Discussion

• @andythps @andythps on x

  I've just been laid off. It appears the entire @twisted_pixel games studio has been shut down. @SanzaruGames too

• @afoxdesign Andrew Fox on x

  Meta are working hard on Quest 4 huh? Then why are they shutting down their best VR studios? Are they hoping people will buy a Quest 4 just to play Horizon Worlds and GamePass games?

• @thedowd Matthew Dowd on x

  It would be if Meta's VR team actually cared about VR, but they don't. Meta had to force them to regularly use VR - and gave up when they couldn't. If anything this is putting a bunch of people who are way too deep into something they'll never understand out of their misery.

• @pranavdixit @pranavdixit on x

  .@getsupernatural getting discontinued amid the Reality Labs layoffs is sad not just because it was one of Meta's most compelling VR products, but because of what it meant to the people who used it. In 2023, I wrote a cover story for @theinformation about an unexpected group of

• @bmfshow Matt on x

  What a sucky heartbreaking day for those working on VR at Meta. I'm seeing layoffs and studios shut downs all over. Twisted Pixel seems to be shut down, Deadpool VR, Sanzaru is shutdown, Asgard's Wrath, Supernatural team is gone, Armature, RE4 VR gone, layoffs all over for VR.

• @tomwarren Tom Warren on x

  Meta is laying off about 10% of its Reality Labs metaverse division, and the cuts include closing down some of its VR gaming studios. Twisted Pixel Games, Sanzaru Games, and Armature Studio are all being closed down 😔 https://www.theverge.com/...

• @sophiebaybey Sophie on x

  Buys up every single promising and successful VR indie studio between 2016 and 2019, proceeds to sit on them for years doing nothing before shutting them down. Classic gambit.

• @asychov Artur Sychov on x

  Horizon platform has no future because no more affordable VR headsets will be released by Meta for Horizon OS, so gradually number of active users will shrink even further.

• @raeljamsesh Rael Hodgson on x

  Supernatural acquisition gotta be the biggest fumble of all time. Where was the international launch? Yes yes music licensing is a bitch but you're Meta 😂

• @jasteinerman Jake Steinerman on x

  Thanks for everyone who's reached out to me today. SO MANY insanely talented people across RL were affected as well. Please reach out to them too!

• @victor_lucas Victor Lucas on x

  VR game makers can make ANY kind of videogame. Savvy publishers and biz dev peeps that are looking for their next level up should be assembling a bunch of killer new game studios from the talented game makers leaving Twisted Pixel, Armature, Sanzaru, Cloudhead, etc. These

• @dbloodworth2 Daniel Bloodworth on x

  Really wish giant money companies that swallow up studios for trend chasing would find ways to let these studios regain their independence rather than just killing them off.

• @killian_c_u @killian_c_u on x

  Armature is composed of people who worked at Retro and made Metroid Prime. Their recent release, RE4 VR is legit incredible. Absolutely vile action, not just Armature but Sanzaru and Twisted Pixel.

• @bangbangclick Alex Hutchinson on x

  I am shocked. SHOCKED I tell you. All that money up in flames. Nothing to show for it. [image]

• @glitchfandango @glitchfandango on x

  If this is true (I see no reason why it wouldn't be) then this marks a truly sad inflection point for VR Sanzaru are among the best developers in VR. If Meta are shuttering studios of this caliber then this is the first time I've started to actually worry about the future of VR

• @hero_kvatch Jamie Feltham on x

  As with RaD before them, the loss of Sanzaru, Twisted Pixel and Armature in particular hurts on so many different levels. Way before VR, TP was one of the most exciting studios on the planet, Armature was Bluepoint-level of expertise, and Sanzaru made an incredible Sly game.

• @mauronl3 @mauronl3 on x

  Sooo....that's a wrap on VR gaming? PlayStation gave up already Meta closing all its first party VR studios Not looking great huh

• @vescosein @vescosein on x

  This one hurts. Twisted Pixel made some of the best 360 arcade games and Sanzaru made a great Sly Cooper sequel. Getting relegated to the Facebook VR mines and then being shutdown is brutal.

