Meta Closes Three VR Studios As Part of Its Metaverse Cuts (uploadvr.com) 29
Meta is shutting down three acquired VR studios as part of Reality Labs layoffs and a strategic pivot away from VR content toward AI-powered smart glasses. UploadVR reports: Meta shut down Twisted Pixel Games (Deadpool VR), Sanzaru Games (Asgard's Wrath), and Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR). [...] Twisted Pixel Games was founded in 2006 and mostly made Xbox games published by Microsoft for the first decade of its existence. In fact, Microsoft owned the studio from 2011 until 2015, when it became an independent company again. On contract from Facebook, between 2017 and 2019 Twisted Pixel released four VR games: Wilson's Hearth (Rift); B-Team (Go/Quest); Defector (Rift); and Path of the Warrior (Rift/Quest). In 2022, Twisted Pixel Games was acquired by Meta. And just two months ago, it released what it had been working on since then: Deadpool VR, the latest Quest-exclusive VR game. [...]
Sanzaru Games was also founded in 2006, and made a combination of its own games and contract titles for companies such as Sony, porting the original God of War series to PS Vita. Sanzaru Games was also contracted by Facebook to build VR games for the Oculus Rift and its Touch controllers, between 2016 and 2019: Ripcoil (2016); VR Sports Challenge (2016); Marvel Powers United VR (2018); and Asgard's Wrath (2019). In 2020, Sanzaru Games was acquired by Facebook, and in 2023 released Asgard's Wrath 2, taking the core essence of Asgard's Wrath to Quest 2 and Quest 3 standalone, with a semi-open world and a campaign more than 60 hours long. Exactly one year ago, Sanzaru released the last major content update for Asgard's Wrath 2, stating that it was now working on the "next big thing" with no detail released on what that would be before the studio closed.
Founded in 2008, Armature Studio was mainly a porting studio, bringing PC titles to consoles and console titles to PS Vita. Like Twisted Pixel and Sanzaru, Armature too was contracted by Facebook to build early consumer VR games: Fail Factory (2017); Sports Scramble (2019); and Resident Evil 4 VR (2021). Armature was acquired by Meta in 2022, and many VR gamers had been eagerly anticipating what it had been working on since. Whatever it was, Armature too is now shut down.
Sanzaru Games was also founded in 2006, and made a combination of its own games and contract titles for companies such as Sony, porting the original God of War series to PS Vita. Sanzaru Games was also contracted by Facebook to build VR games for the Oculus Rift and its Touch controllers, between 2016 and 2019: Ripcoil (2016); VR Sports Challenge (2016); Marvel Powers United VR (2018); and Asgard's Wrath (2019). In 2020, Sanzaru Games was acquired by Facebook, and in 2023 released Asgard's Wrath 2, taking the core essence of Asgard's Wrath to Quest 2 and Quest 3 standalone, with a semi-open world and a campaign more than 60 hours long. Exactly one year ago, Sanzaru released the last major content update for Asgard's Wrath 2, stating that it was now working on the "next big thing" with no detail released on what that would be before the studio closed.
Founded in 2008, Armature Studio was mainly a porting studio, bringing PC titles to consoles and console titles to PS Vita. Like Twisted Pixel and Sanzaru, Armature too was contracted by Facebook to build early consumer VR games: Fail Factory (2017); Sports Scramble (2019); and Resident Evil 4 VR (2021). Armature was acquired by Meta in 2022, and many VR gamers had been eagerly anticipating what it had been working on since. Whatever it was, Armature too is now shut down.
Sounds like Facebook 101. (Score:2)
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yet he gets to remain BDFL
AI is the new VR (Score:2)
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I don't see the problem. These companies would have died anyway on their own. I worked at a startup like this after it was bought by a big company. After a few years it was axed, the product was fine but the market moved from under us.
At the very least this startup was given a chance and the people there learnt a lot before moving on. Some of them were rehired by the parent to work on similar stuff, so I think it worked out for everyone.
Lame. (Score:2)
It really shows how useless Zuckerberg is (Score:3)
When Zuckerberg had to make something on his own it was a complete and abject failure.
It really shows that it's not skilled that makes these people billionaires but luck and having the resources so that somebody with more money doesn't steal it from you.
