Meta's Horizon Worlds metaverse is getting a leadership shakeup

What you need to know

• Vivek Sharma, VP of Horizon at Meta, is leaving the company for undisclosed reasons.
• Vishal Shah, the head of Metaverse at the company, will be taking over the role.
• The announcement comes just after Meta launched a new account system for the Quest 2 which no longer requires a Facebook login for the VR headset.

While Meta is still busy pouring money and effort into building its vision of the metaverse, it looks like Meta's vice president of Horizon, Vivek Sharma, might have other ideas as Sharma is leaving the company for greener pastures.

According to Reuters, Sharma was responsible for "developing the persistent, immersive virtual environment that users experience when inside Meta's metaverse." More specifically, Sharma was responsible for Horizon Worlds and its many facets, including Horizon Venues.

In his place, Vishal Shah, the head of Metaverse at the company, will be taking over the role. Shah's position represented the larger vision of the Metaverse as a proper noun at the company, which is designed to encompass not just virtual reality presence but also Horizon World's presence on the web, consoles, and mobile devices.

The announcement of Sharma's departure comes hot on the heels of Meta launching a new accounts system for the Quest 2, which removes the requirement to link your Facebook account to your Quest 2 headset. In its place, users log in with a Meta account that doesn't have any specific social media ties outside of a Horizon Worlds profile

Meta also recently raised the price of the Meta Quest 2 headset, cementing the 128GB Quest 2 as the best value offering from the company. It's not yet known how the leadership shakeup will affect Horizon Worlds or Meta's vision of the metaverse, but Shah previously championed Meta's willingness to share the building of the Metaverse with other companies in a Twitter post back in June of this year.