• @neogamespark @neogamespark on x

  Fucking tragic.. Such great talent ... gone

• @karn_ex Karn EX on x

  Just awful for everyone employed here. I feel like these companies acted all Billy Big Bollocks about VR and mixed reality and then did nothing to keep them compelling. The video games industry is just insane right now.

• @davelee.me Dave Lee on bluesky

  The only good app in VR is being killed off [embedded post]

• @marioprime Giovanni Colantonio on bluesky

  Meta stinks and had a terrible vision for VR.  But it also invested in great studios who were producing excellent games that pushed the medium forward, despite Meta not being as serious about that.  I hope those shuttered teams can get their flowers and not be lumped into “tech b…

• @themoonis.gay Shayna Moon on bluesky

  I'm hearing that my old team at Sanzaru within Meta has been hit with a total studio shutdown.  If you see these folks apply to your studios, please hire them!  It is a really great group of people.  —  As for Zuckerberg, wouldn't spit on him if he was on fire.

• r/pcgaming r on reddit

  Meta is closing down three VR studios as part of its metaverse cuts: Sanzaru Games, Twisted Pixel Games, and Armature Studios

• r/Games r on reddit

  Meta is closing down three VR studios as part of its metaverse cuts.  Developers from Twisted Pixel Games and Sanzaru Games have posted about their studios being closed down.

• @nathievr @nathievr on x

  My heart goes out to everyone at Meta who is losing their job today, many of whom I've become friends with over the years and who have truly earned their stripes in the XR scene. I'm confident they'll land great roles and keep doing what they do best.

• @sadlyitsbradley Brad Lynch on x

  So is Meta calling their MR glasses “Phoenix” because they think it will help them “rise from the ashes” Because there's quite a lot of ashes to rise from...

• @ibrews Alex Coulombe on x

  I've had friends affected by the Meta layoffs before, but today is different— I can't believe how many incredible people are suddenly out of work.

• @thejobchick Amanda Goodall on x

  BRUTAL.  META Layoffs are HAPPENING today.  Reality Labs is cutting almost everyone working on its virtual reality and metaverse products.  About 1000-1500 job cuts reported...Reality Labs lost $4.4B in Meta's most recent quarter — yeah.... in 3 months.  OUCH.  Meta is shifting f…

• @grummz @grummz on x

  Meta is planning to lay off hundreds. They used to spend billion on their VR metaverse. Renamed the whole company, They completely failed to see AI coming. [image]

• @stocksavvyshay Shay Boloor on x

  I still believe $META will be a huge winner in the AI economy for three reasons: 1.  The company controls where billions of people already spend their time...2.  It also runs one of the largest private AI inference stacks in the world...3.  Meta owns unique, real-world social & b…

• @cixliv @cixliv on x

  To all those laid off by Meta. That sucks. REK is hiring for devs please DM. But to join you do a cleansing ritual to absolve your sins for working at Meta. You will have to be punched by a robot while chanting “down with Zuck” as initiation.

• @amitisinvesting Amit on x

  $META feels like the street doesn't trust Zucks at all - they are going to have a great Q4, obviously undervalued at 18x fwd compared to other Mag 7s, just announced a new compute initiative (maybe new cloud biz) and acquired Manus which is bringing real agentic workflows to Meta…

• @scobleizer Robert Scoble on x

  I was a VR advocate for such a long time that this is really personal to me.  It's something I got wrong: I thought VR would be a lot more popular than it turned out to be.  Glasses are coming.  There were huge crowds around all the glasses booths at CES, but the utility just has…

• @vladtheinflator Darth Powell on x

  Meta does one thing well. Anything outside of that will fail

• @benz145 Ben Lang on x

  Really sorry to hear this news for all the people affected.  This looks to be the culmination of a shift in that's been brewing for the last few years: the bulk of the Quest audience is younger and looking for free-to-play multiplayer games.  Big investments in single player game…

• @xuwu Wu Xu on x

  The truth is Meta's investment in Reality Labs is still at a high level.  This year it will likely remain well into the tens of billions of dollars, and it could even be north of $15B, with headcount still at 10,000+...So whenever there's a layoff headline and the media claims Zu…

