Workplace Disruption Reported at Meta Amid AR and VR Push, Some Staff Defecting to Competitors Like Apple

[chaospet]

“Mainstream”. Ha ha...

I don't know what else you call a game that is #1 on Steam's sales charts.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Has anyone else noticed that megacorps seem to have weird pathological obsessions with weird ideas that seem unwanted by most people?

Because sometimes the weird ideas work? Entering your personal information into a database in order to have an algorithm then connect you with everyone else on that system that attended the same high school, worked at the same job, and went to the same places? Weird idea, but it’s been somewhat of a hit for that company for a number of years. And, like you say, a cellular phone with no physical buttons? Pretty weird, at the time it was announced. Weird fails a lot. A LOT of lots. But when weird succeeds, it’s humongous.

1. Most people don’t want to wear goggles to see images.

The best way to think of this is that most people don’t want to use Macs. BUT, it doesn’t stop Apple from making a nice profit from them. A market doesn’t have to sell as well as, say, the Nintendo Switch to still be considered profitable and successful.

 

[jsalda]

At this point, Meta is just waiting for Apple to release the AR/VR headset. No matter what type of staff adjustments they’re going to through. They won’t release a product before Apple does.

Oculus?

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

The NFL just as ONE sport makes about $9.8 billion in revenue. Just doing a quick search for ”esports revenue” indicates $2 billion GLOBAL revenue. So, I guess it generates more revenue than SOME real sports, but you’d have to avoid comparing against the UEFA Champions League which also makes a billion and larger.

ALL real sports though? Not even close.

Well, maybe I got my info totally wrong, it was word of mouth. I'm happy to be corrected.

However, what I was really talking about was the revenue generated in gaming, especially the in-game type, that will be ripe for exploitation with VR.

 

[metapunk2077fail]

SPOILER if you haven't watched eXistenZ

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Well, maybe I got my info totally wrong, it was word of mouth. I'm happy to be corrected.

However, what I was really talking about was the revenue generated in gaming, especially the in-game type, that will be ripe for exploitation with VR.

You’re right, In-App purchases for games in general do make a lot of money and I think some of these recent big purchases are partly about how they companies can “mobilize” their current IP effectively (they both included big players in mobile and all the developers that entails). Because, in a real sense, every dollar NOT spent in iOS development is a dollar that won’t be making the huge ROI that mobile games can provide.

 

[chickenninja]

Not all nerds are created equal

 

[dysamoria]

I don't know what else you call a game that is #1 on Steam's sales charts.

??‍♂️ Steam isn’t the whole world of gaming. It’s odd that so many people act as if it is. It’s also loaded with crap, so being number 1 on steam might not be all that statistically impressive.

I’m on steam myself, but I’m aware of other marketplaces, a few I’ll buy from occasionally. I personally refuse use some of them (sick of some of the involved corporations), but I think I’m a rare case. I suspect most people just buy games in whatever marketplace they can get them.

 

[dysamoria]

Because sometimes the weird ideas work? Entering your personal information into a database in order to have an algorithm then connect you with everyone else on that system that attended the same high school, worked at the same job, and went to the same places? Weird idea, but it’s been somewhat of a hit for that company for a number of years. And, like you say, a cellular phone with no physical buttons? Pretty weird, at the time it was announced. Weird fails a lot. A LOT of lots. But when weird succeeds, it’s humongous.

The best way to think of this is that most people don’t want to use Macs. BUT, it doesn’t stop Apple from making a nice profit from them. A market doesn’t have to sell as well as, say, the Nintendo Switch to still be considered profitable and successful.

You think more people want to wear goggles on their face than want to use Macs?

I agree with your last statement.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

You think more people want to wear goggles on their face than want to use Macs?

I agree with your last statement.

Sales of VR headsets were projected to be 11 million in 2021, and I’m trying to look for if they beat that. If that was met, that’s half of Apple’s unit Mac sales in an average year (Apple usually sells around 20 million). If the trend continues, we’d expect see headset sales over 20 million a year by the end of 2023. Even accounting that some of those MAY be attached to Macs, they’d be outselling Mac hardware by that point.

