Meta’s first step towards the metaverse opens today with Horizon Worlds

Horizon Worlds, Meta’s virtual reality mini-metaverse is opening to anyone in the U.S. and Canada. It’s free to anyone 18 years of age or older, but you will need an Oculus Quest 2 headset to use it.

The virtual reality “social experience” isn’t just a space to hang out online. Like other metaverse game experiences like Roblox and Minecraft, Horizon Worlds enables users to create shared experiences. It goes further, enabling them to make games for other users to play. The thing missing? A way for creators to monetize their own content.

To go along with the wider release, Meta has also created a 3v3 laser tag experience inside Horizon Worlds, called Arena Clash. Creators can also use the building blocks from this to create their own games. It seems Meta is counting on creator content as a big draw for the game.

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Creators won’t be able to sell their own content, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get paid. Meta has set up a $10 million Creator Fund to reward their hard work. That money will go to things like competition prizes, funding for developers, and also an Accelerator Program to teach creators the necessary skills to build in the Horizon Worlds metaverse.

Meta says that “thousands of worlds” have already been created in the invite-only beta period.

You can download Horizon Worlds for free on Quest 2 here. If you’re playing on a Quest 1 headset, Meta says it will no longer be supported on your headset after January 13, 2022.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.