• @samsolid57 Sam Badawi on x

  $META will cut 10% of staff at Reality Labs, per the NYT. At the same time, the company is ramping datacenter investment while trimming headcount in non-core orgs to help offset rising CapEx. The question is whether this is the early shape of a hyperscaler strategy like $GOOGL [i…

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  meta isn't ditching VR, nor is it necessarily decreasing overall spending since it is HEAVILY on AI. execs are making cuts across different units that arent working while pouring cash into other parts of the business wearables like the Ray-Bans have been a bright spot

• @eringriffith Erin Griffith on x

  meta does layoffs in its metaverse division. is it too late for meta change its name to llama, ticker symbol LLM https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @p_remarks @p_remarks on x

  Cutting 10% of FRL the same day they announce Meta Compute This is why you can't back out FRL losses. He will just repurpose them into a new venture

• @caktusjaxk1 @caktusjaxk1 on x

  Meta is basically saying: “Less metaverse. More superintelligence.” •$META reportedly planning ~10% cuts in Reality Labs (VR/metaverse-heavy). •Reality Labs is ~15k people; cuts could land as soon as Tuesday. •AR/smart glasses group largely spared; Ray-Ban glasses reportedly [ima…

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  Meta to announce cuts of around 10% of its Reality Labs unit, focused mostly on the Metaverse division. cuts could amount to upward of 1,500 people Meta plans to shift that budget into AI and wearables like Meta Raybans story w/ @elitanjourno https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @anshelsag Anshel Sag on x

  So, with today's layoff announcement, @Meta has now laid off people for five years straight, following a 23% increase in headcount in 2021.

• @handpressed.net Nick on bluesky

  I will never get my head (and upper body but not my legs) around how anyone thought the “Metaverse” was a good idea.  Billions wasted on the whims of an awful cunt.  [embedded post]

• @ohheymarc Marc Stone on bluesky

  Ah yes, because EVERYONE will be super into Wearables by Meta.  Everything else they've done has worked out wonderfully for them.  Those VR games only made millions after all.  [embedded post]

• @ianbetteridge.com Ian Betteridge on bluesky

  After $100bn wasted, I think Mark Zuckerberg, controlling shareholder of Meta, should fire Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta [embedded post]

• @gematsu.com @gematsu.com on bluesky

  Meta shuts down Armature Studio, Sanzaru Games, and Twisted Pixel  —  Meta will close game studios Armature Studio, Sanzaru Games, and Twisted Pixel, the company confirmed to Gematsu.

• @elucidating.extradimensional.space @elucidating.extradimensional.space on bluesky

  Yeah, no surprise there.  The entire Meta effort is pointless, gaming isn't a significant effort for them, and the only traction they have going forward is AR wearables.  —  Now I submit even this will suck, but there are *possible* successes in this.  [embedded post]

• @quinnypig.com Corey Quinn on bluesky

  Good thing they didn't rename the whole company to chase the boondoggle.  [embedded post]

• r/TwoBestFriendsPlay r on reddit

  Meta shuts down Armature Studio, Sanzaru Games, and Twisted Pixel

• r/SonicTheHedgehog r on reddit

  Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal and Fire & Ice developer Sanzaru Games has been shut down

• r/PSVR r on reddit

  Dark Days for VR gaming ahead

• r/virtualreality r on reddit

  Meta has closed several studios, including 'Splosion Man studio Twisted Pixel and Asgard Wrath's Sanzaru Games |  VGC

• r/Games r on reddit

  Meta has closed several studios, including 'Splosion Man studio Twisted Pixel and Asgard Wrath's Sanzaru Games |  VGC

• r/Slycooper r on reddit

  Sanzaru Games, developers of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, have been shut down by Meta

• r/augmentedreality r on reddit

  Meta reportedly cutting about 1,500 jobs in Reality Labs division

• @dilmerv @dilmerv on x

  Today was a very hard day at Meta 😔. A lot of incredible and talented people I had the pleasure of working with, on my direct team and across the org, were let go, people I deeply respect and admire. This is an incredibly difficult time for our industry. If you were affected and

• r/oculus r on reddit

  Meta Closes Twisted Pixel, Armature & Sanzaru Games