Executive summary
Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:
Top story: Rec Room is closing, raising doubts on virtual hubs.
Free 30 April event: And on 30 April, if you want to hear about XR and wellbeing, come to the next main London meetup!
Other news: Activate has been ranked by the Financial Times as the fastest-growing leisure and entertainment company in the Americas and the fastest-growing company in Canada for 2026 based on revenue growth (more below)
My new ick is people attempting to command Alexa, and Alexa politely misunderstands the request.
Top Story
Rec Room is closing, raising doubts on virtual hubs.
Virtual social hubs are dropping like flies. Platforms like AltSpaceVR, Rec Room, and Meta Horizon Worlds have shut down or struggled. And even Fortnite, the gold standard of virtual social gaming, has stalled. The exception is Roblox, which survives by leveraging a free creator ecosystem rather than bearing all content costs itself.
The main issues are economic. Running massive virtual hubs is extraordinarily expensive, often costing more than the revenue they generate. Most platforms can't survive dwindling user engagement.
This week’s stories
Activate has been ranked by the Financial Times as the fastest-growing leisure and entertainment company in the Americas and the fastest-growing company in Canada for 2026 based on revenue growth.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has begun using Medical iSight’s AR system to show patients anatomically precise 3D models of endometriosis during pre-surgical consultations.
Infinity Experiences has announced the public premiere of The Black Mirror Experience in Montreal, a location-based immersive experience combining physical sets and VR where participants interact with a standalone story set in the Black Mirror universe.
Lightbrush has opened LUMENARY at Mirus Gallery Denver, an immersive exhibition featuring projection-mapped artworks, holographic visuals, and interactive AI-driven characters in collaboration with artist Android Jones.
Varjo has been selected to provide XR-4 Secure Edition headsets for a virtual training programme delivered by Fynd Reality to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, enabling remote training on military vehicles amid limited physical equipment access.
Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works at Accenture. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.
All spelling mistakes are deliberate, actually.
