Meta’s CTO has responded to the controversy around the company now using “MR” to mean both MR and VR.

Last month we published a report noting how Meta is now using “mixed reality” as an umbrella term to mean both MR and VR, leading to confusion from both developers and customers. Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth directly confirmed the change last month, and we noticed it being used across the company’s website, blog posts, and developer outreach communications.

This change from “VR/MR” to simply “MR” has been controversial, with many in the industry decrying it. Now, Bosworth has responded to the outrage, calling it “one of the most absolutely manufactured controversies of all time”.

“Just a total fabrication of the community out of nothingness”, Bosworth continued.

“We use the term mixed reality more often in public and internally because there was some confusion in the marketplace. Since Apple leaned so hard into marketing mixed reality features for the Apple Vision Pro, we wanted to make sure people were aware that Quest 3 in particular was as good as, or in my opinion better than, what they get elsewhere.

We found out through market research, which we do, that this was a key thing.

So often this community is so crazy. Listen, if you’re watching this, you’re in – I don’t need to talk to you. I’m trying to get more people in! You know that, right? Most people we’re marketing to, they’re not you. They’re not following my AMAs. They’re the people who have currently chosen not to buy in, and we’d like them to. And I figure out how to help them do that.”

“God, y’all need to move on!”, Bosworth concludes.