This Monday, the Federal Trade Commission Lost Its lawsuit is against Meta, accusing the Menlo Park-based company of anti-competitive practices. The fillings come on the heels of Meta’s attempt to buy the virtual reality (VR) fitness app in 2020 for a rumored $400 million.
The FTC alleged that Meta was unfairly buying up competition on its Quest digital storefront rather than creating first-party apps.
Although now Judge Edward Davila of the US District Court for the Northern District of California It denied the FTC’s request to block Meta’s acquisition of In.
The FTC can still pursue the case with an internal administrative law judge. Although the FTC has not taken such a step yet. Additionally, Meta has not commented on the decision.
Why did the FTC try to sue Meta?
The FTC has granted the employees permission to issue an initial injunction and a temporary restraining order in July 2022, suspending the purchase within. During Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus in 2018, the company emphasized the importance of being ubiquitous in killer VR apps, a key talking point in the FTC’s investigation.
The FTC argued in the US District Court for the Northern District of California that Meta’s acquisition of Inside violated anticompetitive conduct.
according to John Neumann, deputy director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of CompetitionMeta already owns the VR fitness app Beat Saber, which enables Meta to compete closely with the fitness app In Supernatural.
in the appeal, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, stated that the company is focusing on gaming, productivity from social interaction, and other use cases over fitness services. He also said that while VR fitness is essential to business, Meta does not depend on the sector for growth.
A Meta spokesperson also explained at the time that the case was “based on ideology and speculation, not evidence.”
What happens to companies that have been acquired meta?
With controversy surrounding Meta’s intent upon acquiring VR developers, it’s only fair to look at the standing of some of the companies it owns.
Notably, this month Meta shut down two immersive gaming services. Mita closed the doors Echo VR and Kritashifting every company’s focus towards killer applications for the Quest portfolio.
One of the affected platforms is Crayta, a Metaverse platform that Meta owns and operates as Unit 2. On March 3, 2023, it will close its doors.
Crayta is a Metaverse platform that encourages world building and User Generated Content (UGC).
Meta purchased Crayta in June 2021, long before the company announced its rebranding from Facebook.
The Meta Horizon service and the Crayta platform have a lot in common, such as a focus on immersive UGC content and online socialization. It is logical to assume that many components of Crayta affected Horizon.
The other is Ready at Dawn, which is Meta Partner. The company has announced that Echo VR, its massively multiplayer online game, will end operations on August 1, 2023. The developers will no longer support the game to focus on a new Meta project.
Note Ready at Dawn:
After many discussions both internally and with our partners at Meta, we have made the difficult decision to close Echo VR. The studio is getting together to focus on our next project. We can’t say anything about it yet, but we’re all excited and need all hands on deck. The studio is getting together to focus on our next project. We can’t say anything about it yet, but we’re all excited and need all hands on deck.
Regarding the shutdown of the Echo VR, CTO at Meta, Andrew BosworthNote that the resolution reflects the app’s declining player base. Bosworth also explained that the Meta is reallocating Ready at Dawn’s resources to focus on providing system selling software, which is driving Meta Quest device adoption.
The Meta device adoption goal also reflects the company’s immersive technology losses. in that Fourth quarter earnings reportMeta confirmed that the Reality Lab division lost approximately $4.28 billion, bringing its total losses to $13.72 billion.