Horizon Worlds
Meta Horizon Worlds is an online virtual reality game with an integrated game creation system developed and published by Meta Platforms. On this multi-player virtual platform, players move and interact with each other in various worlds that host events, games, and social activities. The game works on Oculus Rift S, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3 headsets.
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In February 2022, Meta reported Horizon Worlds had an estimated 300,000 users; yet, by October 2022, The Wall Street Journal was reporting less than 200,000 monthly users.[1][2][3][4] Horizon Worlds has received mixed reviews, with critics citing bugs and an unenjoyable environment that degrades the user experience.
In August 2023, Meta announced a new first-party studio called Ouro Interactive to build Horizon Worlds games. Its first title Super Rumble has largely received favorable feedback from users and media outlets. It utilizes new creation features such as asset imports and TypeScript that are not yet available for general creators.[5][6]
Development[edit]
The development of Horizon Worlds (formerly called Facebook Horizon) followed earlier social VR apps by Facebook (Oculus Rooms, Oculus Venues, and Facebook Spaces) and focused more on user-generated content than these earlier apps. Facebook announced Facebook Horizon as a new social virtual world at the Oculus Connect 6 conference in September 2019.[19]
In August 2020, Facebook announced that more users will receive access to an invite-only beta phase.[20] In an interview with Scott Stein in January 2021, Facebook Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth conceded that the experiences in Facebook Horizon were not ready for the public and expressed concern that "[i]f you don't have… something driving a lot of people to the place, then you run the risk they're not going to get it."[21]
In August 2021, Facebook released the open beta of Horizon Workrooms, a collaboration app targeted at teams managing remote-work environments. The app offers virtual meeting rooms, whiteboards and video call integration for up to 50 people.[22][23] On 7 October 2021 Facebook changed the name Facebook Horizon to Horizon Worlds.[24] After an invite-only beta phase, the game was released in the U.S. and Canada to people 18 years or older on December 9, 2021.
In February 2022, Mark Zuckerberg stated that a mobile phone version of Horizon Worlds would launch later in 2022.[2] He has also announced plans for Horizon Worlds to expand to the web.[7]
In March 2022, Meta announced “Builder Tracks for Horizon Worlds”, a developer program for game development inside Horizon Worlds. Meta has pledged $500,000 to fund the program, including cash prizes, a Horizon Worlds bootcamp, and support from Meta developers.[25]
In April 2022, Meta started testing monetization in Horizon Worlds in the form of in-app purchases, where a few select creators began selling virtual items, such as clothing, to players 18 years and older. Meta also started testing the Horizon Worlds Creator Bonus program where creators are paid monthly bonuses.[26]
In September 2023, Meta announced that Super Rumble will be available on web and mobile via a waitlist. As of November 2023, the available worlds include Super Rumble, Halloween Horror Nights, Spy School and The Soapstone Comedy Club.
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Reception[edit]
Critics[edit]
When Horizon Worlds was first announced in 2019 under the name Facebook Horizon, Josh Constine writing for TechCrunch compared it to other social virtual worlds such as Second Life, The Sims, AltspaceVR, Dreams, Roblox, as well as the fictional "OASIS" described in the novel Ready Player One,[31] while Sam Machkovech writing for Ars Technica emphasised similarities to Rec Room and VRChat.[32] Machkovech noted a key difference to other social virtual worlds in Facebook's plan to let employees welcome new users.[32][33] Sean Bowles from Apply Digital praised the platform for its ability to create monetization opportunities through partnerships.[34] However, he also criticized the centralized nature of Meta’s control over the game, along with the clunkiness of the graphics and lack of social engagement.[34] Scott Stein writing for CNET agreed that "[m]aybe Horizon is better than whatever Oculus had before"; however, he also observed that "there are a lot of social VR questions Horizon leaves unanswered".[35]
David H. Freedman writing for Newsweek tried to answer some of these questions by predicting that Facebook's knowledge about users' online behavior "will explode when someone straps on a Facebook headset".[36] This prediction is supported by Facebook's public plans to include face and eye tracking in future headsets.[37] Freedman speculated that Facebook could use this knowledge to generate advertising revenue with ads that permeate Facebook Horizon and "might appear as billboards, signage, skywriting, computer-generated characters hawking goods and services, logos embedded in objects and surfaces, and any other form that can be crammed into any nook or cranny of fake reality."[36]
Kotaku described Horizon Worlds as "a strange experience" and that the overall vibe felt "less toxic than [they] expected, considering how awful Facebook is", and also called it a "hollow, corporate shell that has more in common with an office than it does a playground, or any other type of social space a human being would willingly want to hang out in."[38] TheGamer also described Horizon Worlds as "less of a virtual utopia, and more of a glitchy, incomplete cluster of experiences" and criticized the current relative lack of safety features and poor management of misinformation and hate speech on the platform and described it as a "corporate reality that only investors and venture capitalists are seeking."[39]
Vishal Shah, VP of Metaverse at Meta, commented that users and creators have provided feedback to the team about the lack of stability and prevalence of bugs in the platform.[40] Shah also found that company employees have also stopped using the platform, writing, “The simple truth is, if we don’t love it, how can we expect our users to love it?".[40] However, other executives have urged critics to be patient with the developing technology, and have stated that Meta is currently working towards improvements.[41]
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Meta Horizon Worlds
Meta Platforms
December 9, 2021 (U.S. and Canada)
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