The company formerly known as Facebook and now known as Meta recently shared its 2021 full-year financial results. Its augmented/virtual reality division, Reality Labs, reported doubling its revenue compared to 2020, but also significantly increased its operating losses.
Reality Labs made $2.2 billion in revenue in 2021, with more than $1 billion of that coming from software sales on the Oculus Quest Store. However, as GamesIndustry.biz notes, Reality Labs suffered a $10.2 billion operating loss. That's up from $6.6 billion in 2020 and $4.5 billion in 2019.
And it's only going to get worse in 2022. CFO Dave Whener told investors to "expect Reality Labs operating loss to increase meaningfully in 2022, and that's incorporated into [its] outlook."
CEO Mark Zuckerberg added that Meta's "fully realized vision is still a ways off" when it comes to the metaverse. "And although the direction is clear, our path ahead is not yet perfectly defined."
Zuckerberg noted that Oculus reached the top of the US Apple App Store charts for the first time on Christmas Day, and Meta is working towards releasing a new high-end VR headset later this year.
People have suspected for a while that Meta is selling its Quest headsets at a significant loss. Although Meta doesn't disclose specifics on its pricing, one can safely assume that these operating losses at Reality Labs are coming from a combination of intensive R&D and selling hardware for less than what it costs to make.
Meta likely feels that it has to spend in order to maintain its lead in the VR market. Sony recently announced the PSVR 2 at this year's CES promising 4K HDR lenses and a 110-degree viewing angle. It'll also feature the PS5's 3D Audio alongside new features like eye-tracking and headset-based controller tracking.
The PSVR 2 doesn't have a launch date, but Meta said to expect a new headset sometime later this year.