I found it interesting how Meta made a decision regarding Horizon Worlds. Basically, people complained a lot that they would shut down the VR headsets, and then CTO Andrew Bosworth confirmed that no, they will keep access for the existing games. But here’s the point: they will not develop anything new for VR. Their current focus is on mobile, where their metaverse is gaining more traction.

And it makes sense to understand why this shift is happening. Reality Labs, the division responsible for all of Meta’s metaverse initiatives, has been burning money for years. We’re talking about over $80 billion in operational losses since 2020. I mean, the division has never come close to being profitable. So much so that in January, they had to cut around 1,500 employees to try to control the bleeding.

Samantha Ryan, who is the vice president of Content there, made it clear that this move to mobile is precisely to capitalize on the positive momentum happening in that space. It makes sense for Meta to pivot to where the metaverse is actually working better with users, instead of continuing to pour billions into VR that isn’t taking off as they hoped.