Meta has launched the Quest 3 VR headset with enhanced features and game library. Notably, there is no mention of the metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds, suggesting a move away from the metaverse.

The new headset has many new features such as a higher resolution display and a 40% slimmer optical profile. The new kit will include over 500 game titles and will be available in the fall of 2023 for $499. But what’s clearly missing is no mention of Meta’s metaverse, Horizon Worlds, and why the company is rebranding from Facebook in late 2021.

There is no mention of Horizon Worlds throughout the promotional video on YouTube. announcement on that website. strange? maybe not.

Earlier this year, the tech giant announced it would cut 10,000 jobs, or 13% of its workforce. “Update on Meta’s Efficiency Year” came with a list of meaningless clichés and retroactive justifications for layoffs, including subheadings like “Flatten is Faster” and “Slim is Better”. .

But the message was clear. The company was turning away from the Metaverse side of the project.

Reality Labs, the company’s metaverse arm, posted an operating loss of $3.99 billion in April this year. Instead of virtual worlds, Meta has a new favorite tech trend.

Zuckerberg said AI “will literally touch all of our products.”

However, online reaction to the announcement of MetaQuest 3 seems largely positive. Commenters focus on improving it as a meta VR headset for gaming. Not as a gateway to Meta’s own online world.

Interest in virtual worlds faces long-term decline

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Meta and Zuckerberg have shied away from the Metaverse. Interest in the Metaverse has plummeted by 91% since its January 2022 peak, according to Google Trends.

Interest is about as low as it was in the days before Facebook rebranded itself to Meta. At the time, the rebrand sparked excitement about the technology and the massive pumping of his token into the Metaverse.

Even in cryptocurrencies, interest in Metaverse tokens has been on a long-term downward trend. Decentraland’s token, MANA, has fallen 20% in the last 90 days and 9.7% in the last 30 days. The Sandbox Metaverse token, SAND, fell 13% and 1% over the same period.

Similarly, according to CoinGecko, the metaverse lands of platforms such as Otherdeeds, The Sandbox, Decentraland, Somnium, and Voxels have experienced significant value declines of over 90% over the past year. report.