the lone echo team onto something new / VR experiences.. My sequel pixel arcade 2 is not going to be using or bought out by them. It costs fuck all to keep servers online, if you make a popular game dude you gotta do everything in your power to keep it online.. awful

[@Fvandenberg]

Meta could single handedly destroy VR this way.. If they keep going in this direction it will eventually blow up, and consumers that aren't into VR yet, will start to avoid it all together. I'm really hoping something will change soon..

[@FiggFig]

I don’t even mind VR taking another decade to reach its next high point if it means these meta scumbags watch their wallets burn

[@hunterb4399]

Thank you Thrill for putting into words what so many in the Echo community are feeling and observing with Meta! Echo is a truly spectacular game. With 6 degree of freedom movement in zero-g, a nearly endless bag of tricks to learn along a steep skill curve, and an athletic/proprioceptive marvel... it's my favorite game of all time... and I've only played 4 months. This astonished admiration grew so quickly for me... I can't even imagine what it would feel like to be a 5+ year veteran with all that's been happening. But the deepest point - this is a canary in the coal mine for all of VR. So to anyone reading, give the game a try! Share Thrill's video! Sign the petition! And if I see you in the arena between now and August (and beyond) I'll do my best to share what I know and help out any new players with a genuine interest to explore such a spectacular game. Thanks again!!

[@KorokuGaming]

It's my favourite team based game of all time also... I stopped playing when I traded my CV1 for a Quest 2 (because I didn't like the limited controller range for this game after playing on CV1). I Bought the new touch pro controllers day 1 specifically to get back into this game again and then this happens... I never thought that they'd shut this game down! It's such a shame. 😢

[@hunterb4399]

@@KorokuGaming Yeah I was considering upgrading specifically to test out new equipment for the game like you - even to perhaps go for the Pro headset, or to look toward PC options for high def & recording, YT tutorials, etc. But for now, not happening. Look at all those lost dollars BOZ

[@antonharmacinski276]

My friend bought a quest 2 the year before last and brought it over. It was Echo Arena that made me go out and buy a Q2 a couple weeks later. There are other cool free games and stuff but Echo was just a great VR experience and what convinced me to spend the money.

[@alexfoxleigh9443]

The fact that games started to have centralised servers and slowly began to drop support for local-hosted servers was a HUGE red flag. Stuff like this is going to be so common as time goes on. Companies don't care about you, they don't care about their staff, they care about the bank accounts of the board members.

[@NessieNep]

7:01 I would link the "Games as a Service is Fraud" video in the description so people can see it. Either way thanks so much for including it here~! Its a super important video regarding this terrible industry practice imho.

[@ThrillSeekerVR]

Yea I will

[@MrVenomGtag]

It’s heartwarming seeing how much ur standing up for this community. Please keep having us updated by making these videos ❤

[@StevePaulSounds]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@ImNotAVocalist]

I have basically never played Echo, but I have hundreds of hours on Lone Echo 1 and 2, and combining that with the fact that this game is such a big part of the community, seeing this all happen still hurts me so much and I just can't even imagine how much it would hurt an active Echo player. The fact that Meta can just take away what I would argue is one of it's biggest games like this and Provide no way for it's community to continue it just shows that if they really want to, they could probably do this again, and probably WILL do this again. We need to stop this from happening, but from what it seems, there almost is no way to stop it.

[@CyrusVorazan]

Man, for the entire first half of the video I was constantly thinking "yeah, we've been dealing with companies shutting down online-only games for years, and it really, really sucks. That's what Ross Scott is always talking about", and then I see a clip from his "Games as a service is fraud" video. Kudos for putting it in, if only briefly. Really wish more people listened to him... That said, calling this "the first domino" is kind of a stretch. Again, this has been and continues to be a problem for many years now, it just hasn't been felt in the VR community until now. We need the entire gamedev industry to stop killing games, not just meta.

[@jxy5298]

Some of the best moments I have had in echo vr were literally sitting in the lobby and talking to people. Echo vr is more than an esport. It is a social space.

[@mattc487]

Damn, Thrill went demon-mode on this one framing all this into perspective lol Well done thrill

[@Daddy-OH]

First off thank you for the content, news and entertainment but wow you hit us with the Serial experiments Lain "Layer Zero One"! Thank you! That brought back some fun awesome memories from yester years past.

[@Snoopi25]

2:58 Rrrroooooll Credits! Literally, as soon as you said that, I didn't even need to know anything else lol... and I also don't understand why companies just don't want to give people the ability to host private servers; they can have someone looking out for profits being made off that stuff (which yes, should be illegal), but there's so many games out there that people want to keep alive and CAN keep alive, but companies just don't want to share. What does it cost you? You're not supporting it anymore, give it to someone that can at least keep it going! One such game was NostosVR... terrible by some standards as a game, but I wish it was still around because it had the right idea, and nothing came close to it yet to replace it.

