Relax, grown-ups: VR is doing fine

"When news broke last week that Meta may cut the budget of its Meta Reality Labs unit by as much as 30 percent, followed by reports that the company is delaying the release of future headsets, pundits immediately jumped on this to proclaim that the metaverse, and by extension VR, is dead. "Meta slashes budget as VR dream implodes," declared IBT, and Bob O'Donnell from Technalysis Research argued that "VR was never the right choice.""

"That discussion got muddied by the fact that both Meta and its critics often use the terms metaverse and VR interchangeably. Reality Labs is widely being described as the company's metaverse unit, although it now makes AR and AI wearables, VR hardware, and the company's Horizon Worlds metaverse platform. Ever since rebranding as Meta, the company has also described a wide range of bets on immersive tech as metaverse-related, with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth insisting this week that the metaverse would even"

There are more VR users than ever, yet the majority do not resemble the industry's ideal customers. Meta may cut the Meta Reality Labs budget by up to 30 percent and is reportedly delaying future headset releases. Those developments prompted declarations that the metaverse and VR are failing. The terms metaverse and VR are frequently used interchangeably, complicating public understanding. Reality Labs currently produces AR and AI wearables, VR hardware, and the Horizon Worlds platform. The Meta rebrand expanded the company's classification of many immersive-technology efforts as metaverse-related.

Read at The Verge