Meta's failure in VR is a lesson for all
There are very many news today but here's one that caught my attention:
Meta plans to cut around 10 percent of the employees in its Reality Labs division
I'm no expert in VR but I have been following VR news since the original Oculus Rift Kickstarter piqued my interest. To say that this turn of events is surprising would be a lie. The Quest may be the best selling VR headset but it is still kept afloat by Meta's deep pockets and willingness to take losses in pursuit of market share. Their gamble to lock the platform and imprison users in its shiny new walled garden has not paid off. The Quest is not the failure; Horizon Worlds is.
Anyone remember the day Facebook rebranded to Meta and big nerd Zuckerberg tried to convince us he was cool? When he tried to hype up the metaverse and the only thing that the company had the imagination to showcase was a virtual work environment? What came out of it all was a mediocre VR headset and a barren virtual world where no one wanted to hang out. Even the legs were missing. All because Meta thought people dream of having work meetings in VR...
It is unbelievable how little these capitalists understand design, user experience, culture. In my opinion, this is further evidence that the tech giants of today got where they are by luck, by being at the right place at the right time, or by exploiting others; definitely not by vision or innovation. They are just good at marketing, cons and acquisitions. Why else would they tie their whole VR experience to a Facebook account at a time when people are fleeing Facebook in droves?
These people are not going to bring about the next digital revolution at the scale of the smartphone or the internet. Only those who understand the need for openness and decentralization, who understand culture and human behavior, the allure of both the real and virtual worlds, can bring about the next such revolution.
The company poured billions in VR and AR and, now, it is pouring billions into the next shiny object, the next over-hyped technology trend. Let's see if they will at least keep the name.