Meta further shrinks its metaverse strategy; Quest headsets will no longer be able to access Horizon Worlds.

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Meta has announced that its Quest headset users will no longer be able to access Horizon Worlds, a virtual space where users could gather and play games as cartoon avatars. This move marks Meta’s further retreat from Zuckerberg’s once-core “Metaverse” strategy.

Meta stated on Tuesday that, starting June 15, users will no longer be able to create, publish, or update virtual worlds, nor access Meta Horizon Worlds via the Meta Quest headset. However, users will still be able to access these virtual worlds through the Meta Horizon mobile app.

This adjustment follows layoffs at Reality Labs, the team responsible for headsets and virtual reality. In January, Meta began cutting about 1,000 positions in this department and shutting down some virtual reality game and content studios. Andrew Bosworth, CTO in charge of Reality Labs, said in an internal memo at the time that the company would shift its focus to mobile experiences, rather than fully immersive virtual worlds through headsets.

Zuckerberg was previously highly committed to the Metaverse strategy, even renaming Facebook to Meta. However, the Metaverse has long been scrutinized by investors and child safety regulators. Just a few years into the rebranding and after investing billions of dollars, Meta is now redirecting resources toward the rapidly growing artificial intelligence race.

Within Reality Labs, resources are also shifting away from virtual reality games to wearable devices that support Zuckerberg’s AI vision, such as Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

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