Facebook (which had gone to all the trouble and expense of rebranding as Meta during this ridiculous hype cycle) has dropped literally hundreds of millions of dollars into acquiring Oculus and trying to build a business metaverse platform, and failed to even to entice its own employees into using it (let alone anybody else)…
I predict that we are going to see a “metaverse winter,” much like the previous “AI winters,” when the initial promise and hype of the technology hits what the Gartner Group politely calls “the trough of disillusionment.” And I predict we are going to see a lot more shutdown announcements like this throughout 2026.
Well, guess what? Once again, I am late in reporting this, but Meta has finally shut down its Horizons Workrooms product, a social VR platform intended for business use. According to a Road to VR news report by Scott Hayden, Horizon Workroom’s final day was Feb. 16th, 2026.
This is hardly a surprise. As I said up top, I don’t think anybody was using Workrooms. I wrote about the launch of the open beta of Workrooms in August 2021, at a time when Facebook Horizon (as it was then called) was still in closed, invitation-only beta. One neat feature is that it allowed you to bring your physical keyboard into the virtual space via keyboard tracking (this only worked for certain models of keyboard, though). One month later, they announced a collaboration with Zoom, but I don’t know if that went anywhere.
For existing users, Meta has not announced a direct replacement for Workrooms; the company suggests users look into third-party apps such as Arthur, Microsoft Teams Immersive and Zoom Workplace.
Oh, and Meta has also been shelving projects, and laying off staff in its Reality Labs division, according to Scott’s article and CNBC. So it would appear that our metaverse winter is now in full swing.
But keep in mind that winter is only one season out of four. And winter has its own special beauty, even if it doesn’t seem like there’s very much going on under all that ice and snow.
Yes, we are probably going to see more platforms shut down, like Workrooms, and more companies go out of business (not Meta of course, smaller ones). But those of us who have already been active in the metaverse for many years aren’t going anywhere during these lean, cold times. We’ve found our people, our communities, wherever we happen to meet up, whether it’s a flatscreen virtual world like Second Life or a meetup in social VR like VRChat. We hop from world to world as needed.
Yes, the current marketplace struggles will still impact us all in some way. We can expect moments of panic and chaos (e.g. when Ready Player Me was bought out by Netflix, and thousands of developers had to scramble to replace their avatar systems). But we will hunker down, use the downtime productively, and wait for the next season to arrive.
WARNING: This blogpost goes off on a couple of tangents, including a recent report on faltering sales of the Apple Vision Pro, plus a new update at the very end with some very insightful commentary on Meta’s Horizon Store plans and how they might negatively impact the VRChat in-world creator economy, which is still in beta test.
On April 22nd, 2024, Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) made an announcement titled A New Era for Mixed Reality:
Today we’re taking the next step toward our vision for a more open computing platform for the metaverse. We’re opening up the operating system powering our Meta Quest devices to third-party hardware makers, giving more choice to consumers and a larger ecosystem for developers to build for. We’re working with leading global technology companies to bring this new ecosystem to life and making it even easier for developers to build apps and reach their audiences on the platform.
This new hardware ecosystem will run on Meta Horizon OS, the mixed reality operating system that powers our Meta Quest headsets. We chose this name to reflect our vision of a computing platform built around people and connection—and the shared social fabric that makes this possible. Meta Horizon OS combines the core technologies powering today’s mixed reality experiences with a suite of features that put social presence at the center of the platform.
Of course, this also includes the Meta Quest Store, which will apparently be renamed the Meta Horizon Store:
Developers and creators can take advantage of all these technologies using the custom frameworks and tooling we’ve built for creating mixed reality experiences, and they can reach their communities and grow their businesses through the content discovery and monetization platforms built into the OS. These include the Meta Quest Store, which contains the world’s best library of immersive apps and experiences—we’re renaming it to the Meta Horizon Store.
