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Report: Meta to Open ‘Horizon Worlds’ to Younger Teens Amid Renewed Retention Push

From roadtovr

Meta’s social VR app for Quest, Horizon Worlds, is lagging behind the competition when it comes to attracting and retaining VR users. According to a leaked memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal, the company is now ostensibly looking to boost numbers by more transparently appealing to younger teens in addition to funding a slew of new second-party content.

WSJ only posted snippets of the memo, entitled ‘Horizon 2023 Goals and Strategy’, which was allegedly written by Meta Vice President of Horizon Gabriel Aul. The memo is said to outline the team’s objectives for the first half of 2023.

Here’s some highlights we formatted into a bulleted list, which also includes additional info supplied by a source cited by WSJ:

  • Competitors are outperforming HW. Improving user retention is most important, especially among teens and young adults
  • HW to open to teens aged 13 to 17, which could come as early as March
  • Meta is working with outside studios to build new worlds and experiences for HW
  • The team is aiming to launch at least 20 new Horizon-hosted experiences built by second-party studios. Of the 20, it’s hoping for five medium hits and at least one a major hit
  • The flatscreen version of Horizon for mobile and desktops is set to come sometime in H1 2023

Additionally, WSJ reports the memo outlined some key performance metrics, claiming Horizon Worlds’ weekly retention rate was 11% in January, which the company aims to increase to 20%. The goal for monthly active users for the first half of 2023 is said to be 500,000, with hopes of reaching one million for the full year. Currently the platform is at 200,000, or just below the December peak, the reported memo outlines.

The previously reported flatscreen version, which is said to launch by the end of the first half of 2023, is hoping to achieve 150,000 monthly cross-screen Horizon users.

Meta’s Quest 2 headset is technically only available to users aged 13 and up. Horizon Worlds on the other hand has been limited to users 18+ since it was launched in 2021, and only to those in US, Canada, UK, France, Iceland, Ireland and Spain.

While none of this seems to have hindered children below 13 from playing all the Quest 2 has to offer, Horizon Worlds included. More transparently appealing to young teens though will likely come with a host of safety requirements that the company needs to fulfil for liability reasons.

Meta issued a response to WSJ, supporting in part its move to focus on teens:

“Teens are already spending time in a variety of VR experiences on Quest,” Meta spokesman Joe Osborne told WSJ, “and we want to ensure that we can provide them with a great experience in Horizon Worlds as well, with age-appropriate tools and protections in place.”

This comes hot on the heels of Meta reducing its workforce by 13% late last year, one of the biggest tech layoffs in recent memory, which saw 11,000 jobs cut from payroll.

Meanwhile, the company’s Reality Labs XR division has dramatically increased its operating budget in an ostensible bid to maintain market dominance over similar metaverse pushes from the likes of Apple, Google, etc. At the same time, Meta has slashed some XR projects, including first-party title Echo VR.

Provided the report is true, it appears Meta is making another important step towards competing more directly with cross-platform social gaming titans like Roblox and Rec Room. 

Meta’s Social VR App is Coming to Web & Mobile Soon, Alpha Begins for Members-only Rooms

From roadtovr

Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR platform for Quest users, is expanding with alpha tests of new members-only spaces, allowing creators to manage up to 150 card-carrying members in their private worlds. Meta says it’s also gearing up to release Horizon Worlds on non-Quest devices for the first time.

Meta is now rolling out alpha access to its new members-only worlds, which aims to let creators build and cultivate a space in Horizon Worlds. Each members-only world can have up to 150 members, although only 25 concurrent visitors can gather at any given time.

“Every community develops its own norms, etiquette, and social rules over time as it fosters a unique culture,” the company says in a blogpost. “To enable that, we’ll provide the tools that allow the creators of members-only worlds to set the rules for their communities and maintain those rules for their closed spaces.”

Meta says moderation responsibilities can be shared among trusted members, so creators can better control who gets in and who’s kicked out, however the company says its Code of Conduct for Virtual Experiences is still in effect in privately owned spaces.

What’s more, the Quest-only social platform is also going to be available on the Web and mobile devices “soon”, the company says, adding that rules will be made and enforced “similarly to how mobile operating systems manage experiences on their platforms.”

