SAN JOSE: Meta is shutting down the virtual reality (VR) experience of Horizon Worlds, the company announced on Tuesday.
From June 15, the company will remove the Horizon Worlds app from Quest headsets. The Horizon Worlds platform will then become a "mobile-only experience," Meta said.
The company said it was separating its Quest VR platform from the Worlds platform in order to allow both products to grow.
"By breaking things down into two distinct platforms, we'll be better able to clearly focus on each."
Meta said it remained the single biggest investor in the VR industry.
"Why? Because we believe in VR as a critical technology on the path to the next computing platform."
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had spent years trying to establish VR as the next big thing in computing, including rebranding from Facebook to Meta in 2021.
However, the company's Reality Labs division – responsible for the virtual worlds venture – has reported successive operating losses.
Zuckerberg has been ramping up spending on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, with plans to outpace rivals such as ChatGPT developer OpenAI, as well as Google and Elon Musk's company xAI, in the AI race.
Meta plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in expanding its data centres in the coming years.– dpa
