Virtual Reality

Google’s announcement of Android XR last month was largely met with excitement, but there was a notable undercurrent of concern about Google’s long-term commitment to the platform. The company has a storied history of launching new products and platforms, only to drop them a few years later—often leaving third-party developers in the lurch.

Google has earned a reputation among third-party developers as a company that will tout the launch of exciting new platforms, only to cancel them unless they achieve breakout success.

The site Killed by Google maintains an active list of the company’s cancelled projects, currently totaling 296. While Stadia—Google’s short-lived cloud game streaming service—is probably the most recognizable example in recent years, the XR industry already has first-hand experience with the practice.

Google Daydream, announced back in 2016, was Google’s first attempt at entering the XR space proper. The company created the Daydream View headset in which Android smartphones could be inserted for a VR experience similar to Samsung’s Gear VR headset at the time. Third-party developers could build made-for-Daydream apps and distribute them via the Play Store right alongside other Android applications.

Over the next two years Google made efforts to refine Daydream View, including adding more supported phones, releasing an improved version of the headset, and even making one of the first 6DOF standalone VR headsets in partnership with Lenovo.

But little more than three years later the company killed the platform after it failed to achieve the ambitious adoption it had hoped for.