He metaverso it will not be the future, at least for Tencenta Chinese technology and video game conglomerate that employs more than 100,000 people and wants to expand its influence in the global video game industry.
However, 2022 was one of the worst financial years for Tencent, with its revenue weighed down by market regulations and the restrictions against Covid-19 in China. And for now Tencent postpones its plans to produce its own Virtual Reality device (a mixed one).
Reuters informs that Tencent is going to reduce its investment and personnel in the “extended reality” divisionwhich started in June 2022 with almost 300 people, who have already been notified 2 months in advance to find new employment opportunities inside or outside of Tencent, according to Business Insider.
The report cites three main reasons: the difficulty of getting cost effectiveness fast (would not have given benefits until 2027), difficulty in get investorsand a shortage of games and promising software, to abandon, at least for the moment, their plans for produce hardware for the metaverse.
Tencent no longer chases the metaverse, a lost cause?
According to Reuters, Tencent had been courting the idea of entering the world of virtual reality for seven years, and they decided to do so in 2021, after the good sales of Meta Quest and innovations such as pancake lenses.
But Tencent cancels, or indefinitely postpones, its plans to produce hardware and software for the metaverso.
It’s not the only one: Picothe creator of the Pico 4 viewer, one of the best VR headsets for quality/price, has laid off almost 200 people (Pico is part of the Chinese company ByteDance).
AppleInstead, it plans to release its long-awaited Virtual Reality headset this year, while Sony will launch PlayStation VR2 next week, more focused on games like Horizon Call of the Mountain than Metaverse’s (Facebook) metaverse plans.