As it is today, Horizon Worlds plays host to a growing number of user-generated content in addition to first-party worlds. The release of Horizon Worlds outside of Quest would represent a massive potential influx of users and user-generated content, putting it in direct competition with cross-platform social gaming titans such as Roblox and Rec Room.

As a similar free-to-play app, Horizon Worlds offers an Avatar Store featuring premium digital outfits—very likely only a first step in the company’s monetization strategy. For now, the company says it allows creators to earn revenue from purchases people make in their worlds, which includes hardware platform fees and a Horizon Worlds fee, which Meta says is 25 percent.

In late October, Meta showed off a tempting preview of its next-gen avatars, although it’s clear there’s still a ton of work to be done to satisfy its existing userbase. Floating torsos are still very much a thing in Horizon Worlds, and that’s despite Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insistence that full body tracking was in the works. It was too good to be true.

For now, Horizon Worlds is only available on Quest 2 headsets in the US, Canada, UK, France, Iceland, Ireland and Spain—something we hope they change well before it ushers in flatscreen users.

Celebrate New Year’s Eve In VR With Shaquille O’Neal

From vrscout

The virtual event kicks off on December 31st at 3:30pm PST.

It’s been a crazy year, so why not celebrate its end with an equally crazy New Year’s Eve countdown event hosted by NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal in VR?

“The Shaq’tacular Spectacular” will feature an impressive lineup of big-name celebrity guests like Rob Gronkowski and Camille Kostek. We can also expect performances from artists such as Cardi B, Ludacris, Lil Yachty, Killer Mike, WHIPPED CREAM, and Shaq himself as his musical alter ego, DJ DIESEL.

Credit: Meta

“This year we’re ringing in 2023 with new experiences and connections. I’m excited to celebrate with some of my favorite artists and athletes in a way that you can enjoy with friends and family in VR across the world,” said Shaq in an official release. “From music, laughs and much more, we’re celebrating New Year’s Eve and welcoming 2023 with a spectacular party you won’t want to miss.”

Produced by Westbrook Media, Media.Monks and Jersey Legends Productions, the hour-long special event will kick off on December 31st at 3:30pm PST. The show will take place inside Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR metaverse available on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro VR headsets, and Meta Quest TV.

For more information visit here.

Image Credit: Westbrook

VR Show Behind The Dish Is A Mouth-Watering Delight

From vrscout

Go behind the scenes of the culinary world in this beautifully shot episodic series.

The Meta Quest TV app features no shortage of immersive 360-degree content to enjoy, from groundbreaking VR series like Space Explorers: An ISS Experience to live concerts featuring popular artists such as the Foo Fighters and Billie Eilish.

Available now on Meta Quest TV, Behind the Dish is the latest VR series to hit Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro VR headsets, offering viewers a mouth-watering look at high-end cuisine brought to life in incredible detail using a custom-designed 3D macro camera system.



Developed by the Emmy-nominated VR studio TARGO in partnership with Meta, the three-part series follows three female chefs “reshaping a male-dominated industry.” This includes 6-Michelin-star French Chef Helène Darroze, Soul Food Chef Deborah VanTrece, and Sushi Master Yumi Chiba.

“Behind the Dish highlights the journeys of three chefs who made it to the top by being unapologetically
authentic,” said TARGO in an official release. “Hélène Darroze had the courage to put an end to a century-old family restaurant and became the most renowned French chef.”

“Yumi Chiba survived breast cancer by turning the art of sushi-making into her source of solace and self-expression,” added the team. “Deborah VanTrece redefined her life and career as an African-American lesbian flight attendant to become a Soul Food chef fascinated with other cultures.”

In addition to shining a spotlight on the inspirations and impacts of each chef, Behind the Dish also offers an unprecedented look at various cuisines filmed in 8K 3D 360° video using a custom 3D macro camera system. VR brings each dish to life in stunning detail, from Chef Deborah VanTrece’s delicious-looking mac-n-cheese to Sushi Master Yumi Chiba’s Edomae sushi.

Watching the series on Meta Quest Pro I was absolutely blown away by the incredible use of macro 3D video. Close-up shots look nothing short of stunning when viewed on a VR headset in immersive stereoscopic 3D. Watching Sushi Master Yumi Chiba expertly slice through fish in slow motion was an incredibly satisfying experience.

