Meta’s Vivek Sharma, the company’s VP of its Horizon social VR platform, is leaving the company, as reported by Reuters. Meta spokesperson Bryan Pope confirmed Sharma’s departure to The Verge and talked about that Sharma is leaving to pursue an unrelated profession different.

Sharma’s departure is taking place at a critically awkward time for Horizon. The metaverse is a sizable wager for Meta, with Horizon as one of its centerpieces, nevertheless the total effort become one thing of a meme final week. To assist promote Horizon Worlds’ open in France and Spain, CEO Tag Zuckerberg posted a screenshot in Horizon that prominently featured his unnecessary-eyed avatar, which nearly at once become a most standard joke round the web. Zuckerberg shared thought art of a more detailed avatar about a days later, nevertheless the distress had already been performed. There’s even a Snapchat filter parodying Zuckerberg’s meme-ified peek.

The meme 2d and Sharma’s departure are seemingly very most life like diminutive blips for the company’s metaverse ambitions. Meta is charging ahead with new hardware, including a brand new VR headset that Zuckerberg fair exact the day gone by talked about would be launching in October. And this week, the company launched its new Meta accounts that let you to make exercise of a Quest headset and not utilizing a must log in to Fb. Nonetheless the metaverse is proving to be a pricey enterprise to this level. Last quarter, the company’s Fact Labs division reported shedding $2.8 billion.

Sharma’s team will now file to Vishal Shah, Meta’s metaverse VP, Pope talked about.

“We’re thankful for Vivek’s contributions all the intention by means of our Market, gaming and metaverse teams over the final six years and we wish him properly,” Pope talked about in an announcement. “Thanks to his leadership, the Horizon product neighborhood has constructed a sturdy team with an ambitious vision and it is fair exact getting started. Meta is quiet a source for establishing enormous leaders, and we’re enraged to envision what Vivek accomplishes in his next chapter.” Sharma didn’t at once reply to a demand for comment.