Dec 4 : Meta is expected to make budget cuts of up to 30 per cent for its metaverse initiative, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the discussions.The Facebook parent's shares rose 4 per cent as the move eased some investor jitters over a bet that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has backed w
    • MrNesser@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 months

      Sunk cost at this point lots of large companies bought space when it was “launching”

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3 months

        Imagine how much value would have been created if the several hundreds of billion spent on the shitty VR sims went to wages, or taxes, or healthcare.

        But no. We should all marvel at the efficiency of the oligarchy!

        • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3 months

          It’s actually insane to think about what could have been accomplished with the capital investment that has collectively gone into generative AI, public ledger blockchain, and metaverse VR projects. IIRC its over a trillion dollars. There are credible plans for more or less ending world hunger for under ten billion. Yeah, those plans come with a ton of asterixes, but the point is, if that’s what ten gets you, imagine what you could do with a hundred billion? Now think about what a trillion could do. It’s honestly sickening.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
            3 months

            A lot of those plans very much in the “assume a spherical chicken in a vacuum” territory. They only work on paper, and tend to assume things like criminal gangs are randomly just sort of going to get out of the way and not interfere. Also there are no corrupt government officials, and the people you are trying to help actually recognise that, and respond positively.

            • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3 months

              Yes, and I feel like I addressed that with “…those plans come with a ton of asterixes…”

    • PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 months

      It’s Zuck’s biggest personal passion project.

      Bezos wanted to go to space, Gates wanted to cure malaria.

      Zuckerberg wants to be a fucking Mii.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        3 months

        Zuckerberg just wants to build his own universe where he’s in charge of everything and everything costs money and there no taxes.

        You can bet there were pitching ideas such as paying people with game money.

  • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 months

    If they would have focussed on making a good place first, and then corrupting it with commercialism, they could have at least boiled a few of us frogs. But you can’t start with the commercialism foot forward and the quality foot behind and expect to make a place worth visiting.

  • Griffus@lemmy.zipEnglish
    3 months

    Congratulation to the writer of Ready, Player One to costing the Zuccer $77bn

  • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3 months

    Funny how Zuck thought our lives were so miserable we would all throw ourselves into his virtual shit, just to realize most people actually have real friends they hang out with.

    • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3 months

      Even in a world without IRL friends, they still had to compete with VRChat. They didn’t come even remotely close to that benchmark.