Meta is closing down three VR studios as part of its metaverse cuts

[brobot9000@lemmy.world]

I’ll celebrate every aspect of the scam that is Metaverse and the oculus rift dying off.

Like any other studio bought by a big corporation this is the inevitable outcome and I wish the best for the employees that had no say in the matter.

[makingstuffforfun@lemmy.ml]

The metaverse was always going to be a flop.

I get why devs jumped in, for that sweet Facebook cash injection.

But, gotta be realists here. It was always going to fail, and it was easy free money until that point.

[righthandofikaros@lemmy.world]

That's probably a lot of lost jobs.

[superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Always. Buying hardware from Facebook just feels gross to a lot of people, even those that dont even really care about privacy.

[skooma_king@piefed.social]

So, they were still throwing tons of resources into this years after it flopped?

[zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone]

"Flop", to me, implies some sort of jump. "Metaverse" just kinda rolled off the edge of a cliff immediately, like a dog shitting on a frozen hill.

[parlimentofdoom@piefed.zip]

Oh look, that completely predictable outcome of an obviously stupid fucking idea, that people still felt the need to argue with me about so many years ago despite it being obviously doomed for failure.

Can Facebook unsteal the name now?

[chozo@fedia.io]

It's not like Meta just shut down some random game studios. They chose to get into bed with Meta. This was the most predictable outcome.

[luminous5481@anarchist.nexus]

they took the meta out of Meta

[breadstickninja@lemmy.world]

I've always appreciated that they stole the name from Snow Crash. Like Zuck completely unironically named his company after a technological dystopian hellscape infected with a virus that destroys people's brains. Honestly, I don't think there's a better name for Facebook.

[tacosanonymous@mander.xyz]

Did he say he named it for that? Bc I can totally believe he has no idea what Snow Crash is.

[saharamaleikuhm@feddit.org]

You'd think they would lose a lot of money making all those shit investments, but then America is the upside down and nothing makes sense over there.

[breadstickninja@lemmy.world]

I mean, Neal Stephenson coined the term "metaverse" to reference a virtual world not limited to gaming but to all kinds of business and commerce and social interactions.

Zuck's concept for the metaverse was basically the same thing. I'd be surprised if the connection wasn't intentional.

[c1pher@lemmy.world]

Why not shut it all down?

[aielman15@lemmy.world]

It's a bug in our simulation. If you're poor and you lose a little money, you go bankrupt. But if you're rich and you burn a fuckton of money, you can buffer overflow into richness and go back on top.

[alcoholicorn@mander.xyz]

completely predictable outcome of an obviously stupid fucking idea

Nah, it could have worked if Meta started by

1. sell the hardware to businesses and schools at a loss, with a requirement users be able to take the sets home.

2. Publish standards to allow all apps to have multiplayer and compatible full body avatars, same control scheme, movement, etc.

3. buying up VRChat and any other apps with a large user base, refactoring them for compatibility.

4. Develop and release free multiuser apps, from virtual office/meetings to virtual movies to home decor.

Somehow FB didn't even try to exploit the same effects that forced everyone into Apple, MS, and FB.

To be clear, its for the best, the end result of FB giving out millions of headsets at a loss would have been making even more money selling much more precise user data, and virtual nikes and shit.

[maxie@lemmy.world]

Companies like meta and Amazon can’t be trusted with gaming, it’s just a silly side project to them. If I was working at a studio acquired by either I would be shit scared for the studios longevity.

[tigeroovy@lemmy.ca]

Yeah time to start saving as much as you can if they buy you, if you weren’t already doing so.

Then you’ll at least have something for when the inevitable comes.

[tigeroovy@lemmy.ca]

Even better they should sell the oculus tech to someone else who might give a damn.

[tehworld@lemmy.world]

But also 100% predictable. Sad, but not unexpected.

For reference, I could absolutely take a job in the next couple weeks with a $50k signing bonus where I get to shoot people in the face with impunity, but I also know that the Nuremberg Trials were a thing. Also, I’m not a horrible human.