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What are the lessons from Rec Room’s demise? And what are the benefits of approaching spatial computing projects as an artist as opposed to an engineer? These were a few topics batted around on the latest episode of the AI/XR podcast (embedded below)
Besides compelling topics, and a guest spot from the always-inspiring Lucas Rizzotto, we’re spotlighting this episode because we were given the honor of co-hosting this week. Filling in for Rony Abovitz, we joined show hosts Charlie Fink and Ted Schilowitz.
Computationally Intensive
As for the takeaways, Rec Room’s decision to fold was another gut punch to the once-robust collection of services that offer social interactive spaces. This comes shortly after Meta Horizons went through a dramatic few weeks that ended in limited support for VR headsets.
Rec Room went through something similar, much earlier on. It realized that it could boost its user growth by opening the platform to mobile devices, as opposed to the more immersive experience of joining with a headset. That indeed boosted users, but they were low-quality users.
We don’t mean low-quality in their value as individuals, but the fact that they largely didn’t convert to paid users. Rec Room monetized with in-game purchases such as skins and player accoutrements. While not buying anything, these mobile users were a drain on server resources.
That last part is what we often forget about: These social shared spaces are expensive to run as they’re computationally intensive. Besides server costs, all those mobile users overran the virtual spaces and left the VR loyalists in Rec Room feeling displaced and neglected by its leadership.
When you add it all up, Rec Room couldn’t make the numbers work. But to its credit, the company was in a tough spot, trying to find new ways to grow and make the business work. And it should be commended for proactively winding down so that users could say goodbye and download assets.
Unintended Outcomes
But on to happier news, the bulk of this episode is devoted to XR’s resident Mad Scientist, Lucas Rizzotto. Approaching XR development as an artist, he finds serendipity and unintended outcomes. These can be seen in emotionally cathartic experiences such as Where Thoughts Go.
Rizzotto explains that an engineering mindset – though valuable in bringing us many tech products – is often driven towards efficiency. And those efficiencies can strip the soul and richness out of immersive experiences and life. We should aim to sometimes be less efficient.
But that only scratches the surface. See the full episode below, and we also recommend watching Rizzotto’s TED Talk. Inspiring stuff.