It has been a sensationally bad week and change for virtual reality and the Meta Quest series in particular, but claims Meta is abandoning the field are overstated, says VR pioneer Palmer Luckey.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey posted an interesting argument on X surrounding the recent studios closures and staffing cuts over at Meta, which focused on VR game studios and the company’s Reality Labs division.
While some commentators have made the point there would not be games of the scale and quality of Asgard’s Wrath 2 without Meta’s pushing of expensive internal development projects, Luckey says these changes will pan out to be a net positive.
“This is a good thing for the long-term health of the industry, especially the ongoing incentives,” Luckey wrote on X.
That may stick in the craw of those more focused on the reported “1,500 job cuts” of recent moves at Meta, but there is nuance to Luckey’s argument.
He argues Meta’s outsize investment has made it difficult for any third-party developers to stand out and thrive.
“Every developer big and small, even the hyper-efficient ones, have had an extremely hard time competing with games developed by Meta-owned teams with budgets and teams that spend vastly in excess of earning potential,” writes Luckey.
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Meta’s Reality Labs division has made losses of more than $70 billion since it was established in 2021. And while that encompasses the giant’s VR, AR and Metaverse operations, it is indicative of how Meta has not made immediate profit a priority in this area, instead spending big to establish a presence.
Luckey isn’t entirely defending Meta here. “Nobody at Meta knows I am making this post,” he claims, and says that the company’s acquisition of studios like Twisted Pixel — now closed — was ultimately a bad move.
He also highlights that, somewhat weakening other elements of his argument, Reality Labs’s lay-offs aren’t as big as they may sound.
“10% layoffs is basically six months of normal churn concentrated into 60 days, strictly numbers wise,” he says.
Who Is Palmer Luckey?
Palmer Luckey was the founder of Oculus VR, the virtual reality company acquired by Meta in 2014 for $2 billion. There is a direct familial line between Oculus’s early headsets and today’s Meta Quest 3.
He was fired by Facebook in 2017, which he claims was linked to a $10,000 donation made to a “pro-Trump group.”
Luckey has since founded defence technology specialist Anduril, which has partnered with Meta on military projects including a headset designed to be worn by soldiers on the battlefield.