Leaked Quest Theater Environment Hints Meta’s Ambitions for Social VR’s ‘Bigscreen’

Alright, so here’s the scoop. Imagine this: It’s January, and Meta’s all like, “Hey, we’re working on this home theater vibe for Horizon OS.” Cool, right? Something where you throw on a VR headset and suddenly you’re in a theater the size of the universe. They’ve got this leaked prototype now, and it’s like—BAM!—multiplayer! Like Bigscreen but with a twist. I swear, everyone’s trying to be like Bigscreen these days.

The Quest has these weird little theater pieces scattered here and there, but there’s no one-stop-shop app where you just holler at your pals like, “Yo, movie night!” Meta’s tried it, like, a gazillion times, but nothing ever sticks. Maybe they just weren’t trying hard enough, or maybe it’s just one of those things. Who knows?

Anyway, right before Mark Rabkin, the VP dude for Horizon OS, made his grand exit, he was teasing this full-on theater scene. Lighting, effects, sound—the works. But nobody really knew how serious they were. Like, there was this whole single-player “Theater View” and then their Horizon Worlds for events like concerts and stuff. It’s a bit of a mess, honestly.

And then—get this—some guy named ‘lukegotbored,’ which sounds like the start of a bad joke, stumbles onto a Meta internal build. Total accident, he claims. But here’s the kicker: Meta’s gunning for that multiplayer action, letting folks invite their crew and all that jazz. Spotted a sneak peek of these avatars in a space-age auditorium, tuning into a Hot Ones clip. Wild stuff.

Whether Meta can swing the whole Bigscreen-like experience, though, that’s a big “meh” from me. Bigscreen’s this magical app where you’re watching all sorts of stuff with a buddy, even throwing your own content into the mix—big league stuff. Meta? Not so sure. I mean, they’d run into a mess of legal knots and might not be ready for all that hassle. Bigscreen’s like, “Hey, we’re not streaming illegal stuff, but if you do, well, that’s on you.” A wild west vibe.

Meta might go all big and fancy with this theater, which could keep folks glued to Horizon Worlds without needing to jump ship—or app, in this case. If it works, it could be a gamer changer.

Honestly, Meta’s been there, done that with mirroring third-party apps. Anybody remember Virtual Desktop? It was this nifty tool for PC-to-VR action way back on the Rift in 2016. Meta snagged the idea over time, sprinkled it throughout their systems. They had a whole beef with the Virtual Desktop wireless streaming thing, then poof!—they have their own Air Link soon after.

Anyway—wait, where was I? Oh, right—Meta’s next shindig, Connect 2025, is on September 17th. We might get more deets then. Keep your eyes peeled for the next hilariously chaotic update.