Strategic retreat! Meta (META.US) urgently shrinks the VR front line, dedicating resources fully to AI and smart glasses.

Notice that Meta (META.US) has stated that its Quest headset users will no longer be able to access Horizon Worlds. This was a virtual destination where people could gather as avatars and play games, and this move signals the latest contraction in Mark Zuckerberg's vision for the so-called "metaverse" strategy. The company announced on Tuesday that starting from June 15, consumers will no longer be able to build, publish, or update virtual reality worlds on Meta Quest headsets, nor access Meta Horizon Worlds through the device. Users can still access these virtual worlds through the Meta Horizon mobile app. In a blog post, Meta stated that it is "shifting the focus of Worlds almost entirely to mobile" - indicating changes on the horizon. Prior to this move, the team responsible for the headset and its virtual reality products (the Reality Labs division) had already faced layoffs. In January of this year, Meta began cutting 1000 positions from the division and closed some virtual reality game and content studios. Andrew Bosworth, the Chief Technology Officer leading Reality Labs, mentioned in a memo to employees at that time that Meta would primarily focus on the mobile experience rather than the fully immersive virtual world accessed through headsets. Zuckerberg's push for the metaverse - an effort that he believed in deeply, even renaming Facebook to Meta - has long been scrutinized by investors and child safety regulators. Just a few years after the renaming and after investing billions of dollars, the company has shifted its spending towards the rapidly growing competition in artificial intelligence. At Reality Labs, resources have shifted from VR games to wearable products that can advance Zuckerberg's AI ambitions, including the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.