- Meta finally addresses its VR layoffs
- Reality Labs CTO also explains his new focus on glasses
- …and suggested that its metaverse has a new home on mobile
Meta Reality Labs CTO Andrew Bosworth has spoken publicly about recent major VR layoffs at the company, and it really seems like Meta doesn’t care about VR anymore, but its metaverse still seems like a top priority.
While in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum, Axios interviewed Bosworth, and almost instantly the discussion turned to the major restructuring we’ve all seen at Reality Labs, which caused the division to close several virtual reality game studios.
Bosworth explained that Meta’s VR approach has been to build a space with something for everyone, but this “lack of focus comes at the expense of user experience and a huge expense in terms of development cost.”
Look
So Meta’s new plan is, as Bosworth says, “We’re going to let VR be what it is, what it does very well. We’re going to focus a lot more on the third-party content library, the ecosystem that’s developed there.”
The CTO of Meta Reality Labs continues to argue that Reality Labs is not downsizing. Instead, that investment is shifting to focus on its eyewear, the area in which it is seeing the most growth. This is consistent with previous comments Meta has made about his continued approach to Reality Labs’ efforts.
Something familiar on the Horizon?
What’s interesting is a part of Bosworth’s answer that I clipped above. After discussing how Meta allows “VR to be what it is, what it makes cool” and how that means driving third-party development, he then adds, “and with Horizon we’re focusing a lot more on mobile.”
Horizon is the metaverse of Meta and, although it was initially conceived for virtual reality, it is also accessible on PC and mobile devices.
Interestingly, he also serves as Meta’s closest rival to one of his biggest rivals on social media. I’m not talking about TikTok, I’m talking about Roblox.
Ask anyone under the age of 12 about this gaming platform and they won’t be able to say a word for about an hour. It’s this massive online gaming platform that, like Horizon Worlds, offers a wealth of ever-evolving user-created spaces to explore and play.
In recent years, both platforms have also seen a rise in sponsored and brand collaborations, as well as hosting major concerts and live events taking place in virtual worlds.
To that end, they are not just games; They are a very interactive and adaptable form of social network that does not simply chase fads, but generates them. However, as you can imagine, Roblox has a much larger user base than Horizon based on available figures.
That said, with a shift toward a more mobile-centric approach, as discussed by Bosworth, making the gaming platform more accessible to younger users who can’t be trusted with a PC or VR headset, Meta perhaps hopes to close the gap between itself and Roblox.
Given the lackluster response to Horizon in VR, it remains to be seen whether these efforts will be more successful in the mobile sphere, but at least VR fans can appreciate the silver lining that Horizon may not push as much into VR in the future, and an upcoming update seems to confirm just that.
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