"We’ve shifted more of our resources onto a smaller number of high priority growth areas [like] our long-term vision for the metaverse"
Imagine laying off eleven thousand people so you can keep clinging to the disintegrating corpse of the metaverse.
Imagine laying off eleven thousand people so you can keep clinging to the disintegrating corpse of the metaverse.
So you get "Horizon" and its assortment of low-quality games that feel more like a tech demo than an actual world that you could lose yourself in.
Also, the initial launch of iPhone didn’t support apps or Flash (i.e. no porno videos on the web!), and the App Store has never supported deviant communities. Apple’s policies probably precipitated Tumblr’s no nudity moderation.
If Facebook had quietly (and they were for the longest time!) continued to work on Oculus and done some internal skunkworks projects, instead of a big PR push and a company rename, maybe they could pull an iPhone.
Personally, I think they drank the meta verse koolaid to get everyone to stop talking about election interference and other things that were being blamed on them, and I think it mostly worked.
What examples are you thinking of? Did this happen with the PC or smartphone?
- The "public" Internet, although since I used the word "deviant" people might not like me giving it as an example.
- Social media in general, which again not necessarily deviant, but before it reached critical mass a lot of people just found it weird and privacy invasive. I distinctly remember my family making fun of people posting their thoughts on early Twitter.
- eCommerce, was considered strange as you would put your CC information on some random website.
- Video games were for nerds and losers, now most people have an Xbox/Playstation.
- Drone/RC plane community was much more weird before the likes of DJI which lowered the bar significantly.
- More recently remote work was usually for a small portion of workers and people commonly said you had to be a certain type of person for it to work at all. Fast forward a pandemic and remote meetings are common and even requested by would-be employees.
I feel like there a fallacy somewhere in my arguments for sure, but there definitely seems to be a trend where things are weird, dumb and strange until they just aren't by reaching critical mass. Strapping a screen to your face to play video games and chat with people is definitely one of those until it isn't and I'd bet that within 10 years it will be already much more common.
How can you call it a disintegrating corpse when it's been in the public eye for what, a few months? I don't get it.
They are really desperate to own the next big thing. Whether that'll be VR, who knows.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/heres-why-the-facebook-phon...
Also, same thing happened when Amazon tried releasing the Fire Phone. I think a combination of being carrier exclusive and using sub-optimal hardware was a big contributing factor to both their demise.
If they rolled their own OS they'd have to spend a lot of effort building and maintaining that platform. If Microsoft and Amazon can't will a third phone platform into existence Facebook definitely can't.
Their $10B metaverse spend is a waste but I think it would have been a waste on a phone as well.
The key to me it seems would be in the audio. Like if I turn to face someone, the audio adjusts so everything else in virtual room get quieter (but still audible). I can have a conversation with the person I'm facing. Multiple conversations can go on at once. Just like in a real room!
Anybody know if this is something that current state of the metaverse supports? Is this something being actively researched and developed?
He could ride the facebook ship into the sunset and have it die 20 years from now.
But no, he's betting big and going for broke. I hope he succeeds just for the sheer stones he's displaying. Really inspiring to see a man aim so high.
What are you working on that’s more fascinating than VR?
Edit: why did you use a throwaway to reply to my comment?