Meta Shuts 3 VR Studios and Lays Off Hundreds of Devs as It Pivots From Virtual Reality and the Metaverse to AI

Meta is laying disconnected astir 10% of unit astatine its Reality Labs part arsenic portion of sweeping cuts acceptable to impact much than 1,000 people. This includes the closure of a fig of VR-first studios, specified arsenic Twisted Pixel, the workplace down Deadpool VR, Resident Evil 4 VR developer Armature Studio, and Asgard's Wrath maker, Sanzaru Games. According to Bloomberg, the cuts travel arsenic Meta pivots distant from the Metaverse towards AI, phones, and wearable tech.

The cuts travel conscionable implicit 4 years aft Facebook changed its sanction to Meta and went large connected virtual world and the Metaverse.

Letters reportedly went retired yesterday (Tuesday, January 13) morning, and developers from the impacted studios shared their daze connected societal media passim the day.

"I've conscionable been laid off. It appears the full Twisted Pixel games workplace has been unopen down. Sanzaru Games, too," 1 present erstwhile subordinate of unit said, portion a decorator wrote: "unfortunately, I was portion of the layoffs contiguous astatine Meta, and volition beryllium seeking a caller role. To my Twisted Pixel Games family: it was an grant to enactment alongside you for 3.5 years and vessel Marvel's Deadpool VR. We made thing truly peculiar unneurotic and nary 1 tin ever instrumentality that away."

Twisted Pixel is the workplace down a fig of fashionable Xbox Live Arcade games, specified arsenic 2009's The Maw and 'Splosion Man. It became a portion of Microsoft Studios successful 2011, and went connected to merchandise Xbox 360 Kinect-exclusive shooter The Gunstringer, and Xbox One crippled LocoCycle, earlier becoming an autarkic institution again successful 2015 and moving into VR crippled development.

Meta lone acquired Armature and Twisted Pixel successful precocious 2022, and Sanzaru successful 2020. However, it is present seemingly shedding overmuch of its interior VR concern arsenic Meta scrambles to retrieve billion-dollar losses and pivot to AI.

In a statement, Meta confirmed the 3 workplace closures: "we said past period that we were shifting immoderate of our concern from Metaverse toward Wearables. This is portion of that effort, and we program to reinvest the savings to enactment the maturation of wearables this year."

According to Reuters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg prioritized and spent heavy connected the Metaverse, lone for the concern to pain much than $60 cardinal since 2020. The Reality Labs concern besides produces Meta's Quest mixed-reality headsets. According to CNBC, Meta isn’t abandoning VR entirely. It is present courting developers who physique games for Roblox to physique experiences for Horizon Worlds.

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.