And, as you might expect with a company whose profits still largely derive from social media based on surveillance capitalism, you’d best believe that Meta wants to make sure that it inserts itself into all the social aspects of this technology, as it licenses the tech to other companies:
The Horizon social layer currently powering Meta Quest devices will extend across this new ecosystem. It enables people’s identities, avatars, and friend groups to move with them across virtual spaces and lets developers integrate rich social features into their apps. And because this social layer is made to bridge multiple platforms, people can spend time together in virtual worlds that exist across mixed reality, mobile, and desktop devices. Meta Horizon OS devices will also use the same mobile companion app that Meta Quest owners use today—we’ll rename this as the Meta Horizon app.
It looks very much as though the word Quest is going to be replaced by the word Horizon throughout (much as Oculus was replaced by Quest previously). I guess those Meta marketing people need to justify their paycheques by constant rebranding! Gotta keep it fresh! Personally, I think they should have stuck with Oculus… 😉
Also part of this announcement are three key partnerships with third-party hardware developers:
Lenovo will apparently focus on education and the workplace: “Lenovo will draw on its experience co-designing Oculus Rift S, as well as deep expertise in engineering leading devices like the ThinkPad laptop series, to develop mixed reality devices for productivity, learning, and entertainment.”
Meta will also be working with Xbox to create a limited-edition Meta Quest (Microsoft and Meta also worked together recently to bring Xbox cloud gaming to the Quest).
Reactions to this new on Reddit have varied. One person on the r/VisionPro subreddit (hardly an impartial source!) commented, “Feels more closed than Apple. And also less developer friendly.” (As if Apple doesn’t have its own walled-garden approach to its technology.)
Also mentioned in Meta’s announcement was that software developed through the Quest App Lab will be featured in the newly-renamed Horizon Store:
As we begin opening Meta Horizon OS to more device makers, we’re also expanding the ways app developers can reach their audiences. We’re beginning the process of removing the barriers between the Meta Horizon Store and App Lab, which lets any developer who meets basic technical and content requirements ship software on the platform. App Lab titles will soon be featured in a dedicated section of the Store on all our devices, making them more discoverable to larger audiences.
I think that this is good news for smaller developers, who often struggle to get word out about their products. (Of course, Meta will get a cut of any sales through its store!)
Think of it like moving the Quest’s ecosystem from an Apple model, where one company builds both the hardware and software, to more of a hardware free-for-all like Android. The Quest OS is being rebranded to “Meta Horizon OS,” and at this point it seems to have found two early adopters. ASUS’s Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand is working on a new “performance gaming” headsets, while Lenovo is working on devices for “productivity, learning and entertainment.” (Don’t forget, Lenovo also built the poorly-received Oculus Rift S.)
As part of the news, Meta says it’s also working on a limited-edition Xbox “inspired” Quest headset. (Microsoft and Meta also worked together recently to bring Xbox cloud gaming to the Quest.) Meta is also calling on Google to bring over the Google Play 2D app store to Meta Horizon OS. And, in an effort to bring more content to the Horizon ecosystem, software developed through the Quest App Lab will be featured in the Horizon Store. The company is also developing a new spatial framework to let mobile developers created mixed reality apps.
Devindra does have a good point; Apple has long been opposed to opening up its hardware to third-parties (and it would appear, based on recent media reports, that sales of the eyewateringly-pricey Apple Vision Pro are not as brisk as the company had hoped):
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has “fallen sharply beyond expectations.” As a result, Apple is expected to take a “conservative view” of headset demand when the Vision Pro launches in additional countries.
Kuo previously said that Apple will introduce the Vision Pro in new markets before the June Worldwide Developers Conference, which suggests that we could see it available in additional areas in the next month or so.
Apple is expecting Vision Pro shipments to decline year-over-year in 2025 compared to 2024, and the company is said to be “reviewing and adjusting” its headset product roadmap. Kuo does not believe there will be a new Vision Pro model in 2025, an adjustment to a prior report suggesting a modified version of the Vision Pro would enter mass production late next year.
