Varjo, the Finland-based creator of high-end XR headsets, says its pulling the plug on its cloud XR streaming platform ‘Reality Cloud’, which lets professionals stream and share immersive 3D content rendered on cloud-based GPUs.
It was only a month ago when Varjo announced it was bringing Quest 3 and Quest Pro support to Reality Cloud, in effect making them the first non-Varjo standalone XR devices to use the subscription-based cloud rendering and streaming service.
Now, in a statement obtained by Mixed, Varjo says it’s pulling the plug come June 2024:
While we continue to explore ways to power the highest quality XR streaming, we have made the decision to discontinue development of Reality Cloud as of June 2024. Our customers are the world’s largest enterprises and organizations, and their requirements for XR cloud streaming are more diverse and security-driven than originally anticipated.
A Varjo dedicated commercial cloud streaming service is not what most effectively serves them, and we will instead focus on empowering 3rd party streaming solutions and local streaming capabilities for enterprises scaling their VR and XR usage.
Released in 2022, Varjo’s Reality Cloud initially focused on cross-platform collaboration, the ability to manage 3D content at scale, and enterprise-level security. It had a much larger purpose though. Talking to Varjo CEO Timo Toikkanen prior to Reality Cloud’s release, he hoped it would lay the foundation to “release out physical reality from the laws of physics”:
“We believe that Varjo’s vision for the metaverse will elevate humanity during the next decade more than any other technology in the world,” Toikkanen said in a blog post. “What we’re building with our vision for the Varjo Reality Cloud will release our physical reality from the laws of physics. The programmable world that once existed only behind our screens can now merge with our surrounding reality—forever changing the choreography of everyday life.”