Hi there! My name is Janko Roettgers, and this is Lowpass. This week: The return of Altspace VR, and new, unannounced hardware from Amazon and Roku 👀
Inside’s Altspace’s comeback plans
A pioneering social VR world is about to make a comeback: Altspace VR, which got shut down by Microsoft in March of 2023, is being resurrected by the team behind SideQuest, the alternative app store for VR apps and games.
The timing for Altspace’s return couldn’t be better. Altspace competitors Spaces and Rec Room both shut down their social VR worlds this summer. Meta put its own Horizon Worlds metaverse service into maintenance mode in June, making it impossible for creators to build any new worlds or experiences.
“Right now, there really isn't much of an alternative for people who want something different to VRChat,” says SideQuest CEO Shane Harris.
However, for Harris, bringing back Altspace is more than filling a void in the market. It’s also deeply personal. Altspace was one of the first VR worlds he spent time in a decade or so ago after first discovering virtual reality, and it’s a space he actively contributed to by building his own worlds. “When it shut down, there was a big hole that was left there,” he tells me.
Inheriting Alspace’s spirit, but not its code
Harris is not alone feeling nostalgic about Altspace, which officially launched in 2015 and was acquired by Microsoft in 2017. The pioneering social VR world was home to countless events and communities over the years, including meditation circles, comedy clubs, film premieres, presidential debates and even a virtual version of Burning Man. When Microsoft decided to shut down Altspace in 2023, its community celebrated the “end of the world” with a funeral procession and wake that lasted until Altspace's admins pulled the plug.
Now, that same community will soon have a chance to bring back some of that spirit in a new version of Altspace. “I’m trying to pay homage to the original Altspace, but I’m also trying to change things,” Harris says.
Some of those changes are by necessity: The new Altspace will launch with a completely rewritten code base, in part because Harris didn’t actually get his hands on all of the assets associated with the original VR world. “We just acquired the trademark,” Harris says. This also means that the new Altspace won’t have to deal any of the legacy platform’s technical debt. “We're using the latest engine technology, the latest rendering pipelines,” he says.