Joshua Hendren

"Meta Shifts Focus: Horizon Worlds Goes Mobile 🌐️" • Meta is abandoning its attempt to create a single metaverse platform for VR and mobile devices • Instead, they'll explicitly separate Quest VR from Worlds, focusing almost exclusively on mobile • The move aims to allow Meta to better compete with platforms like Roblox and Fortnite by delivering synchronous social games at scale As the metaverse landscape continues to evolve, it's exciting to see how Meta's new strategy plays out. By shifting its focus to mobile and supporting third-party developers, the company may be poised to capitalize on the growing demand for online social gaming and entertainment. #Meta #Metaverse #HorizonWorlds #MobileGaming #SocialGaming https://lnkd.in/gSwxxPi7

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Meta's Metaverse Leaves Virtual Reality: Meta is pivoting Horizon Worlds away from its original VR-centric metaverse vision and toward a mobile-first strategy, "explicitly separating" its Quest VR platform from the virtual world. TechCrunch reports: By going mobile-first, Horizon Worlds is positioning itself to compete with popular platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. "We're in a strong position to deliver synchronous social games at scale, thanks to our unique ability to connect those games with billions of people on the world's biggest social networks," Samantha Ryan, Reality Labs' VP of content, said in the blog post. "You saw this strategy start to unfold in 2025, and now, it's our main focus." Ryan went on to note that Meta is still focused on VR hardware. "We have a robust roadmap of future VR headsets that will be tailored to different audience segments as the market grows and matures," Ryan wrote. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Meta earnings call last week: ➡️ Their core business is ripping (+26% yr-over-yr rev), powered by AI ➡️ Dropping $70B+ on CapEx this year, mostly AI infrastructure related As for Reality Labs, cumulative loss crossed the $70B mark since 2020 but they don't seem to be taking their foot off the gas. Zuck on the new glasses, "They sold out in almost every store within 48 hours ... This is an area where we're clearly leading and have a huge opportunity ahead." Their Reality Labs losses (image below) and AI investment numbers sound wild, but they almost cleared $30B in cash flow from ops last Q, so they can actually continue to foot the bill. Zuck on glasses opportunity, "I think that there’s some revenue that we get from basically selling the devices and then some that will come from additional services and from the AI on top of it." Just my quarterly PSA of the Oculus acquisition thesis in 2014, they continue to march forward focused on owning the hardware ... so they can generate the ad revenue. (ie insert your favorite Black Mirror episode 😎 ) Notable: no material discussion of the future of VR #meta #spatialcomputing #metaquest #ai #aiglasses

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Bloomberg reports that Meta is expected to make up to 30% in budget cuts to its metaverse initiatives within its Reality Labs division. The report states that the cut will likely include layoffs from the division as early as January. Meta's Reality Labs division has lost more than $70 billion since 2021. The Metaverse products in Meta's portfolio include Quest VR headsets, Horizon Worlds, and its Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Meta's stock is up 4% as of 10:30am ET. #meta #metaverse #realitylabs #VR #questVR

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Meta has decided to end its significant investment in virtual reality. The company laid off around 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division and closed several VR game studios. Meta's shift away from the metaverse comes as it focuses more on AI and other technologies like its Ray-Ban AR glasses. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eVHE_4dV 📨 Subscribe to one of our AI Newsletters: https://lnkd.in/eyGr2uhM #ai #artificialintelligence #ainews

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Hello, Horizon Create and Horizon Studio! At Connect, we introduced two new tools built on the agentic capabilities of the Meta Horizon Engine. Both enable creators to turn any idea into a complete 2D or 3D mobile game, complete with progression systems, balanced difficulty, art direction, multiplayer, and more. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gZEP77JX

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Meta is eliminating roughly 1,500 roles from its Reality Labs division—representing approximately 10 percent of the unit's workforce—marking a major retreat from its flagship metaverse vision. As part of the restructuring, the company shuttered three internal virtual reality game studios, including Twisted Pixel, Armature Studio, and Sanzaru Games, while scaling back resources for its Horizon Worlds VR platform. The workforce reductions follow mounting financial pressures, with Reality Labs accumulating over $77 billion in losses since 2020. In response, Meta is reallocating capital away from immersive virtual reality hardware and headsets to focus heavily on AI-powered wearables, such as its smart glasses lineup developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. The strategic shift underlines how major tech firms are winding down capital-intensive metaverse projects to fund frontline AI hardware, software integrations, and custom silicon development. News Source: Futurism / Wall Street Journal / IGN #meta #realitylabs #metaverse #layoffs #vr #ai #tech #wearables #businessdor

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