Meta Horizon Studio

Meta Horizon Studio is a browser-based game-creation environment from Meta that turns natural-language prompts into playable 2D and 3D games. At Meta Connect 2026 on September 24, 2026, Meta announced it together with a companion smartphone app, Horizon Create. Meta describes both tools as built on "the agentic creation capabilities of the Meta Horizon Engine," and says they can produce "a complete 2D or 3D mobile game, complete with progression systems, balanced difficulty, art direction, multiplayer, and more," which creators can then refine by hand.^[1] Games published from either tool become eligible for distribution inside Facebook, Instagram and Meta's Horizon app, where Meta says a viewer can tap a clip of a game and join a multiplayer session without installing anything.^[1]

The name Horizon Studio is older than the 2026 tools. At Connect 2025 Meta used it for a planned overhaul of the Windows-based Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor, with generative AI asset tools and a new engine underneath.^[7][10] The 2026 product keeps the name but runs in a web browser and is aimed at mobile social games rather than VR worlds, following Meta's February 2026 decision to make its Worlds platform "almost exclusively mobile."^[1][4] Android Central, which tried the tools at Connect, called the relaunch "a total reboot of the company's Horizon Worlds platform."^[3] As of September 25, 2026, both tools were in early access through a waitlist.^[1]

Overview

Background

Horizon Worlds

Horizon Worlds is Meta's social platform of user-built "worlds." It launched in late 2021 as a virtual reality service for Quest headsets, and Meta added a mobile app version in September 2023, which CNBC described as working similarly to Roblox.^[5] CNBC reported that the platform had never drawn more than a couple hundred thousand monthly active users.^[5]

Earlier creation tools and generative AI

In February 2025 Meta released the Worlds Desktop Editor, a Windows PC application, in early access and deprecated the in-VR building tools of Horizon Worlds. The editor let creators import 3D assets, images and sound, place them in a 3D landscape, and write game logic in TypeScript; the resulting worlds were playable and multiplayer on Quest, smartphones and the web.^[7][8]

Meta added generative features to that editor through 2025. According to UploadVR, US creators could at first generate sound effects, ambient audio and TypeScript; in April 2025 Meta added 3D meshes, textures and skyboxes for the US, UK and Canada; and in June 2025 the AI tools reached Australia and New Zealand, TypeScript generation moved to Meta's Llama 4 model, and Meta teased an "Environment Generation" feature for creating whole environments from prompts.^[8] In August 2025 Meta launched Creator Assistant, an AI agent that could, for example, place a door and a button from the asset library and write the TypeScript that makes the button open the door. UploadVR noted that this first version could not call the editor's other generative tools and instead searched the existing asset library.^[7]

Horizon Studio and Horizon Engine at Connect 2025

At Connect 2025 (September 2025), Meta announced Horizon Studio. UploadVR described it as the upcoming overhaul and rebrand of the Desktop Editor, with an upgraded AI assistant that could generate whole worlds, individual assets, gameplay mechanics and custom NPCs.^[7] Meta's own recap said it was "building an agentic creation system that orchestrates all these pieces behind the scenes, letting you create a fully immersive playable 3D world using nothing but natural language prompts," and opened a beta sign-up for "the new and improved Horizon Studio."^[9]

Meta also reported adoption figures for its existing AI tools at that event: nearly 60% of eligible creators had used them in the prior 30 days, and roughly one in three new worlds in the prior month contained AI-generated assets. It said time spent in the popular world Citadel rose by nearly 15% after its scripted NPCs were replaced with AI-generated characters.^[9] On mobile, Meta said monthly active users in mobile worlds had grown 4x over the prior year and creators had published more than 5,000 new mobile worlds, and that a world could appear in a Facebook or Instagram feed "just like any other kind of post."^[9]

Pivot to mobile (2026)

