Although Xiaomi denied the team’s dissolution, the market response of this device is really poor.
According to the news of American VR blogger Antony Vitillo, Xiaomi has disbanded the Mi VR development team, including 12 employees responsible for maintaining and developing the platform. Xiaomi denied the news of the team, saying that the original projects of are in normal operation, but whether it is whether it is developing new products and whether it will be listed in the future. There are no publicly available messages.
In January 2018, Facebook announced a partnership with Xiaomi to launch a VR all-in-one for the Chinese market. At the F8 Developers Conference in May of the same year, Facebook released the Oculus Go Edition Oculus Go, which is priced at $199. The national version of this device is Mi VR.
Although Xiaomi denied the team’s dissolution, the market response of this device is really poor.
Some insiders said that Xiaomi has not invested much in this product and may not plan to do it for a long time. This product was developed jointly with Facebook, and the research and development is outsourced. There are not many people in Xiaomi who develop and maintain this equipment. After the product went on the market, the user purchase rate in the millet system was not as high as expected.
Vitillo quoted people familiar with the blog, saying that Xiaomi’s dissolution of the MI VR team does not mean that Mi VR is no longer produced or is no longer maintained. This device is still in stock in stores in China and overseas. There is no team concerned about the future development of this device.
Xiaomi’s dissolution of the team was due to disappointing sales and usage. Vitillo quoted another person familiar with the matter as saying that Xiaomi maintains low retail prices, high cost performance, and is not profitable on VR devices, and the content of Mi VR is not as rich as the Oculus store, and the user retention rate is low. At the same time, Xiaomi does not have a huge budget like Facebook to promote VR helmets.
However, according to US technology media Venturebeat, Facebook said that is still producing and selling Oculu Go, and Oculus Go is still the best way to enjoy an immersive entertainment experience. VR people are very good equipment.
In addition to the rumors of the disbandment of Mi VR, this year, Apple and Valve (developer of the famous counter-shooting game “Counter Strike”) also sent similar news. March,Valve confirmed to the media that the VR team had 13 full-time employees leaving the company, accounting for about half of the team. Recently, DigiTimes quoted sources as saying that the Apple AR/VR team was disbanded in May this year and transferred to other projects.