VR market under pressure: nDreams closes studios and discontinues online shooter

British VR publisher nDreams is in crisis and is pulling the plug on its free-to-play title “Frenzies.”

The colorful VR shooter "Frenzies" has no future with the struggling publisher nDreams.

(Image: nDreams)

Mar 24, 2026 at 9:51 am CET

3 min. read

By

Josef Erl

The multiplayer game “Frenzies” will go offline in early April. nDreams confirmed this on its official Discord server. Despite intensive efforts, they were unable to attract enough active community members to secure long-term operation. The decision was difficult, and various options were examined beforehand, the company explains there.

“Frenzies” was launched in Early Access in October 2024 for Meta Quest 3 and Quest 2. A planned release for Playstation VR2 was later canceled. nDreams Near Light, which is now being dissolved as part of a restructuring, was responsible for the development of the competitive first-person shooter. “Frenzies” is already the second prominent VR online shooter to be discontinued within a week. The Playstation-exclusive “Firewall Ultra” will only be available until September 17th.

Restructuring costs 78 jobs

The publisher and developer is in a consolidation phase that has been ongoing for two years and is already experiencing the third major wave of layoffs since 2024. Up to 78 positions are affected this time. In addition to Near Light, nDreams Compass will also be closed, leaving only Elevation as the core studio with around 120 employees out of the three nDreams studios. The Swedish company Aonic has been the owner since 2023, having acquired nDreams for 110 million US dollars.

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In 2024, CEO Patrick O’Luanaigh had already announced a new “strategic focus” and staff cuts. At the time, he cited a difficult VR game market as the reason. Despite investments, including 35 million US dollars from Aonic before the complete takeover, economic pressure apparently remained high.

Compass was only recently reformed after previous studio closures and was intended to specifically target young VR audiences who prefer social meeting places and free-to-play models. In addition to “Frenzies,” Near Light was also recently responsible for content for Meta's social VR project Horizon Worlds, which was first discontinued and then revived on a low flame.

“Frenzies” players receive farewell gifts

The remaining studio, Elevation, which was previously responsible for the production of AAA VR games, is also struggling with problems. The VR action adventure “Reach,” released in 2025, fell short of expectations. Although the highly anticipated title impressed with its elaborate staging, it suffered from technical difficulties on PC and PlayStation VR2, which severely impaired playability at times.

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For Frenzies, nDreams is planning a farewell with virtual gifts: Anyone who logs in before the end on April 7th will receive 1000 units of the in-game currency “Fundz,” and all cosmetic items will only cost one unit. Purchases made with real money can be refunded via a form.