Mashable: Employees hired in a flurry due to the epidemic are being let go in an effort to cut expenses.

Ahead of the weekend, Microsoft revealed that they would be laying off 10,000 employees. Even for a company as large as Microsoft, the number of layoffs was substantial, accounting for over 5% of the company's total workforce.

According to a report by WindowsCentral, ex-employees' statements on social media have begun to shed light on the business areas where Microsoft believed it could shed entire teams of people, as the workers are still recovering from the news.

It has been reported that the entire teams responsible for developing HoloLens, AltSpaceVR, and MRTK (Mixed Reality Tool Kit) have been laid off.

AltSpaceVR used to be in charge of Microsoft's "metaverse" vision. Microsoft, which bought the virtual reality social platform AltspaceVR in 2017, has announced that it will be shutting down the service as part of a larger restructuring that will result in the layoff of 10,000 employees. AltspaceVR was started in 2013. It puts two-dimensional web content into shared virtual spaces, like a collaborative workspace. Users are able to do everything from collaborating on projects to playing video games while immersed in a virtual world.

Another complete team plucked from the corporation is behind the "MS" Mixed Reality Tool Kit (MRTK) framework, a cross-platform solution for establishing spatial anchors within virtual space. MRTK was made for Unity VR integrations and worked with Meta headsets and Microsoft's HoloLens. Since Microsoft has gotten rid of the MRTK and AltSpace VR teams, there isn't much reason for them to keep working on the HoloLens headset. Even though work has been cut back over the past few years, Microsoft had been trying to get a HoloLens contract with the U.S. military, but Congress said there were problems with the program, so Microsoft gave up.

Getting rid of the big teams working on AR and VR could mean that Microsoft doesn't want to lead the way with the ‘metaverse’ idea. This would leave the field open for Meta's established efforts and Apple's long-rumored vision, which is set to debut hopefully by this year or next.

Large tech firms like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and others have been laying off thousands of workers as the economy has slowed. Employees hired in a flurry due to the epidemic are being let go in an effort to cut expenses, but this may have unintended consequences for ongoing endeavors.