Mozilla is shuttering its Firefox Reality VR browser
Mozilla's mixed reality web browser is being reborn under an open-source organization's control.
Nearly four years after Mozilla launched its Firefox Reality VR browser for folks to view the web in mixed reality, the company is shutting it down. Don't worry -- a new browser is being launched by another organization to fill the gap.
Igalia, an open-source developer firm, will take ownership of the tech behind the Firefox Reality VR browser and use it in its own free browser, Wolvic, which will be available next week. Soon after in the coming weeks, Mozilla will pull its own browser from digital stores, the company wrote in a blog post.
"The Firefox Reality project was created ... to give users some choice and ensure that open and unlimited access to the web remains strong on these devices. These ideas are core to what we do at Igalia, so we're thrilled to be able to carry the torch forward in leveraging that work to create a new browser, Wolvic," Brian Kardell, Developer Advocate at Igalia, said in the Mozilla blog post.
Mixed reality -- consisting of both augmented reality and virtual reality -- could have a big year as several VR and/or AR headsets from Meta, Apple, and Sony PlayStation may launch later in 2022. It's unclear what devices Wolvic will work with, and neither Mozilla nor Igalia responded to inquiries by time of publishing to clarify how the browser may differ from Firefox Reality VR.