Meta has informed employees it will be scaling back some of its hardware endeavors, although layoffs are not planned at this time.
While Meta is primarily a social media company, it has been aggressively pivoting to the metaverse, with Zuckerberg pushing to make the transition. As part of that, Meta owns and develops virtual reality (VR) hardware, thanks to its Oculus brand. Unfortunately, according to Reuters, the company is cutting back on projects in its Reality Labs division, the successor to the Oculus brand.
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According to a company spokesperson, Meta can no longer afford to pursue some projects it originally had planned, while others will have to be postponed. Much of this is believed to be the result of Facebook’s subscriber drop early this year, followed by Meta’s promise to investors that it would cut costs.
The result has been a company-wide reevaluation of various projects, including in its AI and Reality Labs divisions. Given that Reality Labs is responsible for the company’s VR and augmented reality (AR) gear — a critical component to the metaverse becoming a reality — Zuckerberg’s ambitions may have to wait a little longer.
The only silver lining is that there are no layoffs planned at this time.