Inven Global (John Popko, September 28, 2026) reports that Meta has opened an early-access WAITLIST for Horizon Create and Horizon Studio — two AI tools that turn a plain-language PROMPT into a playable 2D or 3D mobile game. The pair sits on the AGENTIC creation stack inside the Meta Horizon Engine, not on another Meta VR Glasses hardware pitch.
Create on PHONE, Studio in the BROWSER
Horizon Create is a STANDALONE mobile app. Creators start from a written IDEA or a TEMPLATE, then reshape art style, characters, STORY, and progression by describing changes. Builds run in the BACKGROUND so you can keep playing other titles and get a NOTIFICATION when a build is ready to PLAYTEST. Several projects can sit in flight at once.
Horizon Studio lives in a web browser. Meta says there is nothing to install and no gaming PC required. It keeps the same natural-language prompting and adds VISUAL editing: arrange scenes by hand, swap ASSETS, tune script parameters, and reshape spatial layouts. One prompt can restyle environment, characters, and LIGHTING together. Both surfaces share a BACKEND, so assets, systems, and ITERATION history move freely between phone and desk.
FEEDS, SAFETY, and the Creator FUND
Once published, games become eligible for DISTRIBUTION on Facebook, Instagram, and Horizon. Meta’s example, quoted by Inven Global: an Instagram user taps a CLIP and joins a MULTIPLAYER session within seconds — no DOWNLOAD and no redirect. Discovery, Meta says, favors titles that stay engaging, STABLE, and culturally relevant, and that keep players RETURNING; weaker games get DEPRIORITIZED. For how Horizon works on the player side, see what Horizon Worlds is and how to play it.
Inven Global also stresses the SAFETY path that sits beside the waitlist pitch. Generated content passes through Meta’s content safety systems before it reaches players. Games are REVIEWED before publish. Each title receives an AUTOMATED age rating and lands in an age-appropriate TIER. Existing Horizon youth protections, including parental supervision through Family CENTER, still apply. Creators can earn through in-game MONETIZATION and the Meta Horizon Creator Fund, with more monetization detail still to come.
Waitlist NOW, broader access soon
Saxs Persson, VP of Horizon at Meta, put the goal plainly: if you have a great idea for a game, you should build it and put it in front of PLAYERS without months spent on tools, HARDWARE, and marketing. Both tools are in TESTING with Meta’s creator community. Early access will roll out GRADUALLY; broader access opens “soon,” with no firm public date. Meta also pointed creators to Connect session recordings on how the tools work, how games grow on Horizon, and the Creator Program.
Primary sources for this note: Inven Global (Sep 28), Meta’s Horizon OS Developers Connect recap, and The Verge / Unite.AI on the same waitlist. For Metaverse Watcher readers, this is the SOFTWARE distribution story — PROMPT to playable game to FEED — distinct from today’s Meta VR Glasses hardware roundups.