Well, there goes the metaverse!
Meta is significantly scaling back its metaverse ambitions, laying off 10% of Reality Labs staff and closing VR studios in favor of focusing on AI.Summary
Meta has reportedly laid off about 1,500 employees, or 10% of its Reality Labs division, and shut down several VR game studios, marking a major reversal of its 2021 pivot to the metaverse. This deprioritization follows massive losses, with the company funneling $73 billion into the division without achieving profitability, and is being driven by a shift in focus toward Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The metaverse vision, which included the Horizon Worlds app and VR headsets, suffered from poor product execution (like unappealing avatars) and middling consumer demand, evidenced by declining global VR headset shipments. Furthermore, Meta alienated potential developers by planning to charge a high 47.5% fee on digital asset sales, significantly more than Apple or Google's standard fees. Safety concerns were also prominent, with features like the 'Personal Boundary' only being implemented reactively after reports of sexual harassment in Horizon Worlds.
Conversely, Meta's investments in augmented reality (AR) and AI hardware, such as the Ray-Ban AR glasses, are seeing increased consumer interest and demand. This success, coupled with the broader industry trend toward AI hardware as the next computing platform, makes it difficult for Meta to justify continued massive spending on VR, leading the company to concentrate resources on AI, large language models, and successful hardware like the Ray-Ban glasses.
(Source：TechCrunch)