Meta has closed several of its VR studios, according to developers who have announced they have been laid off.
The New York Times reported on Monday that Meta was planning to cut around 10% of the employees in its Reality Labs division, which works on products including the metaverse.
Reality Labs is also home to Oculus Studios, the division of Meta that runs its first-party game development studios.
These layoffs appear to have now started, and the game studios appear to be part of the cuts. Andy Gentile, a designer at Twisted Pixel Games, posted on X that he had just lost his job as a part of the closures.
“I’ve just been laid off,” he wrote. “It appears the entire Twisted Pixel games studio has been shut down. Sanzaru Games too.”
This was corroborated by Ray West, a senior level designer at Sanzaru, who wrote on LinkedIn: “Welp. As many will hear soon, several Meta game studios were closed today, including Sanzaru.
“It was an amazing team of powerhouse talent, and I’m really glad to have gotten to know everyone there. But, onward – I am open to work.”
Twisted Pixel Games was founded in 2006 and was responsible for critically acclaimed Xbox Live Arcade titles The Maw, ‘Splosion Man, Ms ‘Splosion Man and Comic Jumper.
The studio was acquired by Meta in November 2021, and released Marvel’s Deadpool VR on Meta Quest 3 last year.
Sanzaru Games was also founded in 2006 and mostly worked on ports and remasters of Sony titles like Secret Agent Clank. The Sly Collection and God of War Collection.
In 2019 the studio released Asgard’s Wrath on the original Oculus Rift, before being acquired by Facebook (before it became Meta) to work on Asgard’s Wrath 2, which was included as a free launch game on Meta Quest 3.
According to the New York Times report, Meta’s chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, who oversees Reality Labs, called for a meeting on Wednesday, urging staff to attend in person and calling it the “most important” meeting of the year.
It’s been reported that Meta plans to to reduce its focus on VR devices and the metaverse, as it pivots to focus on other divisions such as AI research and its wearables division (which includes smart glasses and wristband computing devices).