Quest’s Leaked Theater Environment Hints Meta May Be Targeting Social VR ‘Bigscreen’

Meta, yeah, they’re at it again. So, back in January, they spilled the beans about cooking up some home theater thing for Horizon OS. Imagine strapping on your Quest and boom—you’re in a big ol’ cinema. Anyway, someone “accidentally” (yeah, sure) stumbled upon a prototype. Now it’s giving major Bigscreen vibes—like, Meta’s trying their hand at this social cinema thing, finally.

Okay, let’s take a step back. Quest does have these sorta theatre-like features, but pulling your buddies in for a movie night? Not exactly smooth sailing. Quite a few attempts, yada yada, but nothing really stuck to the wall. Then, just before leaving Meta, Mark Rabkin—big honcho of Horizon OS—blabbed about shaking up the theater scene. The talk was about light, sound—real ambiance stuff.

People were wondering, how far were they aiming? Like, single-player Theater View was nice, but folks dig that shared experience vibe Horizon Worlds offers—concerts, comedy, the works. Maybe we finally got that bridge?

An X user, ‘lukegotbored’ (via ‘Luna’—these names, right?), “somehow” got into this theater environment. Meta on a mission to mimic Bigscreen? Sure looks like it. Their “leak” spills—a virtual theater on Horizon Worlds, a 2.0 version or some such. It’s multiplayer, which means you can hang with friends, kinda like teleporting into a sci-fi auditorium. And guess what? They were watching a Hot Ones interview. Classic.

But wait—how’s Meta gonna steal Bigscreen’s spotlight? Streaming from Pluto TV or mirroring your own stuff for pals to watch—Bigscreen does this without blinking. Could Meta do the same? Eh, maybe. Streaming your own stuff at scale sounds like a lawyer’s nightmare for Meta though. Bigscreen plays it smart, dodging potholes but not really stopping users either. Meta might be a bit… let’s say, cautious.

Could Meta’s theater shake things up or is it just another experiment? Sure, it might keep folks on Horizon Worlds longer. No extra apps, no hopping around—it’s all about sticking around, you know? Meta has borrowed ideas before—remember Virtual Desktop and their Air Link? Same story, different year.

Anyway, Meta’s big Connect 2025 event hits on September 17th, where they might drop more nuggets. Stay tuned, keep your curiosity goggles on. Who knows what they’ll do next?