Microsoft reportedly ends "Industrial Metaverse" project and lays off hundreds of employees

According to sources cited by foreign media The Information, Microsoft has terminated the Industrial Metaverse project and laid off hundreds of employees. Insiders stated that Microsoft aims to prioritize projects with shorter time cycles rather than ones that require a longer time to generate meaningful revenue.

Industrial Metaverse

In October last year, Microsoft established the Industrial Metaverse Core team to collaborate with enterprises in healthcare, energy, and other sectors to assist corporate users in creating immersive metaverse software for applications in power plants and industrial robot control systems.

For example, in the video, Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries uses Microsoft's HoloLens headsets for tasks such as production line maintenance and management, enabling experts to collaborate remotely with on-site technicians.

Microsoft's metaverse strategy and related applications include the mixed reality platform Mesh and the popular sandbox game Minecraft. Despite having its own developed headset "HoloLens," the Wall Street Journal reported that the HoloLens development team had laid off hundreds of people in the past two years and plans to drive virtual reality development through software in the future.

Last year, Microsoft introduced Meta Quest VR with plans to integrate it with its Teams, Office, Windows, and Xbox divisions. Tim Osborne, former head of HoloLens, commented:

Microsoft leads in many aspects, but has not invested enough manpower and funds.

Microsoft stated via email to CoinDesk:

Microsoft remains committed to the industrial metaverse. We will focus on the industrial metaverse areas that are most important to our users. Our users will understand that the way we support the development in this area has not changed, and we will share more relevant updates in the future.

In January this year, Microsoft announced a layoff of 10,000 employees, accounting for about 4.5% of the total workforce.