You may be feeling a sense of déjà vu with the news that social virtual reality platform AltspaceVR is shutting down. This almost happened once before, after the developers announced in 2017 that they did not have enough money to maintain the servers. Shortly after, they were saved by Microsoft. Microsoft acquired AltspaceVR in what appeared to be a response to Facebook's axing of VR; AltspaceVR was announced to close on March 10 (opens in new tab).

"Looking to the future," a post from Team AltspaceVR reads, "we see the VR opportunity expanding from consumer to business and now have an even bigger goal: a more open, accessible, and secure version of the immersive experience in the metaverse. To achieve this, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue the AltpaceVR platform on March 10, 2023 and shift our focus to supporting immersive experiences using Microsoft Mesh."

Microsoft Mesh is a hologram-based mixed reality communication platform that uses 3D capture to allow people to work together as if they were in the same space. The partnership between Microsoft and OceanX has led to the installation of a hologram lab on the research vessel OceanXplorer, where scientists wearing HoloLens headsets both on board and on land can examine data sent from the submersible together.

But it was not the social experience that AltspaceVR offered; AltspaceVR hosted club nights with live DJs, book launches, fashion shows, church meetings, language exchanges, stand-up comedy nights, and many impromptu parties and gatherings. Microsoft Mesh is a distinctly business-oriented application of VR, meant for work rather than for hanging out; VRChat has a more meme-like quality, with a fondness for weird places like Kmart replicas and Waffle House on the moon.

"Over the next few weeks, we will be encouraging the many creators and developers who are part of the AltspaceVR community to host final events and download content," the announcement continues. photos and other mementos of time spent with AltspaceVR at hand If you'd like to keep them with you, here are Microsoft's FAQs on downloading data (opens in a new tab).