Meta to launch Horizon Worlds social meta verse platform on web

Meta (formerly Facebook) is set to launch a web version of its Horizon Worlds social metaverse platform, which is currently available only on the company’s Quest VR headsets.

When Horizon’s web version launches, the platform fee will only be 25 per cent — a much lower rate compared to other similar world-building platforms, Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said in a tweet late on Thursday.

“25% for Horizon. If the platform underneath it takes a cut the 25% comes after that. So if the platform underneath takes 30% as many do (Apple, Google, Oculus) it comes out to 47.5% total, similar to the Roblox and YouTube rates,” he explained.

It means that for goods sold in Horizon Worlds on a Quest VR device, Meta will take 47.5 per cent of each transaction.

Earlier this week, Meta announced it is testing new features in Horizon Worlds, its social VR app, that will help creators sell virtual items and make money.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that creator monetisation and metaverse economy is really important.

“We’re making good on our goal to ensure that developers have a path to real financial success on our platform. In its early days, there is still a lot of work to be done and we continue to partner closely with our creators and developers to enable them to earn meaningful revenue,” tweeted Bosworth.

Horizon Worlds was rolled out to Oculus Quest VR headset users in the US and Canada in early December. It reached 300,000 monthly users within no time.

Taking a dig at Apple, Bosworth said that the iPhone maker Apple takes 30 per cent of software and a significant margin on their devices.

“They’ve capitalised on their market power to favour their own business interests, which comes at great expense to developers,” he said.