Microsoft shuts down its metaverse experiment after mass layoffs
Social platform AltspaceVR has been closed down
Microsoft will shut down VR social platform AltspaceVR later this year after recently announcing it will cut 10,000 jobs worldwide.
Created in 2013 and acquired by Microsoft four years later, AltspaceVR is similar to Meta’s idea of the metaverse. It’s a virtual reality social network where people can meet up in user-generated worlds to chat, hang out and host events.
It was under development at Microsoft’s Mixed Reality division, but according to a new blog post will be shut down on March 10 as the team shifts its focus to “support immersive experiences powered by Microsoft Mesh”.
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: AltverseVR closes
🔒 Microsoft has shut down AltverseVR
🏖 The virtual reality social platform was akin to Meta’s idea of the metaverse
🙁 It’s been closed following huge job cuts at Microsoft
💼 The company says it will pivot to a more business-oriented platform
“As we look to the future, we see the opportunity for VR expanding beyond consumer into business and now have an even greater goal: a more open, accessible, and secure version of immersive experiences in the metaverse,” the post reads.
“The decision has not been an easy one as this is a platform many have come to love, providing a place for people to explore their identities, express themselves, and find community.
“With Mesh, we aspire to build a platform that offers the widest opportunity to all involved, including creators, partners and customers.”
Microsoft Mesh is a company-focused platform designed to improve workplace collaboration using mixed reality. It looks to be tailored toward businesses, rather than individuals or social groups, which the AltspaceVR team says is a trend it will follow in the future:
“In the near term, we are focusing our VR efforts on workplace experiences, learning from and alongside our early customers and partners, and ensuring we deliver a foundation that enables security, trust and compliance. Over time, we hope to extend to [the] consumer experience as well.”
The shift to a commercial form of the metaverse isn’t so surprising. Microsoft rival Meta has found it increasingly difficult to sell the convenience of virtual reality meet-ups to the wider public, and when it laid off 11,000 employees last year its VR software subsidiary Reality Labs had lost $9.4 billion dollars, and was expected to continue operating at a loss into this year.
Despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s company’s best efforts, Meta’s Horizon Worlds has become the subject of ridicule, with even Xbox boss Phil Spencer joining in to call it “a poorly built video game”. It will be interesting to see how Apple handles the concept when its version of the metaverse appears, possibly as early as later this year.
For now, users can download their AltspaceVR data ahead of the platform’s closure. Head over to this Microsoft support page to find out how to download photos and metadata in bulk.