A bad week for the Metaverse

This past week was a bad one for proponents of the Metaverse… however you define it.

The once hotly anticipated AR game “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite” shutdown, and no one seemed to care. This shutdown builds on shutdowns in 2021 of Niantic's “Catan: World Explorers” and Mojang Studios’ “Minecraft Earth”. Finding a second AR hit after “Pokémon Go” (which came out nearly 6 years ago) has proven elusive.

Business Insider reported that Microsoft scrapped its plans for HoloLens 3 and that its plans for the Metaverse were in disarray. Microsoft’s Alex Kipman issued a non-denial denial.

Meta reported during the holiday quarter its Reality Labs division losses grew more than twice as fast as revenues (57% vs. 22%), and for 2021, Reality Labs lost $10 billion.

On top of that, Meta reported the profit engines that would fund Reality Labs through the expected years of losses until it achieves significant profits have stalled. Investors pummeled Meta’s stock price, sending it down 27%.

The path to the Metaverse, what it will look like, how long it will take to get there, and how large and profitable it will actually be has become murkier this past week.