Meta cuts over 1000 jobs in Reality Labs as focus shifts from VR to AI
https://www.socialsamosa.com/news-2/meta-cuts-jobs-in-reality-labs-focus-shifts-vr-to-ai-10998632
https://www.socialsamosa.com/news-2/meta-cuts-jobs-in-reality-labs-focus-shifts-vr-to-ai-10998632
39 Comments
AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world · 60 pts · 218d
Over $100 billion in research and investment just to go "Nah, nevermind."
markz@suppo.fi · 52 pts · 218d
Mantzy81@aussie.zone · 15 pts · 218d
Username checks out
mortemtyrannis@lemmy.ml · 18 pts · 218d
Capitalism is the most efficient system!!!
Fizz@lemmy.nz · 0 pts · 217d
Yes, it really puts into perspective how bad other economic systems are
Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 216d
Or it's a great way to cover up where 100 billion went.
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz · 29 pts · 218d
The last of the old cargo cult is finally converting to the new one.
Good now maybe indie developers can actually do something interesting with VR and begin the process of rehabilitating the destroyed perception it has gotten with the public.
calliope@retrolemmy.com · 20 pts · 218d
Actually when you put it that way, maybe Facebook can destroy all the hype around AI too!
vaderaj@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 217d
Cant wait for your words to come true. Let's go Mark you have got this AI thing
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 217d
I feel like he'd be better at it because of personal experience as one
Stupendous@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 218d
There's practically no moat right now for VR operating systems. Meta had the closest because of their studios. Wide open again for Valve and SteamOS/Linux
AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 218d
If anyone's ever going to be able to crack the secret to widespread adoption of VR, I think it'll be Valve.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 217d
In the VR modding scene for games (things like Minecraft Java edition being playable with an Index), SteamVR/OpenXR has become the defacto standard already, and in games like VRChat, the vast majority of high quality content needs a PC with SteamVR running to have it function.
VR will probably remain a dedicated niche for a long time, but innovation and embracing open standards will continue to happen :)
FishFace@piefed.social · 0 pts · 217d
It still needs to get over the hurdle of VR headsets being heavy and therefore uncomfortable, and motion sickness. There are some technological solutions that can improve motion sickness, but they're not currently practical.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 217d
It's not necessarily about weight, so much as balance. An unbalanced headset puts alll the weight on the wearer's nose and cheeks. The Steam Frame addresses this by moving the battery to the back of the user's head, making the headset significantly more balanced
hperrin@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 218d
There were over a thousand people working on it?
Beacon@fedia.io · 11 pts · 218d
That doesn't seem overly crazy to me. They were trying to quickly build out an immature platform of an immature technology. Doing that requires entire divisions for hardware, software, research, marketing, etc. and for each of those divisions there's all the associated staff of managers, hr, administrators, etc.
hperrin@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 218d
Even then, I would think it would be in the low hundreds.
Beacon@fedia.io · 2 pts · 217d
300 people working on hardware, 300 people working on software, 300 people working on various smaller aspects like basic research, marketing, quality testing, etc., and 100 people in associated staff like managers, hr, janitorial, administrators, etc.
Seems reasonable to me.
hperrin@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 217d
I don’t think that’s reasonable. 300 people full time to release 4 headsets in the last ten years? 300 people to build a custom Android version and a shitty VR chat clone?
Beacon@fedia.io · 3 pts · 217d
You may not think it's reasonable, but the evidence suggests that it is. If 100 people could do it then the market would be flooded with high quality standalone vr headset systems.
hperrin@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 217d
Valve did it with like 350 people in the whole company.
Beacon@fedia.io · 1 pts · 217d
Valve's system isn't standalone, and wasn't trying to create a whole new vr platform like fb was trying to do
Agent_Karyo@piefed.world · 7 pts · 218d
They were taking taking turns jacking off Zuckerberg (metaphorically of course ... or perhaps ...).
kibiz0r@midwest.social · 4 pts · 217d
It says it’s multiple studios, which I assume were acqui-hired. So it’s not just “VR developers”, but also UI designers, concept artists, QA, PMs, HR, IT, tech writers, community managers, sales people — maybe even localization, reception, janitors… who knows. The structure of these things can vary wildly.
Archer@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 217d
They couldn’t even get the people making it to play it in their spare time
calliope@retrolemmy.com · 1 pts · 218d
Also kinda crazy, I don’t think it says that it was 100% of their employees who were working on VR.
So it could be considerably more!
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 10 pts · 217d
And now OpenXR/SteamVR shall become the dominant standard. Hooray!
echodot@feddit.uk · 0 pts · 217d
Assuming we ever actually get a price. Still no word on that.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 217d
All headsets outside of Meta use the standard by default. OpenXR was designed to be easy to implement - Meta just took the Apple route of trying to have their own walled garden fueled by their money furnace separated from it. With that gone, there will be fewer reasons to use Meta's ecosystem over OpenXR.
Euphoma@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 217d
Meta headsets use openxr https://developers.meta.com/horizon/documentation/native/android/mobile-openxr/
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 217d
Good thing they kept the "Meta" name. Very fitting now that everyone knows they're at the end of their existence as innovators and are just Meta-slaves to whatever bubble is blowing up next.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 6 pts · 218d
when will they realize the real crypto is in virtualized ai?!
Grimpen@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 217d
The real NFTs were the AI models we saw in VR along the way.
altphoto@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 217d
I don't want any AI spy devices in my house..... They focus on AI even though nobody wants it and we all keep saying it. I want to use it at work and for things that make sense to do. I don't want it in my house because I know what its doing. Only if I actually could run my own AI thing self hosted focused on my own books and photos.
Grimpen@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 217d
Ironically Meta's Llama model that ran well self-hosted. I'm sure Meta will get around to enshittifying it eventually.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 217d
Fetch™ didn't happen so now they're on to Fetch™ 2.0
MiDaBa@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 216d
This is what happens when Valve announces their new inside out tracking headset