In a tweet, Meta’s CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth announced that the business is working on a web version of their social virtual reality Horizon Worlds platform.
Users would be able to try out Horizon Worlds without needing to utilize Quest VR goggles, which are presently the only way to get into the virtual environment.
Bosworth’s tweet on the platform’s web version was part of a larger thread justifying Meta’s 47.5 percent cut of Horizon Worlds purchases. A 30 percent platform fee for purchases made through Meta’s Quest Store is included in the 47.5 percent number.
Bosworth said on Twitter that when the web version of Horizon Worlds launches, the cost for sales will be 25%, avoiding the Quest Store’s 30% cut. This is “a substantially lower rate when compared to other similar world-building platforms,” he said.
This means that if you buy a digital item on the web edition of Horizon Worlds, the designer you’re buying from will earn a bigger cut of the transaction than if you buy the identical thing in the VR version.
In a tweet, Bosworth stated, “We’re making good on our aim to ensuring that developers have a road to true financial success on our platform.” “It’s early days, there’s still a lot of work to be done, and we’ll continue to work closely with our creators and developers to help them earn meaningful cash,” says the company.
Bosworth didn’t offer much more about the virtual world’s web version, including how it would work or when it may be available. The announcement comes only days after The Verge reported that Meta is working on delivering Horizon Worlds to mobile phones later this year.
Meta’s ambitions to release online and mobile versions of its virtual world could be viewed as a means for the company to attract more people to Horizon Worlds by removing the requirement for a Quest VR headset.
However, there’s also the question of whether a web and mobile version of the platform would contradict Meta’s metaverse objective.
It’s unclear how a web and mobile version of Horizon Worlds would fit into Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s concept of the metaverse as a “successor to the mobile internet,” where you’ll be able to do things you can’t do in the physical world.
Bosworth’s remarks come just days after Meta announced that it is beta-testing a feature that will allow creators to sell virtual products and effects within their worlds.
To begin, the new feature is only available to a select set of artists, but it represents a big step forward in the company’s ambition to lay the groundwork for virtual reality social networking.
These in-world purchases will be available to everyone who has access to Horizon Worlds. In addition, Meta is launching a Horizon Worlds Creator Bonus program for players in the United States.
After its initial announcement in 2019, Horizon Worlds became open to all users over the age of 18 in the United States and Canada in December 2021.
To read our blog on “Horizon designers will be able to sell virtual objects, Meta,” click here.
