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Echo VR

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Echo VR
Information
VR/AR Virtual Reality
Developer Ready at Dawn
Publisher Oculus Studios
Platform Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest
Device Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest, Meta Quest 2
Operating System Windows (PC version)
Type Game
Genre Sports, Shooter
Input Device Oculus Touch
Play Area Standing, Seated
Game Mode Multiplayer, Online multiplayer
Release Date July 20, 2017 (Echo Arena, Rift); November 15, 2018 (Echo Combat, Rift); September 1, 2020 (Quest)
Price Free-to-play; Echo Combat add-on US $10 (2018-2023)
App Store Oculus Store (delisted)
Website https://www.readyatdawn.com/game-list/echo-vr.html
See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Echo VR was a free-to-play zero-gravity multiplayer virtual reality game developed by Ready at Dawn and published by Oculus Studios. It began on July 20, 2017, as Echo Arena, a team sport released alongside the studio's single-player adventure Lone Echo for the Oculus Rift, and was renamed Echo VR in June 2018 when Ready at Dawn added a second mode, the first-person shooter Echo Combat.[1][2] A version for the standalone Oculus Quest left open beta on September 1, 2020, with cross-play against the Rift version.[3]

Players move through the game's arenas by grabbing surfaces and pushing off them, or by firing wrist-mounted thrusters, the same locomotion system Ready at Dawn built for Lone Echo.[1][4] Echo Arena was one of the two launch titles of the Intel, Oculus and ESL "VR Challenger League" in 2017, and it stayed on the roster of the renamed VR League through its third season in 2019.[5][6]

On January 31, 2023, Ready at Dawn announced that Echo VR's servers would close, and Meta shut them down on August 1, 2023, at 10 AM Pacific time, over the objections of a player campaign that gathered tens of thousands of petition signatures and flew a protest banner over Meta's headquarters.[7][8][9] Since late 2023 the PC version has been playable again on community-run servers through EchoRelay, an unofficial reimplementation of the game's backend.[10] Meta closed Ready at Dawn itself in August 2024.[11]

Reviewed 20 September 2026. Release dates, esports history, shutdown timeline, quotations, community-server status and every citation. About review dates.

Gameplay

Echo VR is played from a first-person perspective with the Oculus Touch controllers. There is no gravity in its arenas: the player grabs walls, rails and other players with the grip buttons and pushes off to travel, and small thrusters on each wrist let the player accelerate, brake and steer in open space.[1][4] Because movement comes from physical reaching rather than a thumbstick, Road to VR's review of Echo Combat rated its comfort as excellent and noted that it can be played standing or seated, with snap turning available.[12] The client opens in a shared social lobby, from which players queue for either mode; from 2020 the lobby also had named groups such as "Casual Mature Gamers" and "Competitive Gamers".[2][3]

Echo Arena

Echo Arena is a team sport. Two teams compete for a glowing disc and score by throwing it through the opposing team's holographic goal; players may punch an opponent's head to stun them and can climb on the bodies of teammates and opponents during play.[5][4] Ready at Dawn producer Johnny Wing described the mode in Meta's 2020 launch post as "zero gravity Ultimate Frisbee", and Meta listed it as a 4v4 mode at that time, with party matchmaking for up to eight players in non-private matches, AI opponents and AI teammates for practice, and skill-based matchmaking.[3] At the 2017 launch the game had a single map.[4]

Echo Combat

Echo Combat is a first-person shooter that uses the same locomotion. Matches are played between two four-player teams, orange and blue, across Payload and Control Point modes; at launch there were three maps, including the newly released "Dyson".[12] Each player carries one of four single-handed weapons (a fully automatic pulse gun, a shotgun, a laser-sight pistol and a rocket launcher) plus secondary tools such as an arc device that heals allies or damages enemies, an enemy scanner and a stealth mode, and throwable grenades.[12] Echo Combat was sold as a US $10 add-on inside the free client and was never released for Quest.[12][13]

