Meta's Horizon VR Platform Chief Vivek Sharma Leaves the Company

The vice president of Meta’s Horizon social virtual reality platform, Vivek Sharma, is leaving the company, Meta's spokesperson said on Friday.

As reported by Reuters, Sharma is leaving Meta to pursue new career opportunities, however, he didn't elaborate on this topic limiting only to the news of his departure. According to Meta's spokesperson, after Sharma leaves, his team will report directly to the vice president of Metaverse, Vishal Shah.

Sharma had been working at Meta for the past six years holding various high-ranking positions in marketplace and gaming. In his recent role at the company, Sharma led the development of Horizon Worlds, a metaverse access and creation platform that Meta plans to invest billions of dollars in, as well as Horizon Venues, a virtual platform focused on virtual events.

"Thanks to [Sharma's] leadership, the Horizon product group has built a strong team with an ambitious vision, and it is just getting started," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. "Meta continues to be a source for developing great leaders, and we’re excited to see what Vivek accomplishes in his next chapter."

Sharma's departure came amid criticism that erupted around Mark Zuckerberg, who posted a screenshot of Horizon Worlds on his Facebook account. The poor graphics of both the avatar and the world shown in the image caused a wave of mockery as people started meme-ifying the screenshot on social media. Shortly after, Zuckerberg posted new images depicting his digital avatar which looked like a more life-like version of himself as well as an ancient-looking plaza with improved graphics.

Zuckerberg also promised "major updates" to the platform that, among others, will include improved graphics of the virtual avatars saying that the company will share more details on Horizon World's updates in the near future – during the upcoming Connect, the company’s annual AR/VR conference.