It would appear Meta isn’t done laying off more of its workforce as it shifts focus from creating the Metaverse to AI. It’s been reported by multiple outlets that the company is making cuts across multiple departments, including Facebook, sales, recruiting, and its VR division, Reality Labs. But while that happens, it seems Meta isn’t actually done trying to make the best VR headsets yet.
At GDC this month, Meta’s director of games, Chris Pruett said, “Our investment in Meta Quest and games for Quest remains very high.
“We’ve a lot going on – new hardware, new audiences, new games. And though we have some welcome competition, Meta remains the biggest investor in VR in the world by a large margin,” reports GamesIndustry.Biz.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the fresh round of layoffs told the press: “Teams across Meta regularly restructure or implement changes to ensure they’re in the best position to achieve their goals. Where possible, we are finding other opportunities for employees whose positions may be impacted”.
This all follows an initial round of layoffs at Reality Labs in January, during which Meta closed its three biggest game development studios that made Deadpool VR, Asgard’s Wrath, and Resident Evil 4 VR.
It’s definitely amber and red flags all over the shop for Meta’s future in VR at the moment. It seems as though the big seller Zuckerberg’s company wants to chase is its smart glasses, not necessarily the Quest headsets we know and love. The company’s CEO even told investors at the start of the year that Reality Labs would be focusing on “glasses and wearables” from now on in an attempt to “make VR a profitable ecosystem over the coming years”. But new Meta Quest headsets do seem to be on the way; they could just be taking a very different approach from the Quest 3 and 3S.
Rumors I reported on earlier in the week seem to suggest the next Quest headset will use Micro-OLED displays, which are a lot pricier than Meta’s previous norm of LCD displays. This would put the upcoming Quest 4 or Quest Pro 2 in line with more luxurious spatial computing devices like Apple Vision Pro, GalaxyXR, or Pico’s upcoming Project Swan.
But then again, as GamesIndustry.Biz reports, Pruett seemed to have an optimistic outlook when delivering his talk at GDC when touching on the recent Horizon Worlds controversy: “The cycle of experiment-learn-adjustment is typical for Meta. We are cautious not to make assumptions we cannot prove, and when our assumptions are disproved, we change course.
“But it’s also important for our developer community to understand that we are listening, and their feedback on this particular aspect of our store played a significant role in our decision making.”
The VR market for gaming definitely seems to be in a bit of a limbo phase right now. While we anxiously await the arrival of the Steam Frame, which could give the entire sector an uplift, bigger players like Meta and PlayStation aren’t exactly giving clear-cut signs of doubling down.
It’s amber and red flags for PC gamers at the moment too. Check out the best RAM for gaming, the best SSD for gaming, and the best CPU for gaming.