Meta VR Lost $3.74 Billion

Good morning folks!

I’m glad to say that some new subscribers are joining us today. Welcome to our small VR club, everyone! Now, as a Spatial member, your duty is to bring 3 more people to our club and their duty will be to bring in 3 more people each. Then, they will…wait, isn’t that a pyramid scheme? Oops. Scratch that. I don’t want to testify before Congress like those alien whistle-blowers.

In today’s news headlines:

• 📉 Meta’s VR Division Lost $3.74 Billion

• 💸 VR Investments Skyrocket In June 2023

• 🍎 Vision Pro Displays Costlier Than Quest 3

• 🎮 Roblox Launches On Meta Quest Via App Lab

Read time: 3 minutes

TOP STORIES

META EARNINGS

Meta Rises But Reality Labs Gets A Reality Check

The big news on Wall Street is Meta’s Q2 Earnings Call. Zuck’s enterprise beat analyst expectations and raked in $32 billion in revenue with a profit of $7.7 billion.

Just two quarters ago, Meta was in a stressful state. Stocks crashed after a decline in Facebook user growth, less advertising demand, and mounting losses from the metaverse.

But now, it looks like the lizard man has turned it all around, thanks to an increase in active users, sky-high ad rates and cutting costs after mass layoffs. Meta stock has soared 250% since its Nov 22 bottom. I mean, if I invested all my life savings in Meta stock then, I would now have…well, nothing. I drained my bank paying for all those Beat Saber VR songs.

All this is good news for us, VR enthusiasts. It means that the company spearheading the VR revolution has the extra money to pay for it. But, things are looking different in their Reality Labs VR division:

• VR generated $276 million in Q2 revenue. Yay!

• But they lost $3.74 billion in VR operating expenses. Ouch!

• 39% revenue decline compared to last year due to low Quest sales. Oh!

But fear not. The Quest 2 is at the end of its life cycle. The Quest 3 holiday sales and the upcoming VR hype generated by Vision Pro will bring in more moola.

GAMING

Roblox Launches On Meta Quest VR Headsets

Roblox, the popular gaming platform, is now available on Meta Quest VR headsets via App Lab. A full Quest Store release will happen at a later date.

This is big news for VR as it has over 200 million monthly active users. That’s as big as Minecraft and Fortnite combined! Plus, their user base reportedly includes over half of American children under 16.

But here's the catch: the official minimum age to use Meta Quest headsets is 13. Thankfully, later this year, Meta is reducing that age to 10 years old with the introduction of preteen accounts.

This would enable the next generation of consumers to get into the VR ecosystem and drive mass adoption in the next decade. In the short term, it’ll help increase demand for the upcoming Quest 3 titles during the holiday sales.

AUDIO UPGRADE

A BIG Spatial Audio Upgrade Coming To Meta’s Quests

Hold on to your eardrums because Meta is introducing a new Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) model for a more realistic 3D audio experience. It's like having a custom home theatre sound system...but for your head!

The new Universal HRTF model promises better sound localization and frequency accuracy. In layman's terms, you'll know exactly where that zombie is growling from and it'll sound terrifyingly real.

Meta tested the new HRTF model with 100 test participants, and it outperformed the old model in both subjective tests and objective performance measurements. The test subjects were able to locate sound sources more accurately, with height accuracy improving by an average of 81 per cent.

Meanwhile, Apple's Vision Pro is trying to take it to the next level and get inside your head. They’re going to scan the user's head and ear shape to create an individual HRTF model.

NEWS FLASH

METAVERSE FASHION

Barbengamer: Rec Room Now Offers Barbie Outfits

Rec Room is cashing in on the Barbenheimer craze and now offers Barbie and Ken outfits, including cowboy hats, vests, and belt accessories. The timing is great as the Mattel movie made close to half a billion dollars within its first week of release. Now, I can’t wait for the Oppenheimer merch next and blow up my friends in Rec Room with the atomic bomb.

🥊 VR Boxing: Xtadium VR will bring the highly anticipated Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz boxing match into Virtual Reality.

🍎 Vision Pro Displays: Apple headset’s OLED displays cost more than a Quest 3. Each of the internal displays costs $228 while the external display costs $70.

🏴‍☠️ Anti Piracy: Meta releases anti-piracy tools for Quest developers that will protect VR apps from “unauthorized modifications and potential security breaches.”

💀 VR Skeletons: VR Education App ‘Human Anatomy’ Now Available on PSVR 2.

🔫 66% Life Alyx: Popular game Half-Life Alyx is available at a record discount of 66% this weekend.

🧠 Hubris Update: The VR shooter Hubris gets a big upgrade, new sound and a good discount.

UNREAL MONEY

FUNDING REPORT

VR Investments Skyrocket In June Thanks To Apple.

• AR, VR and mixed reality (XR) start-ups in the US raised $208mn in June.

• That’s more than the last 3 months combined!

• Funding in the sector was slowly drying up as investors were shifting focus to AI companies.

• The Vision Pro announcement revived investor interest in VR and analysts expect funding figures to rise in the coming months.

COOL PROJECTS

SKYRIM

Giving an existential crisis to Skyrim NPCs

WRAP UP

MEME OF THE DAY

People will do anything to avoid wearing a VR headset

Happy weekend everyone.

Is anybody watching the alien hearings in Congress and wondering if this is real life? I have so many questions. What if aliens actually exist? What does that mean for humanity’s existence as a whole? But most importantly, why do the aliens only come to the USA?

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