Meta's Reality Labs Has Now Lost over $60B Since 2020

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall view on Meta’s VR bet

  • Many see the $60B as a massive, likely unrecoverable overbet on a niche technology and “metaverse” vision that users don’t want.
  • Others argue it’s simply long‑term R&D spend, not “lost” money, and praise the willingness to take big risks rather than just do buybacks.
  • Some think the push was partly an attempt to escape reliance on Apple/Google’s mobile platforms and rebrand away from Facebook’s reputation issues.

Use cases, killer apps, and Horizon Worlds

  • Strong sentiment that Meta should focus on games, not corporate-feeling products like Horizon Worlds, which are seen as creepy or pointless.
  • Several users cite specific games (Beat Saber, Walkabout Mini Golf, Puzzling Places, Blades & Sorcery, etc.) as genuinely compelling, but agree there’s no singular “killer app” on the scale of Pong/Mario/iPhone.
  • Porn/VR chat are mentioned as real adoption drivers, but also as socially problematic.

Technical and UX constraints

  • Motion sickness remains a major barrier; acceleration, rapid turning, and mismatch with the vestibular system are recurring complaints.
  • Mixed reality and teleport locomotion help, but severely constrain game design (especially fast FPS).
  • Headsets are bulky, inconvenient, update‑prone, and often end up “collecting dust.”
  • Standalone headsets improved accessibility but forced big graphical compromises; PCVR’s abandonment is lamented by some.

Market adoption and ecosystem

  • Charts of AR/VR forecasts vs actual sales show persistent over-optimism; actual sales are essentially flat.
  • Classic chicken‑and‑egg: few headsets → few games → little reason to buy headsets.
  • Several argue Meta should have massively seeded hardware to schools/indies and opened the platform more, instead of building tightly controlled “metaverse” worlds.

Financial, strategic, and ethical reflections

  • Comparisons are drawn to more societally beneficial uses for $60B (e.g., fusion, social problems), though others note that money was never destined for public interest.
  • Some see the whole “metaverse” as a solution in search of a problem, akin to blockchain hype.
  • A minority view: even if VR stays a niche, ambitious R&D and genuine novelty are preferable to stagnation.