AltspaceVR has recently gone through a roller coaster of a ride where one second they’re hosting Bill Nye the Science Guy and the next second they’re making an announcement of shutting its doors. As a matter of fact, they hosted their farewell party just last week. But despite all that, AltspaceVR has announced that they’ll be keeping their doors open. In a letter below, they describe the hardships and their pursuit in continuing to provide a supportive VR space.
It has been a roller coaster of a ride for our team and our community since we announced that AltspaceVR was coming to an end. We are elated to follow up that dismal proclamation with some very good news: AltspaceVR is going to live on. You all made this happen by sharing memories, videos, tweets, and emails. So many of you wrote to us asking if they could donate or help. You told the world how much AltspaceVR meant to you and how you had made good memories and lasting friendships. Your messages of encouragement brought us smiles during a pretty gloomy time.
Thanks to that outpouring of support, we’re now deep in discussions with others who are passionate about AltspaceVR who want to guarantee that our virtual oasis stays open. We feel confident saying to our community that you don’t need to find another place to meet your friends in virtual reality. AltspaceVR is not closing down. We look forward to seeing what you’ll make next in AltspaceVR. Thank you for fostering a wonderful place for people to meet, hang out, play games, attend comedy shows, meetups, get married, and above all, laugh. If you’re one of our SDK developers and you’ve made something in AltspaceVR, please know that your work still has a vibrant home. We’re excited to continue seeing the amazing and unexpected things you all create. We are so thankful that you, our hosts, and our community have made what AltspaceVR is today — a place worth saving.
Here’s one story that brought tears to our eyes. When we found out that we had to start shutting things down, some of the team went rogue and gave our core community members special privileges so they could address bad actors even if we weren’t there in there service. They didn’t tell the community members they were doing this. When we entered the service later on, logged in as anonymous guest accounts, we didn’t know what to expect. It ended up being more than we ever could have hoped for. Those community members welcomed us into the service and started walking us through the app, just as we had done for them when they had joined. They were protecting and fostering this wonderful community we built together.
We will share more as soon as we can, but I wanted to tell you this news as soon as possible. We also want to apologize for any grief this caused you or your friends and we hope you’ll stick with us. We’ll be working to pump some life into AltspaceVR over the next few weeks, but in the meantime, fill it with your beautiful avatar faces, meet up with friends and make new ones.
It’s exciting to hear that AltspaceVR is opening its doors to developers and community members to keep their lights on. They’ve provided a valuable place for VR enthusiasts and we look forward to see them flourish once more.