Meta perseveres with the metaverse: is Meta Quest 3 a flop?
The Meta Quest 3 is a hi-tech gem, but the general public seems indifferent. Another nail in the metaverse coffin?
Even if we don't have official numbers, without too many surprises Meta Quest 3 is turning out to be a real flop. Not that the news is unexpected, given that it is well known that the metaverse has so far proved to be a disastrous investment , with many multinationals fleeing from those virtual lands. Only Meta (and perhaps Apple ), in fact, continues to insist on it. He probably can't do otherwise given that Mark Zuckerberg believed in the operation so much that he renamed the Group in a similar way.
IS META QUEST 3 A FLOP?
Even if Meta tries in every way to deny and relaunch it , the Metaverse remains a virtual place of real desolation. This is confirmed by the data brought to light by the TF International Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, according to which the supplies of the Meta Quest 3, a 550 euro peripheral which in fact constitutes the key to access the infinite virtual universes in which to play, work and inquire, they would have already been cut by 80%.
ARE THE DISMISSALS DUE TO THE STUMP ON THE METAVERSE?
The Chinese analyst, who has been active on the dossier for some time, claims that demand would have been 5 million units lower than the company's estimates, so much so that it led to layoffs within the Reality Labs division.
Part of the 4,000 layoffs recently announced by Meta could be linked to the loss of revenue from Meta Quest 3, which is a hi-tech gem and therefore not even economical to produce for the Group.
Furthermore, it seems no coincidence that among the most affected divisions is Reality Labs, which deals with the company's VR technologies. For Kuo, Meta would have cut supply estimates for Q4 2023 by 5-10%, while for Q1 2024 by 70-80%.
A RECORD 2023
Despite Meta's heavy spending on the Metaverse , Meta's accounts continue to fly well beyond expectations: in the third quarter of 2023 turnover grew by 23%, achieving the strongest acceleration since 2021 and reaching 34.15 billions of dollars.
Even the forecasts that wanted the Menlo Park creature to stop at 33.56 billion were exceeded. Profits swelled by 164% to 11.54 billion and earnings per share were $4.39 versus the expected $3.63. What is all this due to? To digital advertising collection.
WHO ESCAPES FROM THE METAVERSE
The first to smell something bad was Microsoft which, in addition to having fired 11 thousand employees last March 10, also closed AltspaceVR , the social virtual reality platform that it acquired in 2017 and which deals with developing solutions in this sense by hosting events and social spaces in which people can freely participate.
Sony viewers also risk losing a large amount of money to the Japanese videogame multinational, leaving the public indifferent. And to say that Sony, as usual, has invested heavily in it, making its viewers the first consumer products to offer eye tracking capable of immersing gamers in quality virtual reality without a PC with a 4K resolution of 2000×2040 for superior eye to Meta Quest 2.
Not at a low price: seven years after the launch of the first one, to take home Playstation Vr2 released on February 22nd you need to leave something like 599 euros on the shopkeeper's counter, or the equivalent of a console. Which of course is useful and also costs more or less the same amount. If we then want to try them with a game, we have to spend 649 euros in the case of the bundle with Horizon Call of the Mountain . And if you don't have the PlayStation 5, another 549 euros for the Standard version or 449 for the Digital version. In short, the all-inclusive package exceeds one thousand euros.
The latest to exit the back doors of the metaverse is Disney struggling with a strict diet to get back into the books . The Group, according to what sources close to the dossier reported to the Wall Street Journal , has already eliminated the division that developed the metaverse directed by Mike White .
All 50 team members have lost their jobs with the exception of White who will remain in the company, obviously in another role, as the team no longer exists. On paper, the Disney metaverse had all it takes to succeed, being able to create a virtual world in which to merge the Group's countless intellectual properties, from Aladdin to the Lion King , passing through mice, ducks and so on.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/meta-persevera-col-metaverso-il-meta-quest-3-e-un-flop/ on Mon, 06 Nov 2023 11:47:11 +0000.