On February 19, 2026, Samantha Ryan, VP of Content at Reality Labs, wrote that Meta was "explicitly separating our Quest VR platform from our Worlds platform" and "shifting the focus of Worlds to be almost exclusively mobile."^[4] She said Meta's 2025 Creator Fund had grown mobile-only worlds from zero to more than 2,000, that mobile monthly active users grew more than 4x in 2025, and that four creators had passed $1 million in lifetime revenue.^[4] She named Horizon Studio and the Horizon Engine as "custom-designed for this purpose" and said Meta planned to make Horizon Studio available to more people "in the coming months."^[4] TechCrunch framed the change as positioning Horizon Worlds to compete with Roblox and Fortnite.^[14]

The shift followed cuts at Reality Labs. CNBC reported that Meta cut more than 1,000 Reality Labs employees in January 2026, including at Ouro Interactive, an in-house studio making first-party Horizon Worlds content.^[5] On March 17, 2026, Meta announced that the Horizon Worlds app would leave the Quest store at the end of March and be removed from VR on June 15.^[5] By March 19, CTO Andrew Bosworth had reversed part of that decision in an Instagram Q&A, saying Meta would "keep Horizon Worlds working in VR for existing games." He said the older Horizon Unity runtime games would keep working in VR, while "most of our energy is going towards mobile and the Meta Horizon Engine there."^[6][15]

In late August 2026, UploadVR reported that data-mined builds of the Meta Horizon mobile app referenced a separate app, codenamed Eclipse, for playing, remixing and building mobile game worlds with AI tools. UploadVR said Horizon Create appeared to be its pre-release name, and that strings in the August 25 build told users they would need to migrate to the new app to reach mobile games.^[11] Before Connect 2026, Meta's session catalogue already described a Horizon game that "reaches players across Facebook, Instagram and Horizon," in a session presented by Saxs Persson, according to MIXED.^[12]

Meta Horizon Engine

The Meta Horizon Engine is the runtime under the new tools. Meta introduced it at Connect 2025, saying it had "completely rebuilt the core architecture" of Horizon. According to Meta, the engine uses a scriptable render pipeline, supports physically based rendering materials and lightmaps, allows more complex genres such as RPGs and simulations, adds source control, and supports "100+" people in a single space.^[9] Meta's developer blog added support for "infinite connected spaces" and "more realistic physics."^[10] UploadVR reported that the engine replaces the Unity runtime that Horizon Worlds had used and that Meta claimed 4x faster loading.^[7]

By Connect 2026, Meta was describing the engine as agentic: Horizon Create and Horizon Studio are "built on the agentic creation capabilities of the Meta Horizon Engine."^[1] Meta's end-to-end Connect recap described the process as a plan the creator builds and revises, with "progression systems, difficulty, art direction and multiplayer" all adjustable.^[2]

Horizon Create

Horizon Create is a standalone smartphone app. Meta says a user can "describe the game you want to build in your own words, and watch it come to life," starting from either a prompt or a ready-made template. Changes to art style, characters, story and progression are made by describing them.^[1] A build can run in the background: the user can keep playing other games while it generates and receives a notification when it is ready to playtest. Several projects can run at once.^[1] Meta's Connect recap also describes the app as a place for "building and remixing games entirely from your phone," and says no game engine or coding is required.^[2]

In Android Central's hands-on, the app opened on an "Instagram-like gaming feed" of games that could be played with a tap, some of which could be remixed. The reviewer reported that creators can import their own models and audio, move and scale objects, and ask Meta AI to change an object. In his demo, five people were in the same world at once with different jobs, such as working on the weather, ground objects or vehicles, while the game ran; and publishing to Facebook, Instagram or Horizon took two taps.^[3]

Horizon Studio

The 2026 Horizon Studio is a "browser-based creation environment for when you want more control," with "nothing to install and no gaming PC required."^[1] It combines the same natural-language prompting as Horizon Create with visual editing: creators can arrange scenes directly, browse and swap individual assets, tune script parameters, and lay out space by hand.^[1] Meta's Connect recap lists "sliders, dropdowns and typed parameters" among the controls.^[2] Meta says "one prompt can restyle your entire scene, environment, character, and lighting through agentic creation with Meta AI."^[1] It also calls Studio "a single place to manage your game's lifecycle."^[1] Android Central reported that Studio shows the game's whole development tree, including dependencies, and lets creators work on each mechanic.^[3]

