According to reports, just three months after LG announced the establishment of a joint venture with Meta, they have halted their collaboration on developing extended reality (XR) devices. The initial plan was to design and manufacture a product to rival Apple's Vision Pro headset. Several South Korean news outlets have reported that the partnership between Meta and LG has completely broken down due to a lack of "synergy" between the two companies, although LG has denied terminating the deal.
In February this year, LG CEO William Cho and Home Entertainment President Park Hyoung-sei met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to discuss collaboration.
LG Electronics stated to the Chosun Ilbo, "LG Electronics will continue its XR partnership established with Meta in February, but is controlling the pace of collaboration."
The collaborative products will integrate Meta's Horizon Worlds mixed reality platform with LG's TV business content and service features, with the products expected to launch next year. The potential for AI integration on devices using Meta's large language models is also being explored.
The Seoul Economic Daily reported that the collaboration is still ongoing, with a possible target release in 2027. Meanwhile, reports suggest LG is seeking a new XR headset partnership with Amazon after exiting Meta, leveraging Amazon Prime's vast streaming content library and 200 million users.
Last month, GamesIndustry.biz reported that Meta's Reality Labs has been burning through $1 billion every month since June 2022. Despite this, Meta seems undeterred, announcing that due to "ongoing product development efforts and investments to further scale our ecosystem," these financial losses are expected to "meaningfully" increase year by year.
Meanwhile, the broader VR/AR product industry is struggling due to declining consumer interest. Sony reportedly halted production of the PSVR 2 headset due to unsold inventory, while Apple's slow acceptance of the Vision Pro headset has led to some Apple Stores selling only two units per week, as per Bloomberg.
