One thing that has always defined me in my relationship with technology is seeking the frontier. What are the most interesting things being done right now? What is being built that hasn't reached everyone yet?

That's how it was with the first computer, wanting to discover what it was capable of. That's how it was with the internet, which opened up an entire universe of possibilities. And that's how I got to virtual reality.

Meta Quest 2 and an introduction to the future

Having a Meta Quest 2 was one of the most memorable experiences I've had with technology. Not only for what the device offered, but for what it meant to show it to people.

I created a routine. I'd have friends over, explain how to put the headset on, adjust the lenses, and watch the moment they realized they were inside a three-dimensional environment. Then I'd show them how the motion-sensing controllers worked for picking up and interacting with objects in that universe. A few simple games to warm up.

And then came Half-Life: Alyx.

Running on the computer, with more powerful hardware and far more realistic graphics, it was the final shock. Each person reacted differently, but they all left impressed. Watching that reaction was part of the experience.

The content problem

Half-Life: Alyx is fantastic. It shows what's possible when you genuinely invest in virtual reality: faithful graphics, a rich environment, total immersion. It's proof of what the technology is capable of.

But it's practically the only truly meaningful experience I had in VR. The rest of the available games seem more like tech demos — demonstrations of what could be possible in the future — than finished products.

And the reason is simple: virtual reality is a niche market. No major company is going to risk a AAA game budget for a small installed base. Today, a high-budget game already needs to sell millions of copies to be profitable. A VR game needs to do that with a fraction of the audience. Valve's financial data is private, but it's speculated that revenue from cosmetic items in Team Fortress 2 over the years surpasses what Half-Life: Alyx generated in sales.

It's a cycle that's hard to break.

Meta's bet and the end of the cycle

The only reason I had access to all of this was Meta's decision to invest billions per year in virtual reality, accumulating loss after loss. It was a bold, almost irrational bet from a financial standpoint, but it pushed the technology forward and made the headsets accessible.

I had the Meta Quest 2. Then the Meta Quest 3.

And now that cycle has come to an end. Meta canceled AAA game studios that were in development, drastically reduced VR investments, and shifted focus. It was by far the largest individual investor in the space, though Sony with the PSVR2 and Apple with the Vision Pro also bet on the sector. It's worth noting that Meta's original bet wasn't just about games: it was about transforming VR into a social platform, with work meetings and socializing in virtual environments. That project failed rather publicly, and the legless avatars became a meme. With Meta stepping back from center stage, the pace of evolution will slow considerably.

The party is over, at least for now.

VR was never meant to replace the phone

I never believed virtual reality would replace the smartphone as an everyday device. The disconnection from the real environment is too great for something used all day. If that became the standard, people would essentially be living in a Matrix.

I always saw VR as something for playing video games: you put the headset on at a certain time of day, play, take it off, and go back to normal life. Intentional, punctual, separate.

What convinces me more as a phone replacement is augmented reality and mixed reality. You keep seeing the real world, but with virtual elements overlaid. I remember doing the dishes with the Meta Quest 3 and opening a giant YouTube screen floating above the sink, with my hands free, able to position the screen wherever I wanted. That felt like the real future.

The path that makes sense

The problem with current headsets is physical: they're heavy on the face, they tire the eyes, they dry out the eyes. And there's another factor that stops many people even before that: motion sickness. A significant portion of people can't use VR for more than a few minutes without feeling nauseous. It's a real physiological limitation that restricts the audience in ways that no software update easily fixes. The resolution still isn't sufficient for extended use. The technology is on the right track, but it hasn't gotten there yet.

And that's why the most viable bet seems to be glasses. Meta is going in that direction with the Ray-Ban with integrated camera, the Meta Ray-Ban Display that projects information directly into your field of vision, and AI integration to understand the surrounding environment and answer questions in real time.

That's the path to mass adoption. It's a product people can use in daily life without sacrificing comfort. Apple also has a different vision with the Vision Pro, focused on productivity and media consumption, but at a price of $3,499, which shows the technology is still far from being accessible to most people. Immersive virtual reality will have to wait a bit longer.

A farewell for now

I'm very glad to have lived through this. To have had that taste of the future, to know that the experience with Half-Life: Alyx is legitimate, that what it promises is real. When VR glasses become cheap, lightweight, and solve today's problems, it will be impossible not to dominate the market. Everyone will want one.

But we're still a long way from that.

At the same time, I have an ambivalence about glasses for constant use. One of the most valuable things in life is precisely being able to put down your phone and live in the real world. Disconnecting from screens, resting your eyes, resting your mind. The phone already took a lot of that from us. Glasses glued to your face all day seems like a step in the wrong direction for health and quality of life.

It's a fantastic technology. But I hope we know how to use it with more balance than we used the smartphone.