According to Apple industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, initial sales of the high-end Apple Vision Pro have “fallen sharply beyond expectations.”
I find it an absolutely fascinating time to be working in virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and spatial computing! While Apple has aimed for the high-end with its US$3,500 headset, Meta has focused its attention on the low end, with a wireless headset that is seven times cheaper than the Apple Vision Pro! (Of course, you could also use the Quest 3 as a PCVR headset, but most people don’t do that.)
I never would have predicted that we’d have two firmly-set goalposts at each end of the field, instead of companies releasing a mass of options in the middle of the field! This leaves a huge gap between the ultra-low-end Meta Quest 3 and the ultra-high-end Apple Vision Pro, and I do believe that there is certainly opportunity for companies to fill that gap, with existing hardware (e.g. the Valve Index, the Vive Pro 2, etc.), as well as some new devices which fall in between the two extremes.
I think that Meta is very smart to partner up with third parties who already have some experience in this space (notably Lenovo), and from those partnerships, new products will spring up to address that gap. While it will likely not be until 2025 or 2026 until we see the fruit of these new partnerships, interesting times are ahead!
I want someone to dig into what sort of access Meta would have to data on these third-party headsets, potentially, through various software that would be required. I think it’s existential that we need to keep metaverse data out of their hands.
Even now, having failed with five or six different social VR attempts so far, they still manage to collect 1/3 of every virtual transaction in VRChat, at least those using Quest headsets, which is the majority of users now. Their [i.e., VRChat’s]creator economy is only in beta so far, but thanks to Facebook and Steam, and Apple for pushing this model, we don’t have the thriving virtual economy we would have had by now, because even taking 1% of every transaction just for monopolizing app downloads, that would be too much. A third is robbery, but because [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg could afford to make mobile headsets affordable without worrying about profits so far, they’re now cornering commerce in this space. I don’t think it’s safe to trust them with our future, and so I’m very skeptical about these sorts of initiatives.
PK is correct; it is troubling that the walled-garden gatekeepers like app store owners (Meta, Google/Android, and Apple) are each taking a cut of any in-world transactions. It has a chilling effect on anybody trying to make money within VRChat (of course, the social VR platform has long had a booming economy going onoutsideof VRChat, with places such as the Virtual Market series of avatar shopping events and the VRCMods Discord server, where avatar buyers and sellers can connect).
Linden Lab was luckily able to avoid this entire mess by creating its own in-world economy within Second Life well before the advent of Google Play and Apple’s App Stoe—but now that they are actively working on a new mobile Second Life app for Android and iOS, it will be interesting to see whether Second Life, too, will be impacted by other players like Meta wanting to take their cut. (Probably not, since you can do things like buy Linden dollars directly from the Second Life website.)
Interesting times lie ahead! As drag queen RuPaul likes to say on her hit reality TV show, RuPaul’s Drag Race (and my guilty pleasure!):
Mama Ru raises her opera glasses and says, “I can’t wait to see how this turns out.”
Thank you to PK of the MetaMovie Discord, for giving me permission to quote them directly!
HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: I first started writing this blogpost in November 2023, but I haven’t had a chance to finish it until now! It is one of a huge backlog (over thirty) of half-finished blog posts, which I hope to complete and publish soon. So please stay tuned!
Also, with this blogpost, I have created a new blog post category called Review, which I will now be using to mark any hardware and software reviews I write from now on, here on the RyanSchultz.com blog.
As a librarian at my university, I am a member of the faculty union, along with the professors and instructors. One of the benefits we receive is a certain sum of money every year, travel and expense (T&E) funds, to be used to pay for our professional memberships, registration for and travel to and from conferences, books and journal subscriptions—and computer equipment! And so it was, that I used part of my T&E funds this year to purchase Meta’s latest wireless VR headset, the Meta Quest 3, which was just announced Sept. 27th, 2023 at the Meta Connect event (which I wrote about on my blog here).
