Meta, the company behind the biggest social media platforms worldwide, took a bet and, as some reports indicate, it isn’t paying off. The “bet” was taken a year prior to this date when Facebook rebranded itself as Meta Platforms Inc, after the word Metaverse. This move revealed Mr. Zuckerberg’s plan to create a virtual world, “Horizon Worlds,” betting on the Web3 industry.
Internal documents showed that users who visit Horizon Worlds generally don’t return to the app after the first month. Glitchy technology and uninterested users all combine to create a failing, not enjoyable, and glitching virtual world. One document said, “An empty world is a sad world,” indicating Meta’s efforts to pursue users to join “Horizon Worlds.”
As you all know, the Metaverse is something new, especially for people unfamiliar with gaming or cryptocurrencies. Meta knows that “Horizon Worlds” is a multiyear project and can’t reach its full potential in a year. Meta took the first step a month ago, quietly putting its Metaverse into ‘lockdown.” By “lockdown,” we mean that the virtual world paused the launch of new features until progress was made due to persistent bugs and user complaints.
Compared with other companies focused on creating virtual worlds, Meta is doing ok… Sike! Reports show that Meta dropped its previous goal of 500,000 monthly active users to 200,000, wow! So, will Meta recover and actually build a playable Metaverse and not a glitch and boring one? As far as I’m concerned, only the time will show!
Horizon Worlds is a free virtual reality, online video game with an integrated game creation system developed and published by Meta Platforms for Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest 2.