Meta closed several VR studios that created its "meta universe"
Meta has closed three of its VR studios that were working on content for the «metaverse» that Mark Zuckerberg wanted to build a few years ago.
Meta has closed three of its VR studios that were working on content for the «metaverse» that Mark Zuckerberg wanted to build a few years ago.
The closures were announced by employees of Armature, Sanzaru and Twisted Pixel. Twisted Pixel, which released Marvel’s Deadpool VR in November, and Sanzaru, known for Asgard’s Wrath, posted announcements of the closures on social media.
Armature, which released Resident Evil 4 for Quest in 2021, has also closed, and the popular VR fitness app Supernatural will no longer be updated.
«Due to recent organizational changes at our studio, Supernatural will no longer receive new content or feature updates starting today,» the company wrote in an update on Facebook.
«We said last month that we were moving some of our investments from Metaverse to Wearables. This is part of that effort, and we plan to reinvest the savings to support the growth of the wearables market this year,» a Meta spokesperson told Engadget.
Meta seems to be losing interest in supporting the VR ecosystem it has invested heavily in. The company hasn’t announced any new VR headsets since the Quest 3S was released in 2024, and last month it «paused» planned Horizon OS headsets from Asus and Lenovo. It’s also now abandoning in-house game development.
«With this change, we are shifting our investments to focus on third-party developers and partners to ensure long-term sustainability,» says Oculus Studios Director Tamara Schiamanna.
In 2021, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a recruitment drive to build a virtual reality «metaverse» with digital avatars. To make this happen, Zuckerberg announced the layoff of 11,000 employees in November 2022.
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