Echo VR’s days are numbered, as Meta introduced earlier this 12 months it could quickly be pulling the plug on considered one of its most profitable video games on Quest. However hardcore gamers of zero-G sports activities recreation Echo VR and its shooter variant Echo Fight aren’t taking place with out a combat.
Organizers behind a protest group referred to as ‘The Struggle For Echo’ wish to hold their favourite recreation alive, they usually’re apparently able to take drastic measures.
On Wednesday, March 1st, the group commissioned an airplane-towed message to fly over Meta’s HQ in Menlo Park, California, which then circled the center of Silicon Valley for over three hours for all to see. The message was directed at Meta founder & CEO Mark ‘Zuck’ Zuckerberg, stating: “ZUCK, DON’T KILL VR ESPORTS FIGHTFORECHO.COM”
You may see the airplane in motion, courtesy of a YouTube livestream by ‘rev2600’, one such devoted Echo VR participant:
The protest group defined the transfer on the Struggle For Echo web site:
Whereas we’re extraordinarily obsessed with these video games and are very supportive of the crew at Prepared at Daybreak and the Echo Video games franchise on the entire, we predict we will nonetheless assist Meta and Prepared at Daybreak by persevering with to be the testing floor and supportive group we all the time have been and supply a spot the place bigger concepts for different VR video games might be examined.
We can’t try this nevertheless with out some sort of recreation server being supplied to the group to host ourselves, or minimal infrastructure to play on and the permission to work with the individuals required to do it.
We perceive that there’s a future path being taken; and that it’s tied to laws and compliance, and our intention is to not maintain something again. We solely want to proceed to do what we’ve all the time completed and be the ambassadors of VR that you really want us to be.
The Meta-owned builders Prepared at Daybreak introduced in late January that it was shutting down the favored free-to-play multiplayer recreation Echo VR, which is slated to go darkish on August 1st.
On the time, the studio stated the choice to close down the sport “was made for a lot of good causes and chief amongst them is the studio coming collectively to give attention to our subsequent mission.”
Undeterred by the airplane-towed plea, Meta despatched out the next message to Echo VR gamers final evening:
We’re reaching out to let you already know that Echo VR servers will shut down on August 1st, 2023 – 10:30 AM Pacific. On this date, each Echo VR and Echo Fight will now not be playable.
Add-ons are now not out there for buy within the Quest retailer. Echo Factors are now not out there for buy within the Echo Store. Any Echo Factors at present in your account can be utilized till August 1st, 2023 – 10:30 AM Pacific, with objects closely discounted within the Echo Store.
It has been our pleasure to see this group develop and compete through the years. Thanks on your time and fervour. For extra info, please learn Prepared At Daybreak’s weblog publish at https://medium.com/@EchoGames/an-update-on-the-future-of-echo-vr-7f074dca1ed1.
Whereas a reversal of the shutdown appears much less doubtless now that Prepared at Daybreak has utterly neutered the free-to-play recreation’s in-game forex, the founders behind ‘The Struggle For Echo’ initiative have setup a change.org petition so others can present their assist. On the time of this writing over 25,000 individuals have signed.