Hi there! My name is Janko Roettgers, and this is Lowpass. This week: Meta hopes its VR teens will grow up, and Nex plans online multiplayer feature, with a twist.

Meta’s Chris Pruett on the state of VR

“It is a pretty rough time for the game industry.”

Meta Reality Labs director of games Chris Pruett did not mince words when he returned to GDC for his annual talk on the state of VR gaming this week. “I have been in the industry for almost 30 years at this point,” he said. ”This is the roughest period I have ever seen.”

“It’s rough for everybody,” Pruett said. “It’s rough for VR. We are not immune.”

Pruett made these remarks two months after Meta cut more than 1,000 VR-related jobs and significantly cut back on first-party game development. “We shut down several of our studios,” Pruett acknowledged. “And make no mistake: Those were top-class studios.” 

Meta’s significant cutbacks have led to unease among VR developers, especially since many third-party studios have had layoffs of their own. Granted, revenue in the Quest store was still up slightly in 2025, according to Pruett. However, much of the medium’s growth has been driven by free-to-play titles like GorillaTag and UG, which are popular with young teens with little disposable income.

Even older hardcore VR gamers “are not spending as much as they used to,” Pruett admitted. However, he did have a message of hope for desperate VR developers: Those GorillaTag players won’t stay 14 forever. 

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