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I'm fucking tired of your bullying. Why don't you show your face you worthless piece of shit.
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Meta[stasize] is terminal (Score:2)
.
probably overdue - META VR/AR are a mess (Score:1)
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From other sources I've been reading, it's extra strange...
So Meta has *several* VR game studios, and they seemed to close the ones that actually produced well regarded games, and kept open studios that have not had respectably successful titles. The only one they kept that makes some sense is the one behind Beat Saber.
Now if they closed *all* the studios, or sold/spun them off, ok. But the mix of what got closed and what was kept open so far seems weird....
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Not surprising, big companies make choices about what divisions to keep/shutter based on all sorts of things invisible to the outside world all the time.
Adoption of internal systems, how many OKRs are meet as opposed to goals like sales. So “current products form X sell well” is only one factor next to “X’s goals of doing 12 big deal things had only one accomplished; Y’s low sales are accompanied by Y acomplishing 16 “low bar” goals. Most importantly though how
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I suppose given my tenure at large companies, I shouldn't have been too surprised, but still seeing blatantly obviously odd movies still phase me...
Who cares about the programmers...it is management that is important!
Heh, reminds me that in one scenario, my company had a pretty lackluster product, and my organization needed something better, so our team made something that actually did the job. The response was not 'wow, those guys had vision', it was 'need to shut this down because it's making the right stuff look worse'. But they could use the developers, because their m
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So you didn't make the icon cornflower blue?
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Based on what? Asgards Wrath is one of the most highly rated VR games ever released, often talked about in the same breath as HalfLife Alyx. Resident Evil 4 VR is a fairly competent VR adaptation, they weren't attempting to make something original, but they did make something good. Deadpool VR is a joke that studio deserved to be shut down.
But you are right, closing down one of the more successful studios that Meta poured a lot of money into acquiring a few years ago is an example of the directionless leade
It's always sad when a studio closes (Score:2)
But they were making games I will not play, since they are meta exclusives and I am never purchasing anything from Meta.
Only $100 billion spent on VR (Score:1)
Not the best investment hey Mark!
Metaverse was doomed to fail (Score:2)
So no wonder they're laying people off because half the platform, the Metaver
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The unfortunate part is that these studios weren't really doing the 'metaverse' thing, they were making games. The sort of thing that the platform actually is viable for.
The moment Oculus got acquired by Facebook, it's fate was sealed. If they had treated it as a "Mark wants a VR gaming thing because he's a geek, nothing to do with social networking", then maybe they could have had a more modest, but significant investment to keep on a path to serve the niche, but viable VR gaming market.
But they had a m
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Never agree to be bought by Meta/FB...... (Score:2)
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(replying to just the subject line)
Never agree to be bought by Meta/FB, I mean that is good advice in a narrow context. It is also similar advice with “google” as the acquiring company. A little less so with “Apple” as the acquiring company. I mean being acquired by anyone takes control of the destiny out of your hands, and it also takes most of the control out of your hands. In exchange for losing control over the fate of the company it places in your hands either or both a la
VR just isn't becoming a thing... (Score:2)
Well into its fifth decade of trying to become a thing, it isn't yet. It didn't help that the demos Meta was showing were pretty lame, especially the Zuck with big, girly eyes. They're doing some really good research in HCI, though. Maybe they need to focus on productizing that stuff rather than chasing a platform no one wants.
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Well into its fifth decade of trying to become a thing, it isn't yet.
Cumulative VR sales over the past 5 years have been 70 million. That means it has outsold the Xbox One, the Nintendo 64, Sega Megadrive, definitely the current gen Xbox. I guess those aren't a thing either?
It didn't help that the demos Meta was showing were pretty lame
Which ones? Are you talking about that shitty Horizon Worlds legless avatar bullshit? You may be right I didn't watch it, I was instead focused on the 1 hour presentation of upcoming games, several of which were fucking awesome.
Maybe they need to focus on productizing that stuff rather than chasing a platform no one wants.
Speak for yourself. VR as a platform is great and there are many people who wa
Dammit (Score:2)
We just got working legs, is this really the end?
poets out (Score:2)
Meta is firing all those poets who thought they never met a verse they didn't like. It's a big reversal of fortune for them.