Meta seems to be opening its eyes to reality—not to virtual, but to that of the market. After investing heavily in the metaverse, the company is shifting its focus to gaming with Meta Quest, its virtual reality headset. In this new phase of mass layoffs at the company, Reality Labs’ gaming division is one of the few unreached places.
The new vision for the virtual reality industry was revealed by Business Insider, which gathered the information from company employees. The outlet also found that the gaming division will be free to hire new employees, but only when the current process of mass layoffs is finalized in May.
Investors push for ‘killer app’ for Meta Quest
Ever since the “company formerly known as Facebook” changed its name to Meta, investors had been pushing it to find the killer app. The “killer app”, translation of the term in English, is a product that will make the Meta Quest a desired and attractive device. Making a comparison, this “killer app” is the equivalent of console-exclusive games.
However, Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, saw this definition in the metaverse — and even his employees don’t seem to have liked it. Horizon Worlds, the “metaverse social network” for the Quest glasses, and its appeal as a virtual interaction space didn’t appeal to audiences.
Now, according to one of Business Insider’s sources, Meta recognizes internally that “traditional games” is the way to fund Reality Labs. The statement leaves the understanding that metaverse will not be abandoned, but rather that Meta will use the games to fund it — and perhaps leave it in the long run.
Meta wants a Call of Duty or GTA for the VR glasses
With this new turn to gaming, Meta is now debating having a “great game” like Call of Duty or GTA in the Meta Quest store. Unfortunately, we’re not talking about virtual reality versions of these games (GTA with official VR would drive me crazy for a Meta Quest).
The plan is really to create a Meta Quest-exclusive game, something that generates discussions like “should I take an Xbox because of game X or PlayStation because of game Y?” — but rivaling other VR glasses. The Meta Quest engineering team is even adapting some hardware so that gaming performance is improved.
Meta’s shift of focus from metaverse to games is like the “I was here the whole time, only you didn’t see it” line from Pitty’s song “On Your Bookshelf.” At least since 2014 the gaming industry has been considered “bigger than Hollywood”. And even with a crisis scenario in Big Tech, there is always cash to buy a developer.
