It appears Meta’s Horizon Worlds may literally and figuratively not have legs after all.

  • rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 hours ago

    That’s still a thing? Is it just Zuck wondering around his own digital universe trying to find people to be friends with?

  • golden_zealot@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    18 hours ago

    It’s funny because the meta quest recently had an update that got rid of custom/user created environments for the home area and only gave you some shitty options. The default one was a shitty balcony that overlooked a big stupid tower advertising this and they made the “portal” to it permanent and unremoveable.

    In addition to this almost every time you opened a menu it would pop up a fucking ad/link to enter the application almost every time.

    Pretty sure now this was a desperate last ditch effort to try to increase traffic - but clearly NO ONE wanted it and it just pissed everyone off more.

    If they want to save face to any degree they should revert that fucking patch ASAP. I miss my home environment being a fucking derelict warehouse.

    • vithigar@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      6 hours ago

      I miss my original Oculus Home. Had a nice arrangement of furniture, a shooting range, a little shelf that held virtual cartridges of all my games, various little statues and trophies that you could display for achievements… and they just got rid of it all.

      Immediately killed any interest I had in customizing my virtual space. Why bother if they’re just going to rug pull it at any time. They could’ve at least let us continue to visit it “offline”.

    • bluesheep@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      7 hours ago

      It always amazes me that some executives think that taking away customization is the way to get more traffic instead of driving away to people who put effort into making a customized thing

      • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        6 hours ago

        It amazes me that so many people bought this product from Meta. When the Oculus Rift was first announced I was so excited and hopeful that we were finally going to get VR right… then they got bought by Facebook and I knew right then that I’d never own one. Here’s hoping the new Steam headset can live up to the hype.

  • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    1 day ago

    It’s funny how almost everyone from FAANG is failing hard in the gaming space. Like Google fails with Stadia, Amazon shutdown how many game studios, Netflix shutdown that studio that were making a Squidgame game and the Zuck dumped billions into the metaverse void. Looks like the Silicon Valley way of doing business just doesn’t work in the games industry.

  • artyom@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    78
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Meta (the company hilariously rebranded with this non-sense as their foundation) has moved on to the next grift: AI and mobile video surveillance devices.

    • James R Kirk@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      18 hours ago

      I love that they changed their name to show how serious they were about the metaverse being the future of tech and it never even came close to being a thing.

      • artyom@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 day ago

        Sure, but I did specifically say mobile video surveillance. Pretty sure their goal is to reduce the friction of taking out your phone to start capturing a video.

        I’ve already ended a friendship over these stupid things.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      isnt meta kinda late in the game for AI anyways, apple was even later and they abandoned for the most part.

      • Miaou@jlai.lu
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 day ago

        Considering they developed the framework everybody builds upon nowadays, I doubt it.

      • howrar@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        They’ve been in the AI game for about as long as everyone else. I would consider their lab to be one of the best in CV tech.

  • paraphrand@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 day ago

    VRChat is the most popular “metaverse” and it’s still growing every year.

    So it’s weird to call the metaverse dead when Horizon wasn’t even in the lead among its competitors.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 hours ago

      I get your point, I genuinely do. But the way the general public uses the term metaverse is to refer to Horizon, not that style of game/app in general.

    • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      21 hours ago

      VRChat is not owned by meta, therefore not part of the meta verse.

      Metaverse is not the same as VR.

      • Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        17 hours ago

        Metaverse is a (imo cringe) term for VR experiences in general, but in particular VR social experiences. Facebook changed their name to Meta specifically to try to brand themselves as the metaverse company, it wasn’t the other way around.

      • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        11 hours ago

        No but undeniably the death of the metaverse is taking VR with it, once meta leaves the VR space it will be exclusively for enthusiasts and low quality indie games.

        • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          7 hours ago

          once meta leaves the VR space it will be exclusively for enthusiasts and low quality indie games.

          I literally never even heard of anything associated with Horizons that wasn’t a low-quality cashgrab or some kind of scam.

          • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            5 hours ago

            People here forget that a likely $700+ headset designed for streaming (let’s be honest we have no idea how many games will make native ports) is mostly gonna take off with VR enthusiasts. Like the Index this is an explicitly premium headset.

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    1 day ago

    Metaverse was like the AI nobody asked for getting pushed into apps. Nobody wanted Wii Mii like hangout rooms where you have to water a clunky headset.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      1 day ago

      Metaverse was like the AI nobody asked for getting pushed into apps. Nobody wanted Wii Mii like hangout rooms where you have to water a clunky headset.

      I was willing to give a shot to something like the Metaverse, but the instant I heard it was a Facebook/Meta project I had zero interest and hoped it would die. This was my same experience with Occulus. These are both technologies I want for a cyberpunk future, but Facebook cannot be the one to control them.

      • bystander@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        One of the original employees of Oculus stuck around after the buy out, until a couple years ago and rage quit. Because he said that Meta is killing it. So yeah.

        • Blackmist@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 day ago

          They are killing it, but sadly they’re about the only ones keeping it alive, at least at an affordable price.

          I wish VR was a commodity product, like TVs. Everything compatible with everything.

  • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 day ago

    For real, they should have either bought or cloned VRChat as a first step, and then looked into expanding from there. That shit is a metaverse that people willing go into primarily because it enables a ton of free expression.