Meta VR Division Hit by Layoffs; Employees Express Deep Sadness

Big news from Meta: some folks are out at Reality Labs. That’s the division behind their VR and hardware dreams. Yes, layoffs have hit. It’s never easy, is it?

Which Teams Were Affected?

Word is, teams working on VR games for the Quest headsets took a hit. Also, the team that brought us the Supernatural fitness app. You know, the one where you box to the beat in VR? That team’s smaller now, too.

Supernatural’s Community Feels the Impact

The Supernatural community is feeling it. A post on their Facebook group (over 112,000 members! ) confirmed the news. “Deeply saddened,” it read. Some talented team members are gone. Less workouts per week are coming. Ouch.

A Big Investment, a Big Bet

Meta bought Within Unlimited (Supernatural’s creator) back in February 2023. Cost them over $400 million. They even fought off an antitrust lawsuit to make it happen. This stings a little more, right?

More Cuts at Meta

Remember those performance-based layoffs back in February? Meta cut 5% of its global workforce then. That’s about 3,600 people. Some folks said they were surprised, even with good track records. At least 560 VR folks were impacted by those cuts. According to insiders, 2025 is a make-or-break year for Meta’s VR push. Time to sell, keep users, and get them hooked.

Leaky Ships Sink, Too

Meta also fired almost two dozen employees for leaking stuff. Internal memos, meeting recordings… you name it. Loose lips, as they say.

VR is Popular, But Costly

Don’t get me wrong, Meta’s VR stuff is popular. They’ve sold close to 20 million Quest headsets! The Quest 3 came out in October 2023 and sold at least a million units by June 2024. But… it’s expensive. Really expensive. About $60 billion in losses since 2020. Reality Labs brought in $1. 1 billion in sales last quarter. But they lost almost $5 billion. A tough pill to swallow.