Meta, which hasn’t been in a great position lately, is either slimming down its services or raising its prices.
VGC reported that Mark Zuckerberg’s company revealed in a statement that the Facebook Gaming app would die in two months and its features will be moved to the main Facebook app. This app was designed to be a hub for fans to follow their favourite streamers or keep in touch with the official social media pages of several games. The company has poured a ton of money into the project. It has also brought in prominent streamers from Twitch and YouTube to sign exclusive, multi-year deals (something like this was used by the now defunct Mixer, along with Amazon’s and Alphabet’s sites just mentioned.)
The announcement reads: “Beginning on 28 October 2022, the Facebook Gaming app for iOS and Android will no longer be available. After this date, this app will no longer work. You can download your gaming app search data here. We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you for everything you’ve done to build a thriving community for gamers and fans since this app first launched. This was truly a community-led effort to bring new gaming features to Facebook. Despite this news, our mission to connect players, fans and creators with the games they love hasn’t changed, and you’ll still be able to find your games, streamers and groups when you visit Gaming in the Facebook app.”
So Meta is cutting back on spending. The company is in a tough spot these days, even though they still have Instagram. Reality Labs, the company behind the Meta Quest, recently explained why its newest VR headset’s price was raised by $100, even though the reception of the Meta Quest 2 was quite good: their explanation follows. “By adjusting the price of Quest 2, we can continue to grow our investment in groundbreaking research and new product development that pushes the VR industry to new heights.
We have an ambitious VR hardware roadmap, beginning with the launch of our high-end headset, Project Cambria, later this year. And we plan to ship new generations of Meta Quest after that.”
Source: VGC