Mark Zuckerberg showcased advances in 3D avatars in a virtual interview, but suffered a loss of $3.74bn in the third quarter of 2022 due to financial difficulties in Meta’s Reality Labs subsidiary. The company reduced its research groups, cutting staff numbers. Despite the announcement of the US$500 Quest 3 headset, customers criticised the company’s VR experience and headsets.

• Mark Zuckerberg surprised the audience in a virtual interview by presenting the latest developments in incredibly realistic 3D avatars.
• Avatars, although impressive, is no match for the staggering $3.74 billion loss that subsidiary Meta’s Reality Labs suffered in the third quarter of this year.
• Zuckerberg responded to the company’s financial difficulties by reducing the number of employees.
• As of August 2022, Meta’s losses had increased to $21.3bn.

Mark Zuckerberg touched the audience during a virtual interview, showcasing the latest developments in realistic 3D avatars in the Metaverse. However, these innovations are unable to offset the significant loss that subsidiary Meta’s Reality Labs suffered in the third quarter of this year – as much as $3.74 billion. In response to these financial difficulties, Zuckerberg decided to cut staff in research groups involved in the development of virtual and  augmented reality hardware and software.

Meta is playing a leading role in developing virtual reality technology. Their portfolio includes tools such as Spark AR Studio, supported by Facebook, for  augmented reality applications and the Meta Quest headset. The company is also conducting research in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Due to the unsuccessful financial situation, Meta has had to make the decision to  lay-offs. Although the exact number of employees to be made redundant is unknown, reports from Notebookcheck suggest that it could be as many as 21,000 people as of November 2022. The downsizing is a carefully considered move to reassure investors of Reality Labs’ viability in the face of declining revenues, although the company’s losses have grown to US$21.3 billion since August 2022.

In addition, several customers have criticised Meta for the VR experience and the headsets, claiming that they are cumbersome and incomplete, despite the projected high profits that Meta expects from them.

It is worth mentioning that Meta gave away free advanced Quest Pro headsets worth US$1,500 to every attendee of the Roblox RDC23 conference last year in an effort to influence the virtual reality space. With high hopes for an enhanced experience, the Quest 3  priced at US$500 will soon hit the market. However, virtual reality enthusiasts have expressed their dissatisfaction with the headsets’ audio features on platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Reddit, expecting improvements from the Met.

Much attention has been paid to recent technological advances, particularly the first Metaverse interview, described as revolutionary by podcaster Lex Fridman. The creation of realistic avatars are the result of advanced software that combines body scanning, 3D modelling and full face scanning. This suggests that there is even more potential to be discovered in the virtual world.