Meta’s VR division lost an important name as Vivek Sharma, the Vice President of Horizon, announced his departure from the company for a new opportunity. Sharma’s departure was confirmed by a Meta spokesperson as well, and per Reuters‘ piece, his team will now report to Vishal Shah, the Vice President of Meta’s version of Metaverse.
Related: Meta’s Reality Labs loses $2.8 billion in Q2 2022
Sharma was leading Horizon Worlds, a free virtual reality platform created by Meta that acts as a gateway to Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse, as well as Horizon Workrooms, a VR conference platform.
After spending nearly 17 years at Microsoft, Sharma worked as an advisor for Oak Tree Engineering, and back in October 2016, he joined Facebook as Head of Product, Marketplace. he then led Facebook Games and became the VP of Facebook Gaming. Roughly about a year ago, he was appointed VP of Horizon.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Horizon project has been taking heat again lately, especially following the Meta Boss’ ridiculed avatar on Facebook that was meant to promote his version of Metaverse. The avatar was criticized due to its outdated graphics quality.
Zuckerberg’s plans for the future include an aggressive acquisition strategy, which hit a hard stop after hitting FTC’s (Federal Trade Commission) wall. FTC claimed Meta is trying to buy its way to the top rather than competing for it, and the federal body says it’s trying to prevent Meta from creating an unfair marketplace.
The New Meta VR headset will hit the market in October