All three episodes of Behind the Dish are available now on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro VR headsets. Simply visit the Meta Quest TV app and look for the Behind the Dish playlist.

For more information on this VR gastronomy series visit here.

Image Credit: TARGO

This Mixed Reality Meal Combines Food And VR

From vrscout

A delicious meal that pairs beautifully with immersive technology.

This past week, Italian artist Mattia Casalegno debuted his latest thought-provoking installation, Aerobanquets RMX, at Miami Art Week in Miami, Florida. The multisensory experience combined VR technology with delicious food to deliver a mixed reality meal quite unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Inspired by F. T. Marinetti’s The Futurist Cookbook, a collection of fictional recipes from the future, the installation supported up to 16 guests at a time, each of whom donned a Meta Quest 2 VR headset equipped with an external hand-tracker. Throughout the unique gastronomy experience, guests dined on five to seven dishes prepared by Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning chef Chintan Pandya.

Guests could choose from two menus: regular and vegan. As they ate, the textures and flavors of each dish were rendered in VR. The experience also featured text brought to life by narration from Top Chef judge Gail Simmons.

“We currently live in a world where industrial farming, overfishing, chemical pollution, and soil degradation are jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions by depleting the environment,” said Casalegno on his website. “We live in a culture where speed and economics come before health and quality. With this work I want to put a spotlight on our endangering practices and at the same time relish the joy of eating.”

As you can see in the video provided, Casalegno developed a custom accessory that turns Meta’s Touch controllers into futuristic dishware. This was most likely done to provide a simple and convenient way for guests to track the location of their meals in VR. That said, the final product looks incredibly cool.

For more information about Aerobanquets RMX visit here.

Image Credit: Flavor Five Studio

Light Delights Is An Extra Trippy Mixed Reality App

From vrscout

Interact with a variety of eye-catching virtual objects with your own two hands.

Light Delights is a simple, yet surprisingly captivating mixed reality experience that turns your real-world space into a vaporwave art gallery. Available now on Quest 2 and Quest Pro VR headsets, the free app features a variety of unique multicolored pieces.

There are five virtual objects in which to inspect, each of which features its own unique interactions. This includes everything from physics-driven gyroscopic rings to a never-ending avalanche of virtual cubes and orbs. The app also features support for hand-tracking, allowing you to interact with virtual objects using your own two hands.

“The standalone color passthrough is IMO the most promising direction for MR,” said Greg Madison, the award-winning XR interaction designer behind the project. “I tested for fun some ideas over the weekend, the magic is there and it’s mesmerizing to play with.”

Light Delights is available for free on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro. Simply download the APK via GitHub and install the file on your headset using a program such as SideQuest.

While the Quest 2 version is cool, we highly recommend trying the app out on a Quest Pro for the best experience possible.

Image Credit: Greg Madison

Meta to Resume Quest Sales in Germany Following 2-year Antitrust Case

From roadtovr

Over the past two years Meta hasn’t sold its VR headsets in Germany due to an ongoing antitrust suit in that country that alleges the forced linkage between its virtual reality products and Facebook was an anticompetitive practice. Now it seems that’s about to change, as regulators have intimated that Meta may be free and clear soon to resume sales in Germany.

As reported by German VR publication MIXED, residents of Europe’s largest economy will soon be able to order Quest 2 and Quest Pro, which are both set to be available in-country by the end of this year.

After the sales halt in September 2020, Germany-based customers had to import Meta VR devices, which was typically done by buying from online retailers based in neighboring European countries, such as France’s Amazon.fr or Italy’s Amazon.it.

Resuming sales in Germany is directly linked to Meta’s backtracking on forced Facebook logins in August. Andreas Mundt, President of Germany’s Federal Cartel Office which is tasked with antitrust enforcement in that country, calls this a “welcome development,” although the process is still not concluded.

Here’s Mundt’s full statement, translated to English:

With Meta’s digital ecosystem created with a very large number of users, the company is the key player in the social media space. Meta also has a significant position in the growing VR market. If the use of VR glasses were only possible for Facebook or