Google Cardboard “hardware” finally discontinued, remains an open source project

I guess Google is officially cardbored of their last surviving VR experiment. The official Google Cardboard “hardware”, tired of boxing, is now showing as out of stock on the Google Store. Included near the top of the page is a banner that states the “device” will pretty much no longer be manufactured by the company.

We are no longer selling Google Cardboard on the Google Store. We will continue to help the community build new experiences through our Cardboard open source project.

Google Store

Cardboard, which was made of, well, cardboard, rubber bands, and plastic acrylic lenses supported both Android and iOS devices that had displays between four and six inches. In addition to killing off pretty much all of its VR apps, including Expeditions, Google has also retired Daydream pretty much entirely. It’s sad to see this item go the way of the Labo – I mean the dodo – since it was a neat little project created by Googler David Coz in his 20% time back in 2014.

In 2019, Google officially open sourced the project, and though it continued to sell its creation on the Store, it had clearly lost interest in furthering its development. I mean, it’s always been the lowest bar of entry to virtual exploration, and I am one of many people who became a believer in VR because of it. Okay, this is starting to sound like a eulogy, so I’m going to leave it there.

It’s sad, but understandable that this day has finally arrived, but the open source community will no doubt keep it alive and well in their own projects. In the meantime, Google seems to be looking at ways it can further WebXR development and that may have some ties into Chrome OS in the future, so stick around and keep an eye out for more on that should it develop further.