Zuck Wants Money: Facebook Faces Anger Over Decision to Charge for VR Apps

Tech giant Facebook is facing backlash for new charges imposed on apps created for its virtual reality headsets as developers take issue with the commercial terms set by the company.

The Financial Times reports that Facebook (now known as Meta) is facing major backlash after imposing charges on apps created for its virtual reality headsets. Developers have begun complaining about commercial terms set by the company as it attempts to turn CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision into reality.

Facebook has pledged to spend $10 billion a year over the next 10 years to develop the metaverse. Other tech giants including Apple and Microsoft have also begun experimenting with their own AR and VR headsets.

However, a number of developers talked to the Financial Times, stating that Facebook has begun insisting on a charging model for its VR app store similar to the current system employed by man mobile app stores. This appears to be directly at odds with Zuckerberg’s previous criticism of the charging policies used by mobile app stores.

Seth Siegel, global head of AI and cyber security at Infosys Consulting, commented: “Don’t confuse marketing with reality — it’s good marketing to pick on Apple. But it doesn’t mean Meta won’t do the exact same thing. There is no impetus for them to be better.”

The “Quest Store” for Facebook’s Quest 2 VR headset is the most popular VR headset on the market now takes a 30 percent cut from digital purchase and charges 15-30 percent on subscriptions, mirroring charges imposed by Apple and Google.

Daniel Sproll, chief executive of Realities.io, an immersive realities start-up company behind the popular VR game Puzzling Places, commented: “Undoubtedly there are services provided — they build amazing hardware and provide store services. But the problem is that it feels like everybody agreed on this 30 percent and that’s what we’re struck with. It doesn’t feel like there’s any competition. The Chinese companies coming out with headsets are the same. Why would they change it?”

Facebook defended its policy, noting that unlike iPhone owners, Quest users can sideload apps outside of the official Quest store. “We want to foster choice and competition in the VR ecosystem,” Facebook said. “And it’s working — our efforts have produced a material financial return for developers: as we announced earlier this year, over $1bn has been spent on games and apps in the Meta Quest Store.”

Read more at the Financial Times here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com