It was only a couple of months ago that AltspaceVR made the shock announcement that it was closing down, putting an end to one of the earliest social virtual reality (VR) apps on the market. Such was the community support that AltspaceVR looked to be saved with the team in negotiations with several unnamed parties to try and rescue it. Well today that saving grace turned out to be Microsoft, with the company announcing the acquisition during a special event today.
Microsoft’s holding a Windows Mixed Reality event in San Francisco to usher in the arrival of several VR headsets later this month from manufacturing partners Acer, Dell, Lenovo, HP and Samsung. To bolster the content available at launch the company obviously decided that having one of the earliest pioneering teams in social VR would be a good investment, especially in its time of need.
In a blog posting AltspaceVR explains that: “AltspaceVR will stay AltspaceVR. Microsoft is most interested in preserving the current community that uses AltspaceVR to connect and interact with new and old friends. These first few months will focus on fostering our community and making sure AltspaceVR remains a friendly, welcoming and vibrant place to hang out in virtual reality.”
As it’ll continue as is AltspaceVR will still be cross-platform, continuing to work on PC and Mac on a monitor, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Google Daydream, and Samsung Gear VR.
As further updates surface VRFocus will let you know.