VR Winter 2.0 Just Claimed Its Biggest Casualty ft. Steve Grubbs (Victory XR) & Malia Probst (Scout House)

About this episode

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 tend to outperform, and a wide-ranging closing discussion on career longevity, AI's effect on Hollywood, and what Charlie, Rony, and Malia are each watching most closely over the next two years.

Key Moments:

[01:35] Engage XR shuts down, leaving VRChat as the last major open-world platform

[04:35] Nvidia's Hugging Face acquisition and the open-source community question

[07:35] OpenAI vs. The New York Times, and the DOJ's amicus brief

[16:35] Google's push to license Hollywood content for Veo

[18:35] Steve Grubbs hops on to add insight into how Victory XR avoided Engage's collapse

[23:35] VRChat's business model and whether this is "VR Winter" all over again

[28:35] Malia Probst joins as both guest and host, after 11 years building Scout House and the WXR Fund

[32:35] The data on why women-founded teams outperform

[40:35] Career longevity, AI's effect on Hollywood, and predictions for the next two years

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