Joy Way’s co-op zombie survival game Fading Light launches on Meta Quest on November 12, 2026, and the studio has now confirmed it will be FREE-to-play. The announcement, posted by Joy Way on X on October 23 alongside a release date trailer, settles the one detail early coverage left open: UploadVR’s report the same day said a price had not yet been announced.
What Fading Light Is
Fading Light drops players into an open city overrun by zombies, solo or in a squad of up to FOUR. According to the Meta Horizon Store listing, the loop is scavenge, craft, build and defend: loot streets, buildings and rooftops, turn supplies into medicine and tools, expand a base with traps and turrets, then hold it against escalating hordes before pushing into new districts. The store copy names toxic zones that require a gas mask and military bases swarming with zombies among the later areas.
Movement is the studio’s calling card. Joy Way describes it as “fast, physical VR parkour” for running, jumping and climbing across the city, and the game adds parkour Time-Run challenges with leaderboards. That lineage makes sense: Joy Way previously made the parkour action games Stride and Stride: Fates, as well as Red Flowers, later renamed Catana: Red Flowers.
The game also leans into dark humor. The store listing says captured zombies can be put on treadmills to generate electricity, a zombie head can be crafted into a bat, and an infection system lets a bitten teammate decide whether to ask for an antidote or keep quiet. Custom modes include starting the whole team infected.
Key Details at a Glance
- Release date: November 12, 2026, on Meta Quest (per Joy Way and UploadVR).
- Price: free-to-play, per Joy Way’s October 23 post. In-game monetization details have not been published.
- Players: solo or co-op for up to four, per the announcement.
- Headsets: Quest 3 and Quest 3S, according to the listing tracked by Quest Store DB.
- Comfort and rating: rated Comfortable, 13+ Teen, English only, with 32 achievements listed (Quest Store DB).
- Playtest history: an open playtest ran from September 25 to September 28, 2026.
One inconsistency is worth noting: older store copy calls Fading Light a game “for 2-4 players,” while the October announcement and UploadVR describe solo play as an option. We will confirm single-player support at launch.
The Announcement
Why Free-to-Play Matters Here
Co-op survival games live or die by their player counts, and that has been a hard problem on Quest this year. Metaverse Watcher has tracked a steady run of online VR shutdowns, from Ultimechs, the tenth multiplayer VR wind-down of 2026, to the Zenith VR MMO servers going dark on December 18. Removing the upfront price is the most direct way to fill lobbies quickly, especially for a game built around four-person squads.
It also positions Fading Light differently from the paid co-op releases landing around it. PAYDAY: Aces High arrives November 5 at $24.99, and Zero Caliber 2 reaches PS VR2 the same day. Meanwhile, one of VR’s best-known zombie franchises is moving on: the next Arizona Sunshine game drops VR entirely. A free zombie shooter on Quest a week later has an opening, provided its monetization does not undercut the experience.
What to Watch Before November 12
The open questions are how Joy Way will make money from a free game (cosmetics, a battle pass or paid expansions), whether progression is tuned for solo players, and whether a PC VR or Steam release follows. The listing currently names only Quest 3 and Quest 3S, so Quest 2 owners should not count on support. If you are still choosing a headset for the holiday season, our guide to the best VR headsets of 2026 compares the current options.
Sources: Joy Way on X, UploadVR, Meta Horizon Store, Quest Store DB, Joy Way.