[@DemoEvolvedGaming]

@thrillseeker whatever happens I want you to know, you are doing your duty as a vr ambassador. And thanks for that. Good job thrill. Keep up the fight. We need you

[@ThrillSeekerVR]

Thanks fam ❤️ I’ll try my hardest

[@DIAMCAT]

This situation is going to make it hard to buy a quest 3 for me personally

[@szarur-abi8665]

Honestly this and ending support for Quest 1 affects me on whether i want to buy Meta headsets, i mean i want long support for product that i buy and i dont like seeing on how my potential favourite vr game or headset just become dead because of decisions that could be avoided.

[@hazyreality3610]

Meta when they find out people aren't gonna watch a billion ads: 👁💧👄💧👁

[@br_uh_]

I love the whisper transitions, they keep me watching cuz I get distracted pretty easily

[@peteratwood7685]

This is absolutely devastating. I have been playing this game since original release, and I never thought that it would be so ruthlessly ripped away. We must do everything that we can to protect this game and ensure its survival. I will be playing this game as much as I can to squeeze out all the enjoyment that I can while it lasts. I cannot believe that Meta would be so cruel and depriving in their behavior.

[@gomersimpson777ram]

its back online

[@SkilledApple]

I always recommend echo arena to everyone who is wanting to try out games on their new vr headset. It’s crazy they’d shut it down because this game was a huge selling point for me because of how much it reminded me of enders game and blitzball. Crazy

[@sitsky357]

DO NOT STOP! These 2 videos you made on this have been your BEST ONES! This is A V E R Y B I G I S S U E! And a great opportunity to crash this "company" completely and be done with it. No other VR related company is this "evil" and yeah it would be a big HIT loosing Oculus, but we need to cut our losses for VR be the landslide it is gearing up to be this year!

[@mindfulrochester2368]

fr fr

[@afallingtree9114]

agreed, even if Meta starts pouring everything they have into XR tomorrow, it will still be the "metaverse" *they* want to create, not the one we are currently trying to build. in todays economy, we vote with our dollar.

[@Pfincess]

As a TF2 player, at least valve isn't this bad. I love valve, but poor tf2... Glad that valve is at least smart enough to keep up servers of all their games unlike Metta. This is blatantly unfair for devs to just remove a game. Even if the argument is they can spend more recourses- all they gotta do is just keep servers up. No updates needed

[@RemedieX]

TF2 could honestly make a booming resurgence with enough attention given to it.

[@Pfincess]

@@RemedieX Of course, I love TF2 and I know valve will *eventually* get around to fixing it, but right now their silence is terrifying. They needa be less afraid of making mistakes.

[@mac1991seth]

"You don't own your games. Your community doesn't matter. Our community belongs to us and we can dissolve it at a whim. No refunds. No negotiating." - Meta

[@madeintexas3d442]

I had no idea echo combat was a thing. I can't believe they did not add that to the quest. Every time I see gameplay footage it reminds me of the battle room in enders game. Echo combat looks like an exact copy and I have always wanted to do that for real. I wonder if the servers are up and if I could hop into a game before it's gone for forever.

[@WestchesterJ]

Facebook becoming Meta and trying to get into VR has been the biggest L in history the only positive thing they have done is making VR cheaper to get into

[@aleksandrmarkelov1774]

They also gave all of you Echo VR for free, after which almost everyone stopped playing it. That sure sounds evil...

[@freddafishy]

Thank you Thrill, for both being one of the major voices in this shift and providing real solutions to save our beloved Echo. ❤

[@Mariasouza-um8cx]

Meta: Wanna see me make the dumbest decision a company can make? Meta: Wanna see me do it again?

[@kynahjai]

This is why I bought the Pico 4, I REALLY didn't want to give Meta my money or have to make an account with them, they're making the horror of Ready Player One a reality.

[@dwup4733]

Thank you for all the efforts youve put in to save this game and possibly future games. This game as been part of my teenage years. I started playing when i was 15 and now im 18. Im so sad seeing this.

[@An1mat0rz]

Even after the first video I knew somebody was going to recreate the game somehow someway, I'm positive somebody is going to find a way to emulate servers if Meta doesn't release the keys (which they probably won't)

[@GumikoVT]

There are tons of games with player bases no where near "tens of thousands" that I would consider to be thriving. That sounds like a super healthy player base honestly. I think it's crazy they are shutting it down.

