Meta is expanding its gaming ecosystem with new AI-powered creation tools and a lightweight virtual-reality device, giving developers new ways to build and distribute games while preparing for the company’s next generation of VR hardware.
At Meta Connect 2026, Meta introduced Horizon Create and Horizon Studio, two tools built on the agentic creation capabilities of the Meta Horizon Engine. The services allow creators to describe a game in natural language and generate playable 2D or 3D games, including elements such as environments, characters, mechanics, progression, difficulty, art direction and multiplayer. Horizon Create is designed for mobile devices, while Horizon Studio provides a browser-based environment with more granular controls. Projects can move between Horizon Create and Horizon Studio while retaining their assets, systems and iteration history. Meta also says games published through the tools can be distributed natively across Facebook, Instagram and Horizon, allowing people to discover and enter games through Meta’s existing platforms without downloading a conventional application.
The tools are currently in testing and early access, with broader availability rolling out through a waitlist. Meta therefore presents them as an emerging creation platform rather than a fully open replacement for traditional game engines. Meta is also preparing Meta VR Glasses, a lightweight VR device weighing about 100 grams. The glasses are connected by an optical tether to a separate puck that handles computing, battery and storage, allowing the hardware worn on the user’s face to remain substantially lighter than a conventional VR headset. Meta says the device will go on sale in spring 2027 for $1,299.99.
The glasses use eyes and hands as their primary inputs and are controllerless by default, although controllers are supported and sold separately. Meta says more than 75 games will be playable at launch using hand gestures alone, while Xbox Cloud Gaming will provide access to hundreds of additional games through streaming. For developers, one of the most significant announcements came from Unity. Unity 6.6 provides day-one support for Meta VR Glasses through OpenXR, allowing developers to begin building and testing experiences before the hardware reaches consumers. Unity says existing Quest projects can carry over with minimal implementation changes.
Taken together, the announcements show Meta pursuing a broader gaming strategy: lower the barrier to creating games with AI, connect those games directly to its social platforms, and give developers another hardware target through its VR ecosystem. Whether those tools produce a new wave of games remains to be seen, but Meta is clearly attempting to connect creation, distribution and play within the same platform.