Monetization

Echo Arena was free from launch, at first because Intel sponsored a three-month promotion that gave permanent access to anyone who added the game to their library before November 1, 2017; a US $20 price was planned after that window.[1] On November 2, 2017, Ready at Dawn announced that the game would stay free indefinitely.[14] Revenue came from the Echo Combat add-on and, from March 9, 2021, from the Echo Pass, a seasonal battle pass with 50 cosmetic rewards, 10 of them free and 40 behind a US $10 premium tier, on both Quest and Rift; the first season ran until May 23, 2021.[15] By the time of the shutdown announcement the game had run seven seasons of battle pass cosmetics.[16]

Development and release history

Echo Arena (2017)

Ready at Dawn, a studio founded in 2003 and previously known for PlayStation titles, built Echo Arena as the multiplayer counterpart to Lone Echo. Both were dated for July 20, 2017, at Intel's E3 2017 event, where Ready at Dawn also announced the Intel partnership that made the multiplayer game free at launch.[17][1][18] Purchasers of Lone Echo received Echo Arena automatically, and the game required Oculus Touch.[1] Echo Arena was an Oculus Store exclusive; Road to VR noted in November 2017 that HTC Vive owners were playing it through the unofficial Revive compatibility layer.[14]

Echo Combat and the Echo VR name (2017-2018)

Ready at Dawn announced Echo Combat on stage at Oculus Connect 4 on October 11, 2017, as a first-person shooter built on Echo Arena's movement system and planned for 2018.[19] In June 2018 the Echo Arena client was renamed Echo VR, a hub containing the social lobby, the free Echo Arena mode and the forthcoming paid Echo Combat mode, with shared matchmaking and social features. Studio chief executive Ru Weerasuriya said the goal was "to kind of view this more as a single world that is going to keep on giving back to the players as the years go on".[2] After beta periods during the summer, Echo Combat's launch date of November 15, 2018, was announced at Oculus Connect 5 in September 2018.[20]

Oculus Quest port (2019-2020)

A Quest version of Echo Arena was announced at E3 2019 and shown as a playable alpha at Oculus Connect 6 in September 2019. UploadVR's hands-on called it "a capable port" but noted simplified lighting and character models and a smaller tracking volume, since the Quest's four front-facing cameras lost the controllers when players reached overhead, behind the back or below the waist.[21] The port had been due in 2019, but on November 6, 2019, Ready at Dawn delayed it to 2020 "to release the highest quality game possible"; an October 2019 patch had already added AI opponents and expanded tutorials for new players ahead of the Quest launch.[22]

Testing on Quest went through a closed alpha and a closed beta before an open beta for all Quest owners began on May 5, 2020; the game left beta on September 1, 2020, as a free download with full cross-play against the Rift version.[23][3] For the full release Ready at Dawn reworked the social controls, making muting and ghosting easier and changing the default settings, after new Quest players found the original controls hard to use.[24] Only Echo Arena came to Quest. In July 2022 the studio said that moving Echo Combat to Quest "would not be possible without major changes to the game itself" and that no further content updates were planned for that mode.[13]

Between the open beta and the full Quest launch, Facebook announced on June 22, 2020, that it had acquired Ready at Dawn; the studio joined Oculus Studios as an independently operated team in Irvine, California, and Portland, Oregon, and the terms were not disclosed.[25]

Release timeline

Date Platform Milestone
July 20, 2017 Oculus Rift Echo Arena launches alongside Lone Echo; free for three months under an Intel sponsorship[1]
November 2, 2017 Oculus Rift Echo Arena made permanently free[14]
June 21, 2018 Oculus Rift Client renamed Echo VR[2]
November 15, 2018 Oculus Rift Echo Combat launches as a US $10 add-on[20][12]
May 5, 2020 Oculus Quest Open beta for all Quest owners[23]
September 1, 2020 Oculus Quest Full release, free, with Rift cross-play[3]
March 9, 2021 Quest and Rift Echo Pass season 1[15]
August 1, 2023 All platforms Servers shut down at 10 AM Pacific[9]