 

[zoomp]

And it sucked back then, too! Second Life was a terrible experience for three reasons: 1) It was the worst form of free to play, most of your time spent as a free player would be doing stuff in game to earn meager amounts of Linden dollars. 2) It was like a sandbox game that makes it completely non-obvious what you can do or provides absolutely no structure. (2a] Very little of the things you could do were things you could do for free, and the real way to make money in Second Life was to pay real world money that you earned in a real world job - and those parts of Second Life weren’t especially fun - or to make stuff in Second Life and sell it for other players - they even had a scripting language for their items.) 3) All the furry fandom stuff (including the more sexual side of the fandom) was out there in the open (furry outfits were one of the default clothing options when I downloaded it), along with the other dodgy role playing that’s usually segregated to weird RP servers in MMOs.

The issue is that Sencond Life was glorified as the second coming of Jesus. Then it flopped. So...metaverse really feels like deja vu.

 

[MysticCow]

The issue is that Sencond Life was glorified as the second coming of Jesus. Then it flopped. So...metaverse really feels like deja vu.

The way they explain it seems to be like Facebook meets World of Warcraft...and it just doesn't make any sense to me. Hopefully someone else can explain it to me, LOL!

 

[jz0309]

and in good news today, Meta misses Wall Street expectations citing iOS privacy features and the stock is down 20+% in after-hours trading!

 

[chaospet]

??‍♂️ Steam isn’t the whole world of gaming. It’s odd that so many people act as if it is. It’s also loaded with crap, so being number 1 on steam might not be all that statistically impressive.

I’m on steam myself, but I’m aware of other marketplaces, a few I’ll buy from occasionally. I personally refuse use some of them (sick of some of the involved corporations), but I think I’m a rare case. I suspect most people just buy games in whatever marketplace they can get them.

I’m not claiming Steam is the whole world of gaming. But it is a very large gaming marketplace, and being #1 in that marketplace (along with others - Zenith was topping charts on Oculus and PSVR charts as well) is an indicator of a hell of a lot of people playing this game.

 

[dysamoria]

Sales of VR headsets were projected to be 11 million in 2021, and I’m trying to look for if they beat that. If that was met, that’s half of Apple’s unit Mac sales in an average year (Apple usually sells around 20 million). If the trend continues, we’d expect see headset sales over 20 million a year by the end of 2023. Even accounting that some of those MAY be attached to Macs, they’d be outselling Mac hardware by that point.

But they need to run on something. What are they going to run on?

Apple makes more sales on mobile devices than Macs. We’ve been seeing the Mac pushed to the back burner ever since iPhone came out.

Mobile devices don’t have the power for VR, though maybe AR (which is still a solution looking for a problem). Macs aren’t exactly hard-core gaming machines.

I don’t see the huge sales potential here. I think companies should be happy with making ANY profit, but we’ve seen that the new default corporate behavior is to drop everything that’s not making ALL THE MONEY.

??‍♂️

 

[Unregistered 4U]

But they need to run on something. What are they going to run on?

Some run on attached computers, some run on attached consoles, some like the Quest are self contained.

Apple makes more sales on mobile devices than Macs. We’ve been seeing the Mac pushed to the back burner ever since iPhone came out.

Right, and I believe that’s why we’ll soon see if more people want to wear goggles on their face than use Macs.

Mobile devices don’t have the power for VR, though maybe AR (which is still a solution looking for a problem). Macs aren’t exactly hard-core gaming machines.

The Oculus Quest 2, which I believe is the number one selling VR device today, is mobile. No separate PC required. And, in 2021, more standalone devices were sold than tethered, so the question of whether they have the power for VR appears to have been answered.

I don’t see the huge sales potential here. I think companies should be happy with making ANY profit, but we’ve seen that the new default corporate behavior is to drop everything that’s not making ALL THE MONEY.

