Toast Interactive introduced their VR video games Max Mustard (2024) and Richie’s Plank Expertise (2017) have been faraway from the Horizon Retailer for Quest. For now, it’s unclear exactly why, nonetheless the veteran indie studio says the transfer has left them feeling “betrayed and powerless.”
“Sadly, Meta has unilaterally chosen to take away Toast and its two video games, Max Mustard and Richies Plank Expertise from their retailer,” the studio says in a submit on X. “We really feel betrayed and powerless on many ranges.”
Whereas momentary delisting can occur by mistake, this doesn’t seem like the case. There’s a motive, nonetheless Toast Interactive says it might probably’t speak about it but, individually noting the studio “look[s] ahead to sharing our story with you all within the close to future.”
In a Reddit submit, Toast Interactive says the explanation will “blow everybody’s minds. However I’ve been firmly suggested to not.”
On each the Max Mustard and Richie’s Plank Expertise Horizon Retailer pages, the explanation listed is the apps are “out of compliance with Meta’s Platform Abuse Coverage,” though there’s no info on particularly the way it fell out of compliance.
The corporate’s platform abuse coverage covers a variety of offenses, equivalent to pirated content material, safety exploits, or deception of any type, nonetheless it additionally covers extra nebulous areas which are doubtless left as much as interpretation.
Not following developer documentation, or “another provisions of the Meta Platforms Applied sciences Phrases of Service or Code of Conduct for Digital Experiences, or another Meta Platforms Applied sciences phrases, insurance policies or pointers” can even get an app eliminated with or with out warning, Meta says in its Platform Abuse Coverage.
Notably, each video games are nonetheless accessible throughout their different supported platforms, with Max Mustard supporting PC VR, PSVR 2 and Pico headsets, and Richie’s Plank Expertise supporting PC VR, the unique PSVR and Pico headsets.
This comes at probably the most inopportune instances for Toast Interactive. Final month the Gold Coast, Australia-based studio introduced it was closing workplace and shedding a majority of employees.
This follows a primary layoff spherical in November 2024, which affected 10 workers. On the time, the studio maintained that whereas Max Mustard was “one of many highest-rated video games on each PSVR 2 and Meta Quest, it sadly can’t maintain a big indie staff.”
This story is breaking: we’ve reached out to Meta for extra readability on the state of affairs and can report again when/if we obtain a response, or as extra info arises.
