The latest round of layoffs at Microsoft, which announced it will cut 10,000 jobs this year, has affected teams key to its VR (virtual reality) and metaverse efforts, according to reports. The company will shut down two projects in these areas, Altspacevr and the Mixed Reality Tool Kit, which could affect Microsoft’s progress in these areas.
Microsoft VR and Metaverse teams hit by layoffs
The latest round of layoffs Announced by Microsoft on January 18, has reportedly hit the company’s metaverse and VR (virtual reality) initiatives, potentially impacting progress in these areas. Among the 10,000 jobs set to be cut this year, representing 5% of Microsoft’s global workforce, the teams behind initiatives like Altspacevr and the Mixed Reality Tool Kit are being cut as part of this reorganization process.
Altspacevr, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2017, has already announced that sunset his platform on March 10. The platform, which was intended to provide services to facilitate the creation of virtual environments for events with the participation of artists, creators, brands and companies, will migrate to Mesh, a more work-focused platform that has integration with Microsoft Teams.
The Mixed Reality Toolkit, an open source set of tools The creation of user interfaces for the metaverse will also apparently be abandoned, as there are no announcements of new teams dedicated to their development at the time of writing.
Slowdown of the metaverse and virtual reality
While the company justified these layoffs as a move to align its cost structure with revenue and customer demand, some believe these localized layoffs in the metaverse and VR industry signal a slowdown in the company’s progress. in this area.
The reported layoffs at Microsoft primarily affect initiatives focused on the consumer metaverse, following the course Meta has taken by laying off 13% of its workforce, eliminating 11,000 jobs.
However, Microsoft’s higher-ups believe in the metaverse and other disruptive technologies, and the progress they will bring in the future. Recently, Satya Nadella, the company’s CEO, said that the sense of presence that metaverse technology can provide is a game changer.
Microsoft is also involved in the creation of the Global Collaboration Village, the metaverse world of the World Economic Forum (WEF), and has shown interest in investing in AI (artificial intelligence) projects such as Openai, creators of AI bot Chatgpt.
What do you think about the layoffs affecting the metaverse and VR-focused teams at Microsoft? Tell us in the comments section below.
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