Social VR is evolving, and AltspaceVR paid the price

Last month, AltspaceVR, one of the most beloved startups in the burgeoning, albeit struggling, VR consumer industry announced it was shutting its doors due to what they described as “unforeseen financial difficulty”. This is by no means an ordinary player in the VR community. The California-based startup is one of the earliest pioneers in the sector, having raised millions beginning with its seed round back in prehistoric 2014 and, more important, entering the incredibly crucial category of social VR.

There’s not a single person I know in the VR industry who doesn’t nod their heads at the importance of social VR, which may very well end up being the “killer app” experience that establishes mainstream appeal to VR. There are only a handful of others in the space, like Sansar by Linden Lab, High Fidelity, WebVR-based JanusVR, and most recently, Facebook Spaces (more on that in a bit).