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Nearly all of the people I knew at @magicleap were laid off today. I really feel for all employees whether they're part of the half that got laid off or a part that stays. It's both sad & infuriating as I've seen so many red flags for such a long time. https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1096254159584518144
A lot of people don't know I interviewed @MagicLeap's Senior Technical Director @MugOfPaul in 2015 when there were few articles about Magic Leap.
They needed to reach developers, & Paul was listening.
For lots of ML devs, it was the only piece out there.
https://voicesofvr.com/96-paul-reynolds-on-magic-leaps-vision-of-how-cinematic-reality-will-make-technology-more-human-friendly/
They needed to reach developers, & Paul was listening.
For lots of ML devs, it was the only piece out there.
https://voicesofvr.com/96-paul-reynolds-on-magic-leaps-vision-of-how-cinematic-reality-will-make-technology-more-human-friendly/
For over 3.5 years, I consistently reached out to my PR contact at @MagicLeap
hoping I'd score a trip to Florida to get a direct experience of this magical tech, but ML focused on building hype in the consumer press with lies alienating the XR community: https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1034090646754095107
hoping I'd score a trip to Florida to get a direct experience of this magical tech, but ML focused on building hype in the consumer press with lies alienating the XR community: https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1034090646754095107
At @MagicLeap's LeapCon, press were denied access to the opening night party of their developer conf. I found out at the gate & protested outside. There has been a toxic pattern of secrecy that is the antithesis of cultivating vibrant & open ecosystems. https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1096251347563757569
I think @MagicLeap was expecting that they were going to be able to launch the first iteration of the Magic Leap One as a consumer product bypassing the whole developer kit phase. Most indie XR devs I know were begged for kits, only to be denied & ignored. https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/722485344835219457
As @cortneyharding points out, there were a number of red flags from a number of sexual harassment allegations:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/14/14604248/magic-leap-gender-discrimination-lawsuit-sexism-misogyny
https://www.wired.com/2017/05/magic-leap-bias-suit-sexism-sign-failure/
Also taking on shady investors:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/07/magic-leap-raises-461-million-in-fresh-funding-from-the-kingdom-of-saudi-arabia/ https://twitter.com/cortneyharding/status/1253086915848482816
https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/14/14604248/magic-leap-gender-discrimination-lawsuit-sexism-misogyny
https://www.wired.com/2017/05/magic-leap-bias-suit-sexism-sign-failure/
Also taking on shady investors:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/07/magic-leap-raises-461-million-in-fresh-funding-from-the-kingdom-of-saudi-arabia/ https://twitter.com/cortneyharding/status/1253086915848482816
Magic Leap focused on telling the story of a vision of the future that didn't exist yet. Their story exceeded the engineering, & devs could smell the deception & BS hype a mile away.
Valve focused on engineering + enabling & empowering thousands of developers with free dev kits.
Valve focused on engineering + enabling & empowering thousands of developers with free dev kits.
One of my biggest pet peeves with @MagicLeap was they'd always be inventing new marketing terms for things that already had communities around them, like "Magicverse" for the "AR Cloud." It gets back to emphasizing the story over the reality of it. https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1050063204120842240
I'm grateful @MagicLeap appreciated art, stories, & entertainment. Tónandi is still one of my most favorite AR pieces of all time. It's just frustrating to see so many billions of dollars of investment that could have empowered more indie devs.
https://voicesofvr.com/705-magic-leap-leapcon-empowering-artists-to-innovate-with-ar/
https://voicesofvr.com/705-magic-leap-leapcon-empowering-artists-to-innovate-with-ar/
In hindsight, @MagicLeap didn't solve a problem to justify the price or provide a compelling enough AR experience for consumers, especially without a robust software ecosystem. Custom-built AR enterprise systems does solve problems that justify the cost.
Map via @swardley
Map via @swardley
I ended up doing 22 interviews & 12 hours of interviews at LeapCon. I'll releasing them eventually for historical evolution of the medium, which ML definitely help to push forward, but you can read between the lines of my Twitter thread listing red flags. https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1049679096823705601
I've skipped some context in this thread, which is @MagicLeap laid off about half other employees today.
It goes deeper than "recent changes to the economic environment have decreased availability of capital and the appetite for longer term investments." https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1253007368016637952
It goes deeper than "recent changes to the economic environment have decreased availability of capital and the appetite for longer term investments." https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1253007368016637952