Now, while I absolutely reserve the right to snark about some aspects of the Meta Connect event itself (Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton as AI chatbots?Really?!??), I still do believe that Meta makes great virtual reality hardware! And so I ordered a Meta Quest 3 (512 GB model), plus an Elite Strap with Battery, and a carrying case to lug it all around in.
This will be a test unit, which I will evaluate to see how well it would fit into the selection of hardware which will form part of a virtual reality lab for my university library system (more info here), of which I am a member of the committee helping to steer the project.
My first impression: Wow, these boxes are getting smaller and lighter every time! And: Wow, those hand controllers look tiny. Anyway, wasting no time, I started unboxing.
Inside the Meta Quest 3 box (with the default strap)
I scanned the QR code on the inside of the Meta Quest 2 box, and this is the first thing it showed me on my iPhone:
Regular readers of my blog will remember my distaste for Meta’s level of consumer surveillance, so I immediately hit the Don’t Share button! I think Meta is already vacuuming up an alarming amount of my personal data as it is!
Since I already had the Oculus app installed on my work iPhone from when I set up my Meta Quest 2, the QR code didn’t really do much of anything. I was somewhat irritated that there wasn’t a paper set of step-by-step instructions to set up the Quest 3, so I did a little searching and found this webpage, which gave me a helpful video and some tips on how to get started.
The head strap that comes with the Meta Quest 3, while serviceable, really doesn’t help to redistribute the front-heavy headset (the Quest 3 weighs about the same as the Quest 2, although it is noticeably thinner). So one of the first things I did was unpack the Elite Strap with Battery, and replace the default strap. In addition to prolonging the use of the Quest 3 for another couple of hours, the rigid strap design reduces pressure on the face, and evenly distributes the total weight for a more comfortable fit (which also contributes to longer use).
The Elite Strap has a knob at the back to adjust to fit your head, and you can also use it to make it more compact to fit into the solid-feeling carrying case:
You can use the knob at the back of the Elite Strap with Battery to make the Meta Quest 3 headset small enough to fit into the carrying case, which makes it easier to take it with you!
One thing I was less than happy with is the charging cable, which is incredibly short! Meta, would it have killed you to include a longer charging cable? Don’t be so cheap!
The charging cable is waaay too short!
While at first I thought the hand controllers on the Quest 3 were much smaller than its predecessor, in fact they are approximately the same size. They’re only missing the “loop” at the top, which has been replaced by improvements to the tracking system overall. (I have enabled, but not yet tested out, hand tracking, that is, using hand gestures instead of the hand controllers.)
The hand controllers on the Meta Quest 3 (right) seem smaller than the Meta Quest 2, but that’s only because the top “loop” has been removed.
UPDATE March 2nd, 2024: I must confess that I haven’t had as much of an opportunity recently to put the Meta Quest 3 through its paces, but I did pack it into my carry-on bag when I flew to Alberta to spend last Christmas with the rest of my family, and I did give several family members a taste of virtual reality using this device, putting them into a loft apartment world in VRChat. (My usual go-to for giving people their first VR experience, a favourite tropical beach world in VRChat, called Deep Blue, unfortunately only works with a high-end tethered PVCR headset like the Valve Index of Vive Pro 2.) The Meta Quest 3 is, in my opinion, the perfect portable device for giving people an introduction to the world of virtual reality!
Also, you can use a fibre-optic Quest Link Cable (available for purchase through the Meta website for CA$109.99) to turn the standalone Meta Quest 3 into a PCVR headset, by attaching it to a high-end Windows PC with a good graphics card.