Esports

Echo Arena was one of the two games in the VR Challenger League, announced by Intel, Oculus and ESL on June 12, 2017, with a prize pool of more than US $200,000; online competition began on July 12, 2017, on ESL Play.[5] The competition was renamed the VR League for its second season in May 2018, with US $220,000 in prizes across Echo Arena, The Unspoken and Sprint Vector, four months of Echo Arena play from May 20, 2018, and finals at Oculus Connect 5.[26] Season 3 began on March 24, 2019, with a US $250,000 prize pool; Echo Arena returned and Echo Combat was added, with grand finals at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester, England.[6]

The community-run VR Master League also ran Echo Arena seasons. In July 2020 its second Echo Arena season had a prize pool of US $3,545, and selected matches were broadcast inside Oculus Venues on Sundays from July 19, 2020.[27]

Shutdown

Ready at Dawn announced on January 31, 2023, that Echo VR, both Echo Arena and Echo Combat, would close on August 1, 2023, at 10 AM Pacific. The studio said the decision was made after discussions with its partners at Meta and that the chief reason was "the studio coming together to focus on our next project. We can't say anything about it yet, but we are all excited and need all hands on deck."[7][16] Echo Combat, the Starter Bundle and Echo Points were removed from sale on the day of the announcement, no refunds were offered for in-game purchases, and a "Giveback Event" made past cosmetic rewards available to anyone who played one match, excluding VR Master League rewards and some legendary items.[7][16] In May 2023 Ready at Dawn made Echo Combat, previously a US $10 purchase, free to everyone on PC until the shutdown.[16]

In an Instagram question-and-answer session in early February 2023, Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth said the game's player base was "measured in the low 10 thousands", that "unfortunately keeping things alive takes work", and that those resources could serve "the now tens of millions of people who are in VR". He acknowledged that former Oculus CTO John Carmack "would not have shut down Echo VR" and had messaged him about it.[28] Carmack, in a statement published by UploadVR, wrote that "user value is my number one talking point by far" and proposed alternatives: a single maintainer, as id Software had done with Quake Live; selling the rights to departing team members, for which he suggested a price of US $10,000; leaving it running with an "unsupported" label; or open-sourcing it. He also argued that future games should be designed to run without central servers.[29]

A group called Fight For Echo organized the player response. Its Change.org petition had more than 25,000 signatures by early March 2023 and nearly 30,000 by the shutdown, and on March 1, 2023, the group hired an aircraft to tow the banner "ZUCK, DON'T KILL VR ESPORTS FIGHTFORECHO.COM" over Meta's Menlo Park headquarters for more than three hours. The group asked Meta and Ready at Dawn for community-hosted servers or minimal infrastructure so play could continue.[8][9] Meta disabled in-game currency purchases after the announcement.[8] Ready at Dawn published the soundtrack on YouTube as a farewell, and the servers went offline as scheduled on August 1, 2023.[30][9]

Community servers

On November 3, 2023, Road to VR reported EchoRelay, a project by David "Xenomega" Pokora that reimplements Echo VR's web services and dedicated game servers so that owners of the PC version can run their own server or connect to community ones. It extends the game's command-line arguments to add offline play, dedicated servers, windowed mode and headless operation, but supports only the PC version; there is no equivalent for the Quest build, and the game is no longer listed on Meta's PC store.[10] The GitHub repository describes the work as a proof of concept for educational and research purposes, states that it contains no copyrighted material and requires a legitimate copy of the game, and was archived on November 9, 2023, with the author considering it complete.[31]

MIXED reported in September 2024 that the largest player community, the Echo VR Lounge, had more than 7,000 members, that members volunteer to host servers at their own expense, and that concurrent players had peaked at about 200.[32]