There are folks that thought VR headsets wouldn’t reach 11 million and I found the numbers that confirmed they sold 12 and a half million in 2021. If the sales this year meet or exceed that, (and if content sales continue their impressive rise from 2021’s 2 billion) then there’s more than enough potential for a healthy growing market.

 

[jdoll021]

Has anyone else noticed that megacorps seem to have weird pathological obsessions with weird ideas that seem unwanted by most people?

Foldable phones, is an obvious one. Only tech nerds seem to be jumping up and down over this “feature” (but only the ones who cannot grasp the fundamental physical issues that no one will be overcoming). Yet, millions of dollars are spent pursuing it (each time proving the physical issues are real).

In other cases, it’s entertainment products that have a tiny market, like VR/AR. They spend millions of dollars pursuing something that doesn’t seem to have a practical real-world demand (VR can potentially be fun, but has anyone found AR to be an effective problem solver in real world usage?).

1. Most people don’t want to wear goggles to see images. This isn’t likely to change.

2. The tech is usually somehow less than performant at one or more levels: being physically & neurologically uncomfortable, crazy expensive, little desirable content that functionally demands VR (so they instead use VR as a gatekeeper to access said content -looking at you, Valve).

It’s like some kind of “Apple blew up so many markets with iPhone” Corporate PTSD, where every megacorp has FOMO, and a pathological need to make the next big thing... but they’re all still just copying each other anyway (especially copying what they suspect Apple is working on), and bringing expensive half-assed product to the market, and then bizarrely acting confused that it doesn’t turn into a massive success.

You know, as an engineer designing HVAC, I’m supposed to design the system to meet the needs of the building occupants, which are also my customers. At some point, you gotta wonder if all of these geeks and tech bros are designing the toys THEY want and, worse, that THEY think WE are supposed to want rather than designing the things WE the customers want or need.

For all the yapping and hype over Steve Jobs changing the world with the iPhone, I think we all forgot that he and his team asked themselves the questions “what would make the smart phone* intuitive and easier for regular people to use.” In other words, they thought about the needs of the customer. Unfortunately, no one is doing that anymore.

*Lots of people make the mistake that there were no smart phones before the iPhone. It’s true that they were nothing like iPhone or Android when they started coming out, but there absolutely were smart phones. I had one running windows mobile os. It was a AT&T branded HTC, with a slide out keyboard. It sucked too. My first iPhone (3G) was way better!

 

[ackmondual]

Because sometimes the weird ideas work? Entering your personal information into a database in order to have an algorithm then connect you with everyone else on that system that attended the same high school, worked at the same job, and went to the same places? Weird idea, but it’s been somewhat of a hit for that company for a number of years. And, like you say, a cellular phone with no physical buttons? Pretty weird, at the time it was announced. Weird fails a lot. A LOT of lots. But when weird succeeds, it’s humongous.

Dell got chastised for selling computers over the internet. "Nobody is going to want to buy a computer they haven't seen in person".
Similar deal with Amazon and online shopping. "I want to see and pick up the item before I buy it! Plus, I can always easily return it".

As for cell phones, that describes my progression...
Nokia 6133 to Samsung Galaxy s2 - No buttons!!
From that to Samsung Galaxy s4 - No menu button!
From that to LG G4 - no dedicated row of home touch buttons!
From that to Google Pixel 4A - no home touch buttons! It's also gesture motions! (also did away with the micro SD card slot, although with 128 GB models, it's much less of an issue)

The best way to think of this is that most people don’t want to use Macs. BUT, it doesn’t stop Apple from making a nice profit from them. A market doesn’t have to sell as well as, say, the Nintendo Switch to still be considered profitable and successful.

Ditto with Bing. It can't compete with Google in numbers, but they're able to get their piece of the pie and be content with that.
And the likes of console gaming. Even though there's more money in mobile gaming (by industry), they're going for a different audience.