I did want to comment on what an improvement the visuals are in the Meta Quest 3 compared to its predecessor, the Meta Quest 2. The so-called “screendoor” effect (where it’s possible to determine the gaps between pixels in your headset view) has been greatly reduced, and it really improves graphics, and makes things like reading text much easier. But where there’s really a noticeable improvement between the Quest 2 and 3 is in the full-colour pass-through! According to Meta:
With full-color Passthrough, Quest 3 and Quest Pro provide you with a more perceptually comfortable, high-fidelity, real-time representation of the physical world around you. These advancements in Passthrough aren’t just to improve the VR experience you currently know, but is also fundamental to new and upcoming features that allow you to interact directly with the physical world while in-VR. Activities supported by full-color Passthrough include:
Using mixed reality apps that combine and use items from both your physical and virtual world.
Using a physical keyboard and other objects on your physical desk.
Interacting with other people in the same room as a part of a collaborative experience, like having a meeting in [Meta Horizon] Workrooms.
I look forward to spending more time in my Meta Quest 3 over the next few months, exploring various apps and platforms, and I will report back more often on how things are going!
At yesterday’s Meta Connect 2023 event, after Mark Zuckerberg and a parade of Meta employees extolling the wonders of Meta products and services, there was a post-keynote, a conversation between Michael Abrash (the Chief Scientist of Meta’s Reality Labs) and Andrew “Boz” Bosworth (Meta’s CTO and Head of Reality Labs). I hadn’t had a chance to watch this yesterday because I was so busy, but I did have some time today to watch. Here are my notes.
First off, I was pissed off that the only way I could watch this conversation was via Facebook. This is so typical of the gatekeeping that Meta engages in: forcing you to connect to a Facebook website, where you aren’t given the option of disabling any cookies that are set. At least I was able to use Firefox browser’s Facebook Container plug-in to mitigate things somewhat, but yes, I was irritated. Believe me, if I could have found this conversation on YouTube or elsewhere, I would have watched it there!
To give another example, Meta has the gall to say that they’re embracing “open source”, yet they pull stunts like making several of their newly-announced games for the Meta Quest 2 and 3 exclusive to the Quest ecosystem, and unavailable to, say, Steam players. Not cool. But I disgress; let’s get back to the topic at hand: the conversation between Boz and Michael.
Michael Abrash talked about codec avatars and how they’re not quite yet at the place where your brain is fooled that you are looking at a real person (in the same way that, perhaps, a well-designed virtual space feels “real” and immersive to your brain, and not just an image you are looking at, something many of us have experienced). Here’s a recent example to give you a sense of just how quickly the technology is evolving (this is, to my knowledge, at a research stage only, and not yet commercially available):
Michael considers codec avatars to be something that will help the concept of the metaverse reach its full potential: a way to put people together in a virtual space that feels fully real.
When Boz asked Michael to reflect on what he’s working on that’s most inspiring to him, he replied with a beauty-pageant-contestant answer that everything they’ve been working on is important. Michael then replies:
If I had to pick one thing, I would say that the personalized, contextualized, ultra-low-friction, Ai interface is the thing that I find most exciting, and the reason is…the way that humans interact with the digital world has only changed once ever, and that really was Doug Engelbart, Xerox PARC, the Mac, and since then, we’ve been living in that world. And as we move into this world of mixing the real and virtual freely, we need a new way of interacting. And so I feel that that has to be this contextualized AI approach, and getting that to happen is the thing that I find most exciting. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the way that everybody lives.
Meta is playing a long game here; betting that the research work that they are doing now will lead to their dominating the virtual reality/augmented reality/mixed reality/extended reality marketplace, and it’s clear that they do see their AI work as being a key part of that. How that will play out remains to be seen, but it is fascinating to see two people talk about this in a public form (even if it is on Facebook!).
Let’s just hope and pray that this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the way that everybody lives” does not become some corporate-run, surveillance-capitalism dystopia!
Following this was segment called the “Developer State of the Union,” a promised deeper dive into tools, programs and features for Meta ecosystem developers. Funny how “ecosystem” sounds so much friendlier than “walled garden.” 😉
But I am going to pause my cranky snark, hit publish on this blogpost, and call it a day.