Horizon Create and Horizon Studio share a common backend. Projects move between them in either direction, carrying assets, systems and iteration history, and a creator can also start a new project in Studio from an idea alone.^[1]

The browser version differs from the Horizon Studio Meta described in 2025, which was a rebrand of the Windows Desktop Editor with TypeScript scripting and a target of both mobile and VR worlds.^[7][10]

AI features

Across its 2026 posts, Meta attributes these capabilities to the tools:^[1][2]

The Connect 2026 developer posts describe the creation process as "agentic creation with Meta AI" but do not name a specific model.^[1][2] The same Connect recap covered Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 model (released earlier in September) from Meta Superintelligence Labs in a separate section, without linking it to the Horizon tools.^[2] Earlier Horizon tooling used Llama 4 for TypeScript generation, according to UploadVR.^[8]

Android Central said the games it saw "don't quite fit into the 'slop' category," and noted that the tools work entirely in-engine without third-party tools or SDKs, with changes appearing in real time while the creator is in the game.^[3]

Publishing and distribution

Publishing from either tool makes a game eligible for "native distribution across Facebook, Instagram and Horizon."^[1] Meta's example is a person scrolling Instagram who taps a clip of a game and is "in a multiplayer session within seconds, without needing to download an app or being redirected."^[1]

Meta says discovery for these games depends on how engaging and stable they are: games that are "engaging, stable, culturally relevant, and keep players coming back earn more reach," while others "are deprioritized and fade from discovery."^[1] Revenue options are in-game monetization and the Meta Horizon Creator Fund, with more detail promised later.^[1] Meta's Horizon developer page says the company is "supporting creators with $50M in 2026" through the Meta Horizon Creator Program.^[18]

Safety

According to Meta, all generated content passes through Meta's content safety systems before reaching players, and games are reviewed before publishing and distribution. Each published game gets an automated age rating and is placed in an age-appropriate tier, and youth protections, including parental supervision through Family Center, carry over from Horizon's existing framework.^[1]

Availability

As of September 25, 2026, Meta says Horizon Create and Horizon Studio are "in testing with our creator community now, with broader access opening soon," and early access is "rolling out gradually" through a waitlist on its Horizon developer site.^[1][18] Meta's announcement did not give pricing or a general-availability date. Android Central reported that Meta had been working on the new version of Horizon "only since April" and expected it "to start rolling out early next year."^[3]

Meta presented three Connect 2026 sessions on the tools: "Introducing Horizon Create and Horizon Studio," "From publish to players: discovery and growth on Horizon," and "Community spotlight: Meta Horizon Creator Program."^[1][17]

Reception

Android Central's Nicholas Sutrich came away "impressed" from a demo with four members of the development team and said the approach was "a huge departure from current mobile game development concepts." He contrasted it with using a coding assistant to build a Roblox game, which he said still required skills he did not have.^[3]

Investing.com reported that on the day of the announcement Unity Software fell 5%, while Roblox and AppLovin each dropped 1%, and described the tools as Meta's entry into a market where those three companies operate.^[13]

Ahead of the event, MIXED observed that Meta had devoted two of its three Horizon sessions to distribution through Facebook and Instagram, and wrote that for Horizon "audience has been the awkward part for years."^[12]

Comparison with other AI game-creation tools

The closest direct comparison is Roblox's Build feature, announced two months earlier.

Roblox said in September 2026 that creators had published about 9,000 games with Build since its New Zealand alpha, and that 71% of users who had made a game with it had never used Roblox Studio.^[19] Both companies are pairing prompt-based creation with short-video discovery: Roblox's Moments tab lets players watch gameplay clips and click to play, and Meta's pitch centers on tapping a game clip in Instagram.^[1][19]

