Meta shuts down Prepared at Daybreak, certainly one of its largest VR studios

Prepared at Daybreak Studios has been shut down after greater than 20 years growing video games for platforms just like the PSP and the Meta Quest (previously Oculus Rift).

The corporate, which had been engaged on the Lone Echo VR sequence for father or mother firm Oculus Studios, is closing efficient instantly. In line with Android Central, which broke the information (former employees confirmed the shutdown on LinkedIn), the cuts had been to “make sure that Actuality Labs stays throughout the new budgetary constraints and that Oculus Studios could make a ‘higher long-term influence’ in VR growth.” The father or mother firm can also be encouraging laid off employees to use to different jobs inside Oculus Studios.

Prepared at Daybreak was initially shaped in 2003 by ex-Naughty Canine members to work on PSP video games like Daxter and God of Struggle: Chains of Olympus. Its first authentic IP was the The Order: 1886 in 2015, which was not acquired properly however has retained a form of bizarre cult standing amongst gamers. It hopped into VR growth with Lone Echo in 2017, and was subsequently acquired by Oculus Studios. Its final recreation was Lone Echo 2 in 2021, nevertheless it ended Echo VR assist to give attention to different initiatives a few years later.

The studio was hit by layoffs in 2023 as a part of Meta’s bigger cuts throughout the corporate that affected hundreds of employees.

Final week, Meta launched its quarterly financials, which confirmed that Actuality Labs — its AR/VR and metaverse phase — reported a $4.49 billion working loss. The division has reported losses over every of the final 4 quarters, and for the reason that begin of 2019 has misplaced round $59.5 billion.

Meta executives mentioned in an earnings name that the corporate will proceed to put money into the “full set of ambitions” in Actuality Labs, together with digital actuality. CFO Susan Li highlighted the Quest 3 headset, together with Meta’s push into AR glasses. A spokesperson informed Android Central that we shouldn’t anticipate extra cuts to video games growth.