Microsoft has fired the Mixed Reality Toolkit team. That team was working on a cross platform framework for controls in VR. The company will also pull the plug on the AltspaceVR platform, a virtual living room for mixed reality experiences, on March 10, 2023
One of the developers of the Mixed Reality Toolkit shared the news on Twitter. His tweet reveals that the entire team has been laid off and will not be absorbed into any other division of the company. It is not clear how to proceed with the development of the toolkit. Microsoft Mixed Reality Toolkit was with MRTK 3 is on its third major release. It was an open-source framework for Unity that developed virtual controls in VR such as virtual buttons, context menus and control panels. It was cross-platform and supported on the HoloLens 2, Meta Quest, SteamVR, Oculus Rift, and Lenovo ThinkReality A3 headsets.
The company is also discontinuing AltspaceVR. This is a kind of virtual living room for users of VR glasses that made mixed reality experiences and events possible. The AltspaceVR development team states that the focus will shift to Microsoft Mesh. Mesh mainly wants to focus on applications where several people work together simultaneously in a digital environment. Microsoft acquired AltspaceVR in 2017 after the company had to stop its services that same year due to a lack of funding.
Microsoft came earlier this week still in the news because the company would make a large round of layoffs. The company reportedly plans to cut 10,000 jobs before the end of its third quarter in fiscal year 2023. That quarter ends March 31. Microsoft is not the only tech giant to announce a major round of layoffs due to a declining economy. Meta also fired at the end of last year. Meta also laid off 11,000 employees, and Amazon also announced early this year that it 18,000 jobs would be cut.