[@Doegiz]

The fact that he says the userbase is so "little" is ironic considering the amount of power, and therfore cost to run the game for these players is no doubt very minimal in comparison to the rest of their operations. So this is nothing but a crule joke. Valve and all the other companies that still run their games to this day, have shown us they have next to no excuse for this. They are beating around the bush on the fact that they don't give a crap about anyone or anything other than their own corporate agenda. They just gobble up every business and s@#t em out, destroying an entire industry, but be honest, we all knew this was coming..

[@frogsalesman]

While I didn't actually play that much compared to other vr games, I am so sad about the news. The game just felt so good and fun to play, and if I had more of a drive to play it, I would have loved to. The fact that now it's too late to do that hits different.

[@everythingbutthegym6130]

Thanks so much for these videos. I love VR too, (I can't compete with you!) And I want the future of it to be bright. I just got an email from meta today saying support for onward is done in July for quest 1 which is what I have. Seems like this kind of thing will keep happening. It also makes me worry about not being able to use my quest at all eventually because it is tied to the Facebook login and they can just make it a useless brick. I miss the old console days when once you have the hardware and games you can just play it forever. I mean there are still NES around that work! Anyways, thanks for your content.

[@ThrillSeeke]

Thanks for the feedback. Expect more videos soon. Send a direct message... I have a Gift for you📦🎁🔝

[@KoaBosk]

The new guy in Meta reminds me of the scene in Ready Player One where the CEO of IOI is talking about selling ad space in the VR world in his board meeting

[@alexchew2945]

You are one of the content creators that got me interested in VR. Your love for lone echo got me in the door and after experiencing the magic of echo arena I have upgraded my VR systems with the first thought of “how will this impact my echo play”. The people I’ve met through echo (many commenting here) have enriched my life and not being able to play the team oriented VR esport with them is gut wrenching. I’ve been playing with them for >3 years now and haven’t missed a season. Thank you for helping to magnify the communities voice.

[@KevVanc]

This whole situation really is the final nail in the coffin, I'm so done with Meta. I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt but I'm sick of this 1 step forward 3 steps back crap. It' so sad to see VR take the express route to the bottom without a true golden age like PC and console gaming.

[@joshjo9405]

I never opened the dogshit that is horizons on my Quest 2. To be honest, Meta's game catalogue is kinda dry and mid.

[@KevVanc]

@@joshjo9405 I never touched it either. Also, IMO I don't think Meta has a real "game catalogue". Like Trill said, all thier success is from acquisitions that they promptly ruind or left to rot. Except maybe Beat Saber? Where Meta money probably helped with licencing all these major music packs.

[@LhunVideo]

I hear those Lain references, Thrill. Very cool. We're getting closer to the Wired every day.

[@thecrispyacorn]

I REALLY enjoy these videos that you have done, PLEASE have more news videos like this!

[@pkilljoy5797]

Echo combat being missing from the quest version is what made me quit a while back. Its the game mode that I enjoyed most. Meta out here ruining shit, big surprise.

[@deathchimp2]

I can feel the way the wind's blowing. I'm buying the XR Elite when that launches and getting out of this echosystem. It'll suck losing the Oculus exclusives but I mostly do VRChat anyway.

[@aleksandrmarkelov1774]

I'm sure HTC will hire a team of expensive engineers to maintain every ancient game with a few users and no profitability at all. Unlike Meta, HTC is not a business, does not make decisions based on profit, and does not have a fiduciary obligation to maximize profit for shareholdes. Right? Oh... Wait...

[@NoX-512]

@@aleksandrmarkelov1774 You can still play counter-strike 1.6. What’s your point?

[@JuxtaThePozer23]

as a VR enthusiast and gamer, it pisses me off to no end to see Meta making decisions which could, in the most dire predictions of the future, put the entire industry back by years and for this reason, I support this fight.. thanks Thrill, keep up the good work by taking Meta to task, not just for fans of Echo but for the entire VR player base

[@MHTHINK]

I totally get your position here and agree to most, but I think (don't know anything for sure) that there will soon be big competitors to Meta, which will either force Meta to be more competitive or fade to the background, which I doubt they'd do, but win-win?

[@zrk03]

Thanks for keeping us updated Thrill!

[@Meianju]

This is why I'm supporting Lynx R1. I know they will be the black horse of this VR race, around which a truly open VR universe will be created by developers and users together.

[@MaaZeus]

I am with you but I also fear they are way too late. The technology they come with as far as VR is concerned is very old. Theie AR features is neat but VR is still the king for consumers and gamers, we have very little use for AR workspaces etc... I hope I am wrong though, Meta needs to be brought down a notch.