Microsoft confirmed this week that it will lay off 10,000 employees of the company. Due to mass layoffs in several divisions, the company decided to shut down most of the Hololens team, as well as shut down the AltspaceVR project entirely.. In search of restructuring, the American company is ending investments in virtual reality and mixed reality.

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AltspaceVR has already announced on its official website that will be completely closed on March 10. Microsoft acquired AltspaceVR in 2017, but the project aimed at creating a virtual reality workspace hasn’t brought the company much results.

The HoloLens project suffered from layoffs

Apart from the closure of AlspaceVR, HoloLens is another project that has been hit hard by the layoffs. Chief Architect Alex Kipman left the company a few months ago and Microsoft has struggled as the technology has been largely disrupted due to The US government’s decision not to fund a headset for the military.

In addition, the layoffs also completely shut down the team involved in the MRTK (Mixed Reality Tool Kit) project, the release of a new version of which is scheduled for February this year. The platform will serve as the basis for developing new designs for HoloLens 2 and other headsets.

Looking at the teams that have been disabled, we can see that Microsoft has decided to end its investment in virtual reality and mixed reality. However, the closure affected several segments of the company, including employees from some of the company’s main game studios who were also laid off. With the current economic crisis, several big companies like Spotify and Amazon started 2023 by announcing mass layoffs. As companies look to cut costs and restructure, many people will start the year looking for a new job.

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Source: Canada Today.

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