The head of Meta virtual reality platform Horizon resigned after Zuckerberg's Yuan Universe selfie was mocked.
On Friday, August 27, the head of VR, the social platform of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms, announced that he was leaving to look for new opportunities. Horizon is the main gateway for Meta to invest billions of dollars in building so-called "Metaverse".
Meta spokesman Bryan Pope confirmed the departure of Vivik Sharma, the company's vice president, and said his team would report directly to Vishal Shah, vice president of meta-cosmic operations. Sharma declined to give details of the reasons for his departure. He has worked at Meta for five years and was previously vice president of products for Facebook Games and Facebook Marketplace.
A spokesman for Meta said in a statement: "under Sharma's leadership, the Horizon product team has become a strong team with ambition and long-term vision, and this is just the beginning. Meta will continue to be the source of excellent leaders, and we are pleased to see Sharma make greater achievements in the future career."
Sharma is responsible for developing durable, immersive virtual environments that users can experience in Meta's meta-universe through VR devices such as Oculus helmets.
Although the business related to Meta meta-universe is still in its infancy, the goal is to make these virtual worlds the main platform for brands and third-party developers to reach Meta users. The platforms created by Sharma's team include Horizon Worlds, an extended VR world building platform, and Horizon Venues, which focuses on virtual activities.
Horizon Workrooms is a virtual conferencing technology for business customers, operated by Meta's "home and work" division that focuses on the enterprise business.
For Horizon, Sharma's departure came at an awkward moment. Meta-universe is a big bet of Meta, and Horizon is one of its core products, but recently the whole project has received criticism and attention.
To help promote the launch of Horizon Worlds in France and Spain, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg posted screenshots on Facebook, with critics mocking the poor quality of his digital avatar. Zuckerberg released a second photo a few days later, showing a more complex image. He admitted that the previous images were "very simple" and promised that "major updates will be made to Horizon and the digital body soon."
Meta is introducing new hardware, including the new VR helmet, which Zuckerberg announced on Friday. At the same time, the company recently launched a new Meta account that allows users to use Quest helmets without having to log in to Facebook. But so far, meta-universe has proved to be a costly adventure. Last quarter, the company's reality lab division reported a loss of $2.8 billion.
