Metaverse failed: The difficult reality of the Metaverse. In addition to the hostility of the financiers, Zuckerberg also has to face that of Meta’s users and staff. His right-hand man, Andrew Bosworth, admits that 2022 was a hellish year for the company and never mentioned the Metaverse in a recent interview and message to investors. The strategy now seems to lower the bar and think about a narrower version of the Metaverse, starting with augmented reality. Failure is just around the corner and could spell the end of the Facebook empire. And yet, Meta’s determination towards its metaverse projects seems intact: this is demonstrated not only by the tens of billions invested despite the unfavourable economic cycle or Mark Zuckerberg’s perseverance but also by the advertising throughout Europe telling, online and offline about the various possibilities offered by the next era of the web.
It’s all about augmented reality
Yet a closer look reveals a very different situation. First of all, the aforementioned advertisements, e.g. those telling how students will learn history in the future, do not refer to virtual reality but almost always to augmented reality. They are two very different technologies: if virtual reality involves transferring certain experiences into a completely digital environment, isolating us from what physically surrounds us, augmented reality, on the other hand, aims to add digital elements to the physical world, allowing us, for example, to view Google Maps directions directly on asphalt.
In short, these are, in some ways, antithetical tools, and curiously, Meta (which has always described its Metaverse as a virtual reality environment) is now shifting its focus to a different technology that has very little to do with the idea it has relentlessly promoted over the past twelve months. Is a U-turn underway? There is another aspect that could confirm this theory. In the post in which Andrew Bosworth, the technical manager of Meta’s Reality Labs (in which all virtual and augmented reality technologies are developed), talks about his plans for 2023, the word ‘metaverse’ never appears, not even once. This is a curious detail, considering that in last year’s equivalent post, it was mentioned at least 12 times.
Changing the scenario
The first to notice this fact was, on his blog, the expert Wagner James Au, who also related this curious absence to the very recent resignation of John Carmack, a virtual reality specialist and crucial Meta consultant who had defined the construction of the Metaverse as a ‘moral imperative’. In the same post, Bosworth nevertheless confirmed the release of the Quest 3 visor for 2023 and that Meta will continue investing 20 per cent of its budget in Reality Labs. However, 50 per cent of this money will be earmarked for developing augmented reality visors.
So, is Meta abandoning the Metaverse as it had understood it until yesterday and trying to redefine what it means by this term? Considering also the pitiless numbers of Horizon Worlds (the Meta-designed environment that most resembles the Metaverse and that has dropped from 300 thousand to 200 thousand monthly users in the past few months), it cannot be ruled out that Zuckerberg has realized that this colossal project is not enthusing anyone and that it might be dead before it even becomes a reality. In short, the Metaverse is still not convinced about its usefulness.
There are glimpses of potential for some specific functionalities. Still, the idea that millions (or billions) of people could spend a good chunk of their existence in a virtual world is something that looks more like a nightmare than an opportunity for prosperity. A scenario that could further exacerbate the digital alienation that is affecting humanity.
