VR Winter 2.0 Just Claimed Its Biggest Casualty ft. Steve Grubbs (Victory XR) & Malia Probst (Scout House)
About this episode
The episode discusses the shutdown of Engage XR and its implications for the VR industry, featuring insights from industry experts Steve Grubbs and Malia Probst.
Rony and Charlie (running the show Ted-less this week) open with hard news that Engage XR, one of the last two open-world VR platforms, is shutting down after losing its largest customer. This leaves VRChat as the only major player standing. Steve Grubbs, CEO of Victory XR, drops in to explain how his education-focused VR business avoided the fallout by diversifying off Engage years ago, and what happens now to the schools and developers left searching for a new platform. From there: Nvidia's Hugging Face acquisition and what it means for open-source AI communities, OpenAI's escalating legal fight with the New York Times (with an unusual amicus brief from the Justice Department), Google's push to license Hollywood content for its Veo platform, and Rony's case for "sovereignty" as the defining concept of the AI era. Malia Probst, founding partner at Scout House and co-founder of the WXR Fund, joins for the back half to reflect on 11 years in immersive tech; from producing early narrative VR to helping platforms like Meta Horizon and Google build out their creator ecosystems. The conversation covers why this VR downturn feels different, the data behind why founding teams with women…
People in this episode
Hosts: Charlie, Rony
Guests: Steve Grubbs, Malia Probst
Topics covered
- VR platforms
- education technology
- AI acquisition
- immersive tech
- women in tech
- career longevity
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Victory XR, Scout House, Engage XR, VRChat, Nvidia, Hugging Face, OpenAI, New York Times, Google, Meta Horizon
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