John Carmack had some choice words when he left Meta.
"We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort. There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy.
“It has been a struggle for me. I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I’m evidently not persuasive enough. A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up, but I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it. I think my influence at the margins has been positive, but it has never been a prime mover.”
Imagine getting John Carmack on your project and ignoring him. Like, what was the point? Zuck got lucky in the beginning and was cut throat enough to hold on to it, but he has no entrepreneurial talent.
Facebook would make considerably more money if he stayed out of the decision making processes and just let talented people do it. But ego is going to ego I guess.
Zuckerberg was paying for the Carmack name but thought he knew better.
read one vr llc he paid 45b for was a total scam. posted a few months back; sigh; https://futurism.com/scale-ai-zuckerberg-incompetence
perma-ban last week instead of usual timeout. no reason. community standards. glad that shitshow is over. robots clicking robot posts for ad views. hope i live to see that bubble crash and burn. been a good life mostly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnvers6_Km8
They could have done this AND universal healthcare. Universal Healthcare would actually save us money allowing us to put more into useless BS like Meta VR.
My conspiracy theory is that it was wildly successful, because the point wasn’t creating whatever VR space they claimed wanted to happen; it was to cover up the story of the Facebook papers. The timing lines up (both in October 2021 within a day or two). The additional patents acquired in the process are just a nice little bonus.
Investors ate up the idea from someone who has a history of wildly successful growth. And we all know, it would have been outcry from investors that caused any real change (in America at least) about Facebook’s business practices.
Can you pls elaborate on what Facebook Papers is? I am aware of the failure that is Facebooks Metaverse, but not whatever their ‘Papers’ thing is
$73G to make VR Miis with no legs
Meanwhile, VRChat:
This just proves any VR project without any trans people is doomed to fail
Anyone remember when the media was sucking Meta’s dick over the metaverse like they’re doing now with AI?
I want this level of self reflection when we look back at headlines like: “Did you know a child-raping terrorist that bankrupted every one of his businesses said he wants to invade Greenland!? See the 24-hour perpetual interview!!11”
IT’S NOT A BUBBLE!!!
Yeah but this also means they will shit on AI companies in a few years (I hope).
No, I’m worried now. What did I forget?
MetaZuc looks more human than the real thing.
He is.
It wasn’t for nothing! I’m sure Meta generated tons of patents they’ll use to stifle anyone else in the industry who tries to innovate.
There’s not a lot they can patent. VR existed before they started this project, inside out tracking existed before they started this project, and there are other products with similar ideas that go far further than anything metaverse ever put out (I feel like it never even released).
If it makes you feel better, that $77 billion was just numbers in a ledger. Vapor bucks. It was just a representation of Zuckerburg’s power in society, which is now gone. It’s not like $77 billion in food or housing vanished. The financial economy is mostly not backed by real things.
So you’re saying the VR industry is essential to the American economy and needs a bailout. /s
Has no one commented on the side eye - “what the feck am I doing working for this idiot?”
I would’ve done it too. Live in the company parking lot, save until the music stops, retire early.
There’s something wrong with anyone who doesn’t find that image disturbing.
Brrr.
I’m sorry, the free market allocated that cash to efficient uses.
VR just isnt there. You’ll need matrix or Ready Player One type integration before people jump on.
Nah, the issue is they made a far inferior product to the already existing and well-established VRChat, which not only has a large pre-existing playerbase, but also allows exponentially more user freedom and expression than the slop they put out.
I don’t follow VR closely so I am curious as to what exactly Meta did accomplish. You seem to have some awareness of this space. They spent an insane amount of money building shit, they must have made something remarkable even if no one cared. Could they really have built only a second rate VR Chat alternative? I mean with that amount of money, he could have built a replacement for credit card processors.
Basically what Truscape said. Their hardware, specifically the Quest headsets, is easy for newcomers to get into. They’re relatively cheap compared to other headsets and can be used standalone without a PC, with the caveat of not being as powerful and unable to play many titles or having to play downgraded versions unless connected to a VR capable PC. The Quest also has standalone tracking, meaning it can be used anywhere without the requirement of mounted external sensors. You could pack up the headset and controllers and take it to your friend’s place to have them try it out, with no setup required.
When connected to a VR capable PC, either by USB-C or wireless AirLink, it functions like any other headset with the PC running the game and streaming it to the headset. This allows you to play PCVR games using the Quest.
tl;dr The hardware is largely more affordable and accessible, but nobody wants to use their software.
Their hardware options were quite competitive and were very accessible price-wise for people who wanted to experience VR. Nobody wanted to use their software, though. Grab a USB-C cable (or use Airlink), connect it to a PC, and play SteamVR games like VRchat, Pavlov VR, Into the Radius, and Half Life Alyx for a good time. Or play VRChat with worse quality textures and heavy model restrictions natively on Meta Hardware.
Nobody wanted to use Meta software, but the budget conscious really liked meta hardware (basically owning the sub-400 USD portion of the market).
Of course the privacy-conscious saw the writing on the wall and didn’t opt in at all to their ecosystem.
God knows where the money went, but it was most definitely just an inferior version of VRChat that constantly advertised to you and asked you for money.
And then they tried to shove microtransactions and NFTs into said product before users even had legs.
If they had legs, they could’ve an easier time walking away though.