Ready at Dawn after Echo VR

The "next project" cited in the shutdown announcement never shipped. Meta closed Ready at Dawn in August 2024, a decision first reported by Android Central and confirmed by Meta to UploadVR, after the studio had released nothing since Lone Echo II in late 2021.[11][18] In a February 2025 interview with UploadVR, co-founder Andrea Pessino said the studio had been working on what he called "one of the most revolutionary VR games ever", that it had suffered an unreported round of layoffs in 2022 and lost about a third of its remaining staff in 2023, and that with fewer than 70 employees the project could not be finished.[33]

Reception

UploadVR's launch review by David Jagneaux called Echo Arena "hands-down one of the best multiplayer VR games", praised the demands it placed on team coordination and communication, and criticized the single map and the learning curve for new VR players.[4] Road to VR scored Echo Combat 8 out of 10 in November 2018, praising the locomotion and the variety of weapons and counter-weapons while faulting the launch content of three maps and two modes, the lack of map voting, and post-match lobby resets that made it hard to deal with trolling.[12] By September 2020 the Quest version had close to 4,000 user reviews on the Oculus Store with a rating of about 5 out of 5, against 4.4 out of 5 for the Rift version.[23] Road to VR described Echo VR at the time of the shutdown as "one of the best-rated and most popular free titles on the Quest store".[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Scott Hayden (2017-07-20). "'Echo Arena' Launches Today, Free for a Limited Time". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-arena-will-free-anyone-downloads-first-3-months/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ben Lang (2018-06-21). "'Echo Arena' Becomes 'Echo VR' to Make Way for 'Echo Combat', and Maybe More One Day". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-arena-becomes-echo-vr-to-make-way-for-echo-combat-and-maybe-more-one-day/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Suit Up for Zero Gravity Battles in 'Echo VR,' Now Available on Oculus Quest". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2020-09-01. https://www.meta.com/blog/suit-up-for-zero-gravity-battles-in-echo-vr-now-available-on-oculus-quest/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 David Jagneaux (2017-07-20). "Echo Arena Review: Ready at Dawn Delivers VR's First Amazing Esport". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/echo-arena-vr-review/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Paul James (2017-06-12). "Intel, Oculus & ESL Launch $200,000 VR eSports 'Challenger League'". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/intel-oculus-esl-launch-200000-vr-esports-challenger-league/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Scott Hayden (2019-03-04). "ESL & Oculus Announce Esports VR League Season 3, Biggest Prize Pool Yet". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/esl-oculus-announce-vr-leagues-season-3-biggest-prize-pool-yet/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Henry Stockdale (2023-01-31). "Echo VR Shuts Down In August As Ready At Dawn Focuses On 'Next Project'". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/echo-vr-shut-down-ready-at-dawn/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Scott Hayden (2023-03-03). "People Love 'Echo VR' So Much They're Flying Messages Over Meta HQ in Protest of Shutdown". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-vr-meta-protest-flying-messages/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Ian Hamilton (2023-08-01). "Last Echo VR Players Soar As Meta Shuts Down Servers". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/echo/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Scott Hayden (2023-11-03). "'Echo VR' Online Play is Back with the Help of This Unofficial Mod". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-vr-mod-pc-vr-online-servers/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Ian Hamilton (2024-08-07). "Meta Shutters Echo Arena & Lone Echo Creator Ready At Dawn". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/ready-at-dawn-horizon-sunset/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Scott Hayden (2018-11-16). "'Echo Combat' Review - Going Out Guns Ablazing in Zero-G". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/echo-combat-review/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ben Lang (2022-07-15). "Meta Studio Ready at Dawn Working on "new, exciting projects," No Plans for 'Lone Echo' or 'Echo Combat' on Quest". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/ready-at-dawn-working-new-project-vr-no-plans-lone-echo-combat-quest/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Dominic Brennan (2017-11-02). "'Echo Arena' is Now Permanently Free on Oculus Home". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/last-chance-echo-arena-free/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Ben Lang (2021-03-09). "'Echo VR' Launches Battle Pass to Monetize Game with Premium Cosmetics". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-vr-battle-pass-echo-pass-cosmetic-customization/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 Ben Lang (2023-05-03). "A Last Hurrah: 'Echo VR' Squad Shooter Free Until August Shutdown". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/meta-echo-vr-shut-down-announcement-ready-at-dawn/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  17. ↑ Ben Lang (2017-06-12). "'Lone Echo' Release Date Set for July 20th, 'Arena' Multiplayer Mode Free for All Rift Owners". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/lone-echo-release-date-set-july-20th-echo-arena-multiplayer-mode-free-rift-owners/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Ben Lang (2024-08-07). "Meta VR Studio Behind 'Lone Echo' Shuttered After No New Game Release in Nearly Three Years". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/meta-ready-at-dawn-lone-echo-vr-shut-down/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  19. ↑ Scott Hayden (2017-10-11). "Oculus Connect: 'Echo Arena' FPS Expansion Announced and More 'Lone Echo' Teased". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/oculus-connect-echo-arena-fps-expansion-announced-lone-echo-teased/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Jamie Feltham (2018-09-26). "OC5: Echo Combat Release Date Finally Announced". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/oc5-echo-combat-release-date-finally-announced/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  21. ↑ David Jagneaux (2019-09-26). "OC6: Echo Arena On Oculus Quest Is A Capable Port Of An Excellent VR Game". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/oc6-echo-arena-oculus-quest/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  22. ↑ Ben Lang (2019-11-06). "Echo Arena Oculus Quest Release Date Delayed to 2020". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-vr-quest-update-echo-arena/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Scott Hayden (2020-09-01). "'Echo VR' Launches Out of Beta for Quest, Including Rift Crossplay". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-vr-open-beta-coming-quest-launch/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  24. ↑ Harry Baker (2020-09-03). "Echo VR Leaves Open Beta, Now Available On Oculus Quest". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/echo-vr-out-of-beta-oculus-quest/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  25. ↑ "Welcoming Ready At Dawn to Facebook". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2020-06-22. https://www.meta.com/blog/welcoming-ready-at-dawn-to-facebook/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  26. ↑ Ben Lang (2018-05-18). "Oculus & ESL Partner on eSports VR League with $220,000 in Prizes, Including 'Echo Combat'". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/vr-league-sports-oculus-esl-prize-competition-echo-combat/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  27. ↑ Harry Baker (2020-07-30). "Oculus Venues To Broadcast VRML Tournaments For Echo Arena, Onward". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/vrml-tournaments-oculus-venues/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  28. ↑ Harry Baker (2023-02-02). "Meta CTO: John Carmack Would Not Have Shut Down Echo VR". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-cto-john-carmack-echo-vr/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  29. ↑ Ian Hamilton (2023-02-03). "John Carmack's Full Statement On Echo VR's Planned Closure". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/john-carmack-statement-echo-vr-closure/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  30. ↑ Scott Hayden (2023-07-31). "Only 1 Day Remains to Play 'Echo VR' Before Servers Go Dark". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-vr-server-shutdown-quest-2/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  31. ↑ David Pokora. "EchoRelay: A proof-of-concept reimplementation of Echo VR's web services and dedicated game servers". GitHub. https://github.com/Xenomega/EchoRelay. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  32. ↑ Josef Erl (2024-09-25). "Echo VR: Fans keep discontinued cult VR game alive". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/echo-vr-fans-keep-discontinued-cult-vr-game-alive/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  33. ↑ David Heaney (2025-02-11). "Ready At Dawn Was Working On A "Revolutionary" VR Game When Meta Shut It Down". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/ready-at-dawn-post-shutdown-cofounder-interview/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
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