US EditionWell, there goes the metaverse!
Meta laid off 1,500 Reality Labs employees and closed several VR game studios to focus on AI and consumer products amid poor VR economics and declining headset sales.
- On Monday, Meta cut about 10% of Reality Labs staff and shut several VR studios, including Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel, Sanzaru, and Camouflaj.
- Meta's years of large Reality Labs spending left it with a $73,000,000,000 investment and a 17.5% decline in headset shipments in 2024, prompting cuts.
- Affected teams included Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel, Sanzaru and Camouflaj, while Supernatural, acquired for $400,000,000, moves to maintenance and Workrooms shuts down.
- Industry watchers noted the cuts' effects on developers, with Palmer Luckey, Oculus founder, saying Meta's first‑party studios crowded out third‑party developers and he felt bad for affected employees.
- Meta will now focus on AI and AI‑enabled glasses, prioritizing AI apps and Ray‑Ban AR/display glasses amid Bloomberg reporting possible production increase.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Palmer Luckey says Meta's VR layoffs aren't a 'disaster' — and fix a problem critics aren't talking about
Palmer Luckey says Meta's VR layoffs cut bloated in-house game studios that were quietly undermining the industry's ecosystem.David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty ImagesOculus founder Palmer Luckey said Meta's VR layoffs don't signal retreat from the industry.He said Meta's first-party VR studios were crowding out third-party developers across the industry.He said cutting subsidized VR games lets Meta refocus on core tech and platform stabilit…
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey defends Meta’s job cuts, calls layoffs ‘Good for VR’
New Delhi: Meta has announced another round of layoffs in its Reality Labs division, cutting around 1,500 jobs as the company recalibrates its long-term virtual reality strategy. While the move has reignited criticism around Meta’s massive bets on the metaverse, the most striking response has come from an unexpected voice, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. Luckey, who was once fired by Meta, has publicly defended the decision, calling the layoffs a …
The XR Week Peek (2026.01.20): Meta performs layoffs in VR but doubles down on smartglasses, and more!
The past few days have been pretty complicated for our XR ecosystem. In this newsletter episode, of course, I’ll talk a lot about the negative situation at Meta, but I’ll also leave space to other pieces of news… and some of them are actually pretty positive. So here you are, the most interesting XR news of the past week! Top news of the week (Image by Meta) Meta disinvests in VR and Horizon Worlds In the end, Meta did what a report teased in De…
Meta's colossal bet on virtual reality ended in a resounding failure. Last week, the technology giant fired about 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division, or 10% of the staff involved. Several development studios dedicated to VR games have also closed their doors. A dramatic turnaround ... Read more Meta's article is definitely turning the page of its virtual dream has appeared first on Fredzone.
Meta Retreats From Virtual Reality After Reality Labs Layoffs And Studio Closures
Meta has scaled back its long-running push into virtual reality, laying off roughly 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division and shutting down several internal VR game studios, according to The Wall Street Journal. The cuts represent about 10% of the unit’s staff and mark a sharp reversal for a company that rebranded itself around the metaverse vision just four years ago. From Rebrand To Retrenchment Meta rebranded from Facebook in 2021, p…
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