Meta Executive Aims to Retain Teen Engagement in VR

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for subscribers once a week.

“It is a pretty rough time for the game industry.” Chris Pruett, director of games at Meta Reality Labs, didn’t hold back during his annual GDC talk about the current state of VR gaming. “I have been in the industry for almost 30 years at this point,” he noted. “This is the roughest period I have ever seen.”

“It’s tough for everyone,” Pruett continued. “It’s tough for VR. We are not immune.” His comments came shortly after Meta laid off over 1,000 employees in VR and scaled back first-party game development. “We shut down several of our studios,” he admitted. “And make no mistake: Those were top-class studios.”

These significant cutbacks have created a sense of uncertainty among VR developers, especially as many third-party studios have also faced layoffs. While Pruett mentioned that revenue in the Quest store saw a slight increase in 2025, much of that growth has been fueled by free-to-play games like GorillaTag and UG, which attract younger players with limited spending power.

Even veteran VR gamers “are not spending as much as they used to,” Pruett acknowledged. However, he offered a glimmer of hope for struggling VR developers: the players of GorillaTag won’t remain teenagers forever. “As you grow older, you start to seek out more challenging experiences,” he explained.

At the same time, these players are unlikely to abandon VR entirely. “They have been playing it since they were 12,” Pruett pointed out. They’re accustomed to a different style of gameplay that emphasizes social interaction and tends to be less susceptible to motion sickness than older gamers.

“We’ve never had young adults that were VR native,” Pruett remarked. While there’s no concrete data on their future gaming habits, he speculated that as they mature, they might gravitate toward games that maintain the quirky physics and social elements of titles like GorillaTag and UG, but with a more refined execution.

“I suspect they will remain a core group of players,” Pruett said. “But the games they play will evolve, and their spending habits will change as well.”

In addition to these older teens, Meta is also focusing on consumers in their 30s to embrace VR in the coming years. “They watch a lot of movies, sports, and Netflix shows,” Pruett noted. “But they don’t see themselves as gamers.”

He suggested that many of these consumers might not purchase VR headsets for gaming but rather as personal viewing devices for 3D content. Meta has been actively courting this demographic and is reportedly developing a lightweight headset with an external compute unit, expected to launch in 2027. The company has even partnered with James Cameron to kick-start 3D content production for this device.

Pruett believes that these older consumers will still engage with games, even if they don’t identify as gamers. Catering to them may require different types of games, including those that can be enjoyed while seated. “It’s a low-friction, relaxing experience for them, not a workout,” he said.

While Pruett didn’t directly address the upcoming headset, he strongly encouraged developers aiming for this older audience to adopt controller-free interaction. “These users will primarily rely on hand-tracking,” he stated. “They aren’t likely to own or use controllers.”

Meta isn’t the only company targeting adults with more disposable income for immersive experiences. Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro is designed for consumers interested in media consumption and seated experiences, while Google and Samsung appear to be pursuing a similar audience with their $1,800 Galaxy XR headset.

The big caveat: there’s currently little evidence that these audiences are substantial enough to significantly impact the VR market. Apple has reportedly reduced production of the Vision Pro due to disappointing sales, with estimates suggesting only 45,000 units sold last quarter.

Pruett himself acknowledged that Meta is taking a gamble on older players, referring to them as “a large looming audience.” “They don’t exist on the platform today,” he concluded.