References

1. ^1 ^2 ^3 ^4 ^5 ^6 ^7 ^8 ^9 ^10 ^11 ^12 ^13 ^14 ^15 ^16 ^17 ^18 ^19 ^20 ^21 ^22 ^23 ^24 ^25 ^26 ^27 ^28 ^29 ^30 ^31 ^32 ^33 ^34 ^35 ^36 ^37 ^38 ^39Meta for Developers. "Meta Connect Recap: Sign Up for Early Access to Horizon Create and Horizon Studio." September 24, 2026. developers.meta.com/...n-create-and-horizon-studio
2. ^1 ^2 ^3 ^4 ^5 ^6 ^7 ^8Meta for Developers. "Meta Connect 2026: The end-to-end recap." September 24, 2026. developers.meta.com/...meta-connect-recap
3. ^1 ^2 ^3 ^4 ^5 ^6Nicholas Sutrich. "I played with Meta's new AI gaming engine reboot and can't believe how far it's come." Android Central, September 24, 2026. androidcentral.com/...eate-horizon-studio-hands-on
4. ^1 ^2 ^3 ^4Samantha Ryan. "Our Renewed Focus in 2026." Meta Horizon OS Developers blog, February 19, 2026. developers.meta.com/...-union-horizon-mobile-focus
5. ^1 ^2 ^3 ^4Lola Murti. "Meta is shutting down VR social platform Horizon Worlds in further pivot away from the metaverse." CNBC, March 18, 2026. cnbc.com/...meta-horizon-worlds-metaverse-vr
6. ^UploadVR. "Meta Backtracks, Will Keep Horizon Worlds VR Support 'For Existing Games'." March 19, 2026. uploadvr.com/...rlds-vr-support-for-existing-games
7. ^1 ^2 ^3 ^4 ^5 ^6 ^7 ^8 ^9 ^10UploadVR. "Meta Horizon Studio Will AI-Generate Just About Anything For Horizon Worlds." September 18, 2025. uploadvr.com/...pgrade-ai-assistant-horizon-worlds
8. ^1 ^2 ^3UploadVR. "Meta Teases Horizon Worlds Environment AI Generation Coming 'Very Soon'." June 18, 2025. uploadvr.com/...re-horizon-worlds-coming-very-soon
9. ^1 ^2 ^3 ^4 ^5Meta. "Meta Connect 2025: How AI Is Supercharging the Metaverse, Expanding Use Cases, & Our Wearable Device Access Toolkit." Meta Quest Blog, September 18, 2025. meta.com/...e-cases-wearable-device-access-toolkit
10. ^1 ^2 ^3Meta for Developers. "Meta Connect 2025: The Top Four Reasons to Build Worlds for Meta Horizon." September 18, 2025. developers.meta.com/...ons-to-build-worlds-horizon
11. ^UploadVR. "Meta Is Working To Spin Off Worlds From The Horizon Mobile App." August 29, 2026. uploadvr.com/...worlds-from-the-horizon-mobile-app
12. ^1 ^2Chris Steven. "Meta's Connect agenda says Horizon games will reach players on Facebook and Instagram." MIXED, September 21, 2026. mixed-news.com/...horizon-games-facebook-instagram
13. ^Investing.com. "Gaming stocks fall after Meta unveils AI game-building tools." September 24, 2026. investing.com/...ils-ai-gamebuilding-tools-4916022
14. ^Aisha Malik. "Meta's metaverse leaves virtual reality." TechCrunch, February 20, 2026. techcrunch.com/...-leaves-vr-horizon-worlds-mobile
15. ^Euronews. "Meta U-turns on Horizon Worlds VR shutdown after user backlash." March 20, 2026. euronews.com/...ds-vr-shutdown-after-user-backlash
16. ^1 ^2 ^3Lauren Forristal. "Roblox launches an AI-powered game-creation feature in its mobile app." TechCrunch, July 16, 2026. techcrunch.com/...eation-feature-in-its-mobile-app
17. ^Meta for Developers. "Introducing Horizon Create and Horizon Studio" (Meta Connect 2026 session). developers.meta.com/...y-to-create-on-meta-horizon
18. ^1 ^2Meta for Developers. Meta Horizon Worlds developer page (accessed September 25, 2026). developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds
19. ^1 ^2 ^3 ^4 ^5Roblox. "RDC 2026: The World Needs More Play." September 11, 2026. about.roblox.com/...2026-the-world-needs-more-play