How do Meta’s Horizon Create and Horizon Studio tools announced at Connect 2026 let people use AI prompts to create, collaboratively edit, and publish 2D or 3D multiplayer games playable instantly in Facebook and Instagram feeds; when will they become available; and how does this

Meta’s Connect 2026 announcement recasts Horizon Worlds as a mobile-first place to make and distribute games, rather than primarily a world experienced through a VR headset. Horizon Create is the phone app; Horizon Studio is a browser-based editor with more detailed controls. Both use AI-powered features of the Meta Horizon Engine to turn a description into a playable 2D or 3D game. 27

• Create and edit: Meta says prompts can generate more than scenery, including art direction, progression, difficulty balancing and multiplayer features. Creators can then refine the result; a hands-on demonstration showed several people editing different parts of one world while playing in it together. 24
• Publish and play: Meta says published games can reach players across Horizon, Facebook and Instagram, making social feeds part of the proposed route from discovery to play. That is a planned capability, not evidence yet that every feed user can play these games instantly. 12
• Availability: Sign-ups for early access are open, but Meta has not given a firm public launch date. 27
• Why the shift matters: Worlds began as a Quest-centered social-VR project. Meta said in February it was separating Worlds from its Quest VR platform and focusing Worlds “almost exclusively” on mobile, while continuing to support VR developers. That puts its creator-game strategy more directly alongside Roblox, with Facebook and Instagram distribution as Meta’s potential advantage. 31
• Market reaction: Following the announcement, a market report put Unity down about 5% and Roblox and AppLovin down about 1% each. Those moves show immediate investor concern about competition; they do not establish that Meta’s unreleased tools will take users or revenue from those companies. 5