Varjo, the Finland-based creator of high-end XR headsets, says its pulling the plug on its cloud XR streaming platform ‘Reality Cloud’, which lets professionals stream and share immersive 3D content rendered on cloud-based GPUs.

It was only a month ago when Varjo announced it was bringing Quest 3 and Quest Pro support to Reality Cloud, in effect making them the first non-Varjo standalone XR devices to use the subscription-based cloud rendering and streaming service.

Now, in a statement obtained by Mixed, Varjo says it’s pulling the plug come June 2024:

While we continue to explore ways to power the highest quality XR streaming, we have made the decision to discontinue development of Reality Cloud as of June 2024. Our customers are the world’s largest enterprises and organizations, and their requirements for XR cloud streaming are more diverse and security-driven than originally anticipated.

A Varjo dedicated commercial cloud streaming service is not what most effectively serves them, and we will instead focus on empowering 3rd party streaming solutions and local streaming capabilities for enterprises scaling their VR and XR usage.

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Released in 2022, Varjo’s Reality Cloud initially focused on cross-platform collaboration, the ability to manage 3D content at scale, and enterprise-level security. It had a much larger purpose though. Talking to Varjo CEO Timo Toikkanen prior to Reality Cloud’s release, he hoped it would lay the foundation to “release out physical reality from the laws of physics”:

“We believe that Varjo’s vision for the metaverse will elevate humanity during the next decade more than any other technology in the world,” Toikkanen said in a blog post. “What we’re building with our vision for the Varjo Reality Cloud will release our physical reality from the laws of physics. The programmable world that once existed only behind our screens can now merge with our surrounding reality—forever changing the choreography of everyday life.”

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Stephen Bard

    I guess releasing “physical reality” from the actual “laws of physics” to “elevate humanity during the next decade more than any other technology in the world,” was a tad too ambitious . . . another DOA Metaverse . . .

    • ViRGiN

      I’m just curious how rugpull of Immersed Visor will look like.

  • They may defeat the laws of physics, but not the laws of business

  • Heathcliff

    Sad to hear that they couldn't make it viable. Although I haven't tried it myself when I first heard about the Varjo Reality Cloud it reminded me of using Powerpoint or Excel in a shared document in the cloud instead of manually editing and sending it back and forth between coworkers, but probably for VR. I thought that for companies working and more importantly collaborating in VR this will likely be a game changer in their workflow.