Metaverse on its last legs

"Meta, which is to say Facebook, laid off 1,500 or so employees from its Reality Labs division. A vast pool of talent wasted on Mark Zuckerberg's bet on virtual reality, it draws down a project that reportedly cost the company more than $77bn over five years. "We said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward wearables," a spokesman for Meta told the WSJ. "This is part of that effort.""

"But the tech hype flowed downstream of business hype ("the metaverse will create virtual lives for everyone for a new era in social and digital media," shat the Business Review at Berkeley, hopefully for money) and those famously legless avatars made it a joke from day one. It became a "deserted fantasyland" devoid of human interaction. With Facebook firmly entrenched as one of two or three universal advertising landlords,"

Meta cut about 1,500 Reality Labs employees while drawing down a multibillion-dollar metaverse project that reportedly cost more than $77 billion over five years. The company said it is shifting investment from the Metaverse toward wearables and AI. The metaverse effort suffered low engagement, legless avatars, and became perceived as a "deserted fantasyland" lacking human interaction. Meta's Ray-Ban AR glasses have gained consumer interest with hands-free recording, music streaming, and Meta AI chat, prompting consideration of doubling production. Ray-Ban Display was introduced with a right-lens app display but international plans were paused amid unprecedented demand and forecasting issues.

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