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Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access June 15

engadget.com

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Re: Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access June 15

#151

Post by arppacket »

NickC25 wrote: post #94
KaiserPro wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the failure isn't Zuckerberg's alone. I used to work at meta, I was in one of the many research teams that were upstream of horizon. The Failure was pretty much entirely Zuck's fault, in the same way that when a ship smashes into rocks, its the captain's responsibility. The first big problem is that there was never a clear definition of what "the metaverse" was mean to be. It was a pivot that kinda appear after…

>Zuck can't product for shit He never could. That's why he just buys everything.

I wonder why he didnt just buy his way into this too. I guess Valve wasn't up for sale haha.

But he could have tried the VRChat folks, and Bigscreen. I guess he bought the Beat Saber folks, but he probably needed to buy a big game studio and maybe one with experience shipping successful MMORPGs.

Re: Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access June 15

#152

Post by jorvi »

paxys wrote: post #136
jonny_eh wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They needed to rename the company anyway to get away from bad press. It worked. I think they're quite happy with their current name.

Yup. The Facebook brand was long dead, and Meta is a good tech name even outside of AR/VR or metaverse. The fact that no one calls the company Facebook anymore shows that the rebrand was successful.

Very few outside of tech call it Meta. Just like no one calls Alphabet "Alphabet", they just say "Google".

Re: Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access June 15

#153

Post by jfoster »

babypuncher wrote: post #52
jfoster wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meta essentially made a sequel to Second Life. I've always been blown away by the fact that they didn't more fully pursue VR gaming. I think they could have found a more enthusiastic audience.

VR will probably always be pretty niche for gaming. Even with affordable headsets, there is still a lot of friction to their daily usage that limits their appeal - VR sickness - Lack of physical space in people's homes - Don't really work as a shared experience without multiple headsets On top of that, this company in particular is Facebook. Nobody likes Facebook.

You're not wrong, but it also seems the most plausible use of VR for now. Those shortcomings also apply to Horizon Worlds.

Re: Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access June 15

#155

Post by nerptastic »

paxys wrote: post #136
jonny_eh wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They needed to rename the company anyway to get away from bad press. It worked. I think they're quite happy with their current name.

Yup. The Facebook brand was long dead, and Meta is a good tech name even outside of AR/VR or metaverse. The fact that no one calls the company Facebook anymore shows that the rebrand was successful.

I still see people refer to “FAANG” regularly. Though, there have been times I’ve read “MAANG”… doesn’t quite feel the same.

Re: Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access June 15

#157

Post by anvuong »

jorvi wrote: post #152
paxys wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. The Facebook brand was long dead, and Meta is a good tech name even outside of AR/VR or metaverse. The fact that no one calls the company Facebook anymore shows that the rebrand was successful.

Very few outside of tech call it Meta. Just like no one calls Alphabet "Alphabet", they just say "Google".

It's very different though. Alphabet was created more for financial book keeping. Google apps have no Alphabet branding. On the other hand, Meta was created because the Facebook brand was down in the rabbit hole, almost every product of it has the Meta branding prominently displayed.

Anecdotal but my parents know about Meta, because they use FB/Messenger daily. They have no idea what Alphabet is.

Re: Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access June 15

#158

Post by anvuong »

stephc_int13 wrote: post #6

This one should be studied in management schools. I'm not sure I have ever witnessed such a comprehensive industrial failure in the software world. There were some discussions about Facebook's ability to pull it off, but not that long ago, many still saw the "metaverse" vision as inevitable; a clear trajectory for the future of the internet. And the failure isn't Zuckerberg's alone. Microsoft, Apple, and a good many…

> many still saw the "metaverse" vision as inevitable

TBH, people who don't use VR probably think it inevitable due to all the ads, marketing, and especially movies' romanticized of the virtual world. People who actually bought a headset and put it on their faces know this shit will never become mainstream in the current form factor.

Re: Meta will shut down VR Horizon Worlds access June 15

#160

Post by Telaneo »

About time. I guess there are worse things Facebook could have spent their money on?

I remember saying to someone one day that while Facebook kind of seems to be going places with their VR hardware, their software division were just reinventing Nintendo Miis, but worse. Anyone who actually cared about doing VR social stuff were going to use VRChat, as that was a much better product.

Even then, if you just look at Facebook's VR hardware in a vacuum, sure, it got better, pretty good even, but not to the point of appealing beyond niche groups, i.e. VR gamers and people who use VRChat, and making VR appealing beyond those groups is a thing I don't think is going to happen.

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