Meta Revamps Horizon Worlds to Include More Video Games
Meta is looking to make its Horizon Worlds virtual reality app more compelling by including more video games. The free virtual reality social network allows users to create avatars and interact with other players. To make this possible, Meta has an in-house studio called Ouro Interactive that is focused on making first-party virtual reality games. The studio’s first VR game, Super Rumble, debuted on Friday and has better graphics and fidelity than other VR games built on top of Horizon Worlds.
Meta’s Investment in Horizon Worlds
The revamping of Horizon Worlds comes after Meta’s latest earnings report, showing the company’s Reality Labs units recorded a $3.7 billion operating loss while generating $276 million in revenue. Since the beginning of 2022, the Reality Labs unit has lost over $21 billion, demonstrating the massive investment required to develop the VR and augmented reality technologies needed to build a compelling metaverse.
Meta’s Horizon Worlds is a Roblox-like digital playground intended to attract users who wish to play games and interact with others like a 3D social network. However, the service has reportedly attracted less than 200,000 monthly active users, indicating the public’s general lack of enthusiasm for VR.
In an effort to make Horizon Worlds more appealing, Meta plans to test the app when it eventually debuts a mobile version. The video game will be one of the first VR video games Meta plans to test when it eventually debuts a mobile version of Horizon Worlds. The company has also revamped the VR platform’s infrastructure to support higher-quality and more complex games and provide more tools for third-party developers.
Meta’s Plan for the Future
Vishal Shah, Meta’s Vice President of Metaverse, said in an interview with the Lowpass technology newsletter that when Meta releases a mobile version of Horizon Worlds, it will act as the bridge between smartphones and the company’s Quest VR headsets.
“We’re going from a world where we are VR only to a place where we’re going to be VR first,” Shah said. He added that more video games will debut as Meta builds the new Horizon Worlds, and that Meta will “seed the ecosystem, bootstrap it with stuff that we build both in-house, but also with some studios that we’re working with.”
Meta’s investment in Horizon Worlds is a testament to the company’s commitment to making virtual reality more accessible and enjoyable for everyone. With the revamping of the app, Meta is hoping to create a more compelling experience that will attract more users and bring VR to the mainstream.