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Microsoft is shutting down social VR pioneer AltspaceVR • TechCrunch

AltspaceVR has had a few close calls over the years, but the company that built the virtual social space before “metaverse” is a household word is shutting down at this point.

After announcing that it will close shop in 2017Microsoft intervened and the company arrived under the wings of a tech giant. Now, Microsoft is discontinuing the virtual reality platform of AltspaceVR, a web of immersive social spaces that invite people to hang out with friends or colleagues in the form of 3D avatars.

AltspaceVR will no longer work as of March 10, and Microsoft says it will direct more resources into its mixed reality platform Microsoft grid.

“We look forward to what’s to come, including the launch of Microsoft Mesh, a new platform for connectivity and collaboration, starting by supporting workplaces around the world,” the announcement read.

“Going forward, we are focusing our VR efforts on experiences in the workplace, learning from and with our early customers and partners, and ensuring that we provide a platform that enables security, trust, and compliance.”

Outside of gaming, Microsoft has built many of its products with an enterprise-first mindset, VR and mixed reality are no different. The company notes that it plans to “expand” its VR packages to consumers once they’re set up for the workplace.

AltspaceVR may never have built a formidable user base — a daunting task in VR, given its own hardware requirements — but the company has very soon Social application of virtual reality.

By 2015, AltspaceVR had created a powerful social VR platform where users can stroll around wood-paneled rooms with serene views, watch Taylor Swift music videos together, or surf the web through a virtual browser. Spatial audio makes the experience more immersive, recreating how people perceive sound in a real-world environment, and laying the groundwork for virtual events.

At the time, most of the resources and attention in VR was directed towards cutting-edge game applications — not the virtual hangout space. Meta launched Horizon Worlds, an AltspaceVR-like experience with unobtrusive neutral interiors and not-so-realistic avatars six years later.

It’s unclear if Microsoft plans to include the product in its other VR efforts or abandon the project altogether. With time, AltspaceVR’s fate may be related Microsoft’s dramatic company-wide merger, details this week. TechCrunch has reached out to the company for more information on what happens to AltspaceVR’s team and technology as the news becomes available.

As the tech industry deepens layoffs, Microsoft announced it will reduce its workforce by 5%, affecting 10,000 employees. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pointed to economic uncertainty and the decline from the first tech boom of the pandemic as the reasons behind the significant cuts.

“We will continue to invest in strategic areas for our future, meaning we are allocating both our capital and our talent to areas of long-term growth and long-term competitiveness for the future. company, while also divesting in other areas,” said Nadella.

It’s not clear if Microsoft is tabulating some of its metaverse plans or if AltspaceVR is just a victim of widespread company-wide cuts. Just a year and a half ago, Facebook boldly rebranded itself as “Meta,” plunging the industry into a noisy hype cycle around a deeper vision, possibly powered by VR for social network.

A year later, discussion of the metaverse has rapidly passed the stage of backlash, leaving the future of avatar-driven virtual social spaces ambiguous. Maybe the metaverse doesn’t need special hardware at all — the non-VR online world continues to thrive in 2023 — but it’s worth remembering a company that explored those possibilities years before the giants The sluggishness of technology appeared.



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