Source: Microsoft
As Microsoft laid off over 10,000 workers across the company, one of the divisions impacted is its mixed reality arm. And one of the results is the shutdown of its social virtual reality platform, AltspaceVR. The company acquired the platform back in 2017, but now it meets its end on March 10. According to Microsoft, it will help the company shift focus "to support immersive experiences powered by Microsoft Mesh." Users of AltspaceVR can download their data before the shutdown.
AltspaceVR was one of the first social VR experiences in 2015, but it shut down in 2017 due to financial issues. Microsoft bought the platform to build its own mixed-reality ecosystem. As The Verge pointed out, Microsoft is reexamining its mixed reality ambitions. It's been reported that the team working on the open-source Mixed Reality Toolkit has been laid off along with the AltspaceVR team.