Vivek Sharma, the vp of Meta’s social media platform Horizon, has left the corporate. First reported by Reuters, and confirmed by a Meta spokesperson, Sharma’s final day was on Friday, and he’ll now be pursuing a “new alternative” unrelated to Meta. 

Sharma has been with Meta for almost six years. When the corporate was nonetheless referred to as Facebook, he served because the VP of product for Facebook’s Gaming and Marketplace divisions. 

Following the Meta rebrand, he led the staff that created Horizon Worlds, which has been positioned as the corporate’s social area for the metaverse. The platform is meant to finally make its method into cell, however is at present solely accessible by way of VR headsets such because the Quest. 

“We’re thankful for Vivek’s contributions across our Marketplace, gaming and metaverse teams over the last six years and we wish him well,” wrote a Meta spokesperson in a press assertion. “Meta continues to be a supply for creating nice leaders, and we’re excited to see what Vivek accomplishes in his subsequent chapter.”

Sharma’s departure additionally comes following Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s try and get skeptics on board with Horizon Worlds by way of a selfie of his avatar. That did not go as deliberate, and he is since claimed that Worlds will look significantly better because the platform improves over time.

With Sharma’s leaving, his staff will now report back to Meta’s metaverse VP, Vishal Shah. 

What is a metaverse? A depressing pile of maybes

Amongst tech corporations like Meta and Apple, plus sport builders resembling Epic, there is a want to see the metaverse take off and turn out to be its personal fixture in on a regular basis life. MTV’s annual Video/Music Awards even acknowledged its rising significance with a “Best Metaverse Performance” class. The winner of that award was Okay-pop band Blackpink for his or her look in PUBG Mobile. 

For Meta particularly, making a foothold within the digital actuality area has include working at a monetary loss. Last month additionally noticed Meta get hit with an injunction by the FTC, who argued that its tried acquisition of VR developer Within was executed with the categorical intent to get rid of competitors within the developer area. 

Before the weekend began, Zuckerberg teased the corporate’s incoming VR headset. Due out within the October and at present solely referred to as Project Cambria, he mentioned this new headset would place a larger emphasis on facial expressions, presumably for the avatars of these in Horizon Worlds.