Classic Social VR Finds New Life

⊲ heise ⊳ Microsoft’s AltspaceVR, the social VR platform it closed in 2023, is being revived after Shane Harris, founder of SideQuest, a platform that lets developers distribute apps for Meta Quest headsets outside Meta’s official store, acquired the naming rights and plans to launch a spiritual successor this year. Harris previously built a tool called Shane’s Editor for AltspaceVR, and founded SideQuest after Meta rejected it as a standalone Quest app. AltspaceVR, started by Eric Romo in 2013, was bought by Microsoft in 2017 and closed in 2023 as resources shifted to Microsoft Mesh, later discontinued in 2025.
Microsoft Mesh’s discontinuation in 2025 and Meta’s Horizon Worlds’ struggles show even well funded corporate metaverse projects can still collapse, but perhaps these smaller scale initiatives will fare better.
⊲ Image – heise medien ⊳
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