SideQuest Holds Layoffs Amid Changing Market
UploadVR confirmed layoffs have been held at SideQuest.
SideQuest held layoffs recently.
SideQuest makes third-party software some owners of Quest headsets use to load up custom home spaces, classic games modded for VR support, and other unofficial content. The software relies on a component of the Android ecosystem, ADB, for managing a standalone VR headset from a companion device. To use the feature with Meta headsets you also have to specify you're a developer to install it.
We confirmed the layoffs with SideQuest CEO Shane Harris during a live episode of VR Download. Harris told us the process is still ongoing and asked to give us details next week.
We recently joined SideQuest's Banter social software to learn about their AI generation experiments. What we saw in there was an impressive proof of concept for voice to 3D object generation, coming just a few days before the layoffs.
The wider VR market is undergoing a shift favoring in-app purchases and free-to-play content and UploadVR's Henry Stockdale spoke with dozens of developers about the shifting landscape for their work.
SideQuest joins a series of studios letting go workers and shrinking in size, other recently reported ones including Soul Assembly, Fast Travel Games, nDreams and XR Games.
We've asked Harris how many have been let go in total and will have more next week once we've verified more information.
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