VR Social Game Rec Room Is Shutting Down on its 10th Anniversary: 'Our Costs Always Ended Up Overwhelming the Revenue We Brought In'

Rec Room — the virtual world societal nine wherever you play games, bent retired successful the locker room, customize your appearance, and enactment with friends — is shutting down connected its 10th anniversary.

Despite reaching implicit 150 cardinal players and offering VR games similar Paintball, Dodgeball, 3D Charades, and Disc Golf — a cumulative 68,000 years person been spent in-game — developer Against Gravity admitted "we ne'er rather figured retired however to marque Rec Room a sustainably profitable business."

"Our costs ever ended up overwhelming the gross we brought in," the squad said successful a statement. "We spent a agelong clip trying to find a mode to marque the numbers work. But with the caller displacement successful the VR market, on with broader headwinds successful gaming, the way to profitability has gotten pugnacious capable that we've made the hard determination to unopen things down.

"We're making this determination now, portion we inactive person the quality to upwind things down thoughtfully and bash close by the radical who built this with us," the squad added.

This means that from June 1, you won't beryllium capable to log into oregon play Rec Room, the website volition spell offline, and immoderate online services related to the crippled volition nary longer beryllium available. As a result, from present connected successful nary 1 tin marque a caller account, you can't adhd immoderate caller friends, and each premium memberships person been extended to June 1. Partnered contented creators volition besides halt accepting caller registrations from May 1.

Perhaps astir notably of each the changes, users tin nary longer make monetized user-generated content, specified arsenic country inventory items, consumables, currencies, and avatar items. After March Room Rewards spell retired successful April, there'll beryllium nary further Room Reward payments, and from May 1, you won't beryllium capable to acquisition tokens oregon redeem acquisition cards for tokens. Creators volition beryllium capable to cod immoderate previously-earned tokens until May 18.

"This f***ing sucks, man," wrote 1 unhappy fan. "I've had aggregate MMOs and online games I enjoyed unopen down, truthful I cognize however overmuch it sucks. It's gotta beryllium adjacent worse for a purely societal acquisition similar Rec Room."

"Sad, but fixed its full gimmick was 'Roblox for VR', the penning was connected the partition arsenic soon arsenic Roblox added VR support, arsenic good arsenic the stagnation of that mean successful general," added idiosyncratic else.

Back successful August 2025, Rec Room was forced to laic disconnected astir fractional its team, but said astatine the clip that adjacent if "nothing astir the concern changed oregon improved, our runway would astir apt transportation america into 2029." It besides said astatine the clip that successful July 2025, its user-generated contented gross was "the highest it's ever been," up 70% year-over-year. Now, however, it seems that that 2029 projection was unduly positive.

"On behalf of the squad we’d similar to convey you for being a portion of the Rec Room assemblage and helping america make a amusive and welcoming spot for players from each walks of beingness implicit the past ~10 years," the squad concluded. "Your boundless creativity and enthusiasm has been a root of large inspiration and joy. We privation we could person recovered a mode to support things rolling, but unluckily this is the extremity of the road."

As a past convey you to the millions of players that person enjoyed the crippled implicit the past decade, Rec Room is discounting each first-party contented successful each stores by 80%, and immoderate premium-only features similar avatar items volition beryllium free. You'll besides beryllium capable to download each your photos and cod a super-cute last study paper arsenic a memento of your avatar — you tin find retired however connected the authoritative website.

Sadly, creators can't download a moving transcript of their rooms arsenic without their servers, they won't work, but you tin download your country and invention information should you privation to recreate the country successful Unity, for example.

While the societal mini-game acquisition seems arsenic fashionable arsenic ever going by Roblox's success, VR wide has taken a spot of a beating. In January, Meta laid disconnected astir 10% of unit astatine its Reality Labs part arsenic portion of sweeping cuts acceptable to impact much than 1,000 people. This includes the closure of a fig of VR-first studios, specified arsenic Twisted Pixel, the workplace down Deadpool VR, Resident Evil 4 VR developer Armature Studio, and Asgard's Wrath maker, Sanzaru Games.

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.