{"id":821114,"date":"2026-03-12T16:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/821114\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T16:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:54:10","slug":"meta-exec-hopes-vr-teens-will-stick-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/821114\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta exec hopes VR teens will stick around"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers<\/a>, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a pretty rough time for the game industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta Reality Labs director of games Chris Pruett did not mince words when he returned to GDC for his annual talk on the state of VR gaming this week. \u201cI have been in the industry for almost 30 years at this point,\u201d he said. \u201dThis is the roughest period I have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rough for everybody,\u201d Pruett said. \u201cIt\u2019s rough for VR. We are not immune.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pruett made these remarks two months after Meta cut more than 1,000 VR-related jobs<\/a> and significantly cut back on first-party game development. \u201cWe shut down several of our studios,\u201d Pruett acknowledged. \u201cAnd make no mistake: Those were top-class studios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta\u2019s significant cutbacks have led to unease among VR developers, especially since many third-party studios have had layoffs of their own. Granted, revenue in the Quest store was still up slightly in 2025, according to Pruett. However, much of the medium\u2019s growth has been driven by free-to-play titles like GorillaTag and UG, which are popular with young teens with little disposable income.<\/p>\n

Even older hardcore VR gamers \u201care not spending as much as they used to,\u201d Pruett admitted. However, he did have a message of hope for desperate VR developers: Those GorillaTag players won\u2019t stay 14 forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you grow older, start to become an adult, you are looking for things that are more challenging to you,\u201d Pruett said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, these players likely won\u2019t give up on VR altogether. \u201cThey have been playing it since they were 12,\u201d Pruett said. They\u2019re used to a different kind of gameplay with a bigger emphasis on social interaction, and also a lot less prone to motion sickness than older players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never had young adults that were VR native,\u201d Pruett said. And while hard data on what these players may do in the future doesn\u2019t yet exist, he suggested that older players may be into games that retain some of the whacky physics and social components of games like GorillaTag and UG, but with much more polish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect that they remain a core group of players,\u201d Pruett said. \u201cBut the games they play are going to change, and the amount of money they\u2019ll have to spend will change too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to these older teens, Meta is also betting on 30-something consumers to discover VR over the next few years. \u201cThey watch a lot of movies, they watch a lot of sports, they watch a lot of Netflix shows,\u201d Pruett said. \u201cBut they don\u2019t identify themselves as gamers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pruett suggested that a lot of those consumers won\u2019t buy VR headsets for gaming, but as personal TVs, and devices to watch 3D content. Meta has worked for some time on courting this audience, and reportedly has a lightweight headset with an external compute unit in development that is expected to ship some time in 2027<\/a>. The company even struck a partnership with James Cameron<\/a> to kick-start 3D content production for that device.<\/p>\n

Pruett suggested that these older consumers will still play a lot of games, even if they wouldn\u2019t self-identify as gamers. Catering to them may require different types of games, including titles that can be played sitting down. \u201cIt\u2019s a low-friction, relaxing experience for them, not a workout,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And while Pruett did not directly comment on the upcoming headset, he did strongly urge developers who want to target that older audience to embrace controller-free interaction. \u201cThese guys are going to be basically hand-tracking only,\u201d he said. \u201cThey aren\u2019t likely going to own controllers, or use controllers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta isn\u2019t the only company looking to adults with more disposable income as a new target audience for immersive computing. Apple\u2019s $3,500 Vision Pro is optimized for consumers who are interested in media consumption and seated experiences, and Google and Samsung appear to target a similar audience with their $1,800 Galaxy XR headset.<\/p>\n

The big caveat: So far, there\u2019s little proof that those audiences are actually big enough to move the needle for VR. Apple has reportedly cut the production of the Vision Pro following lackluster sales, with IDC estimating that the company sold only 45,000 headsets last quarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pruett admitted himself that Meta was taking a bet on older players, calling them \u201ca large looming audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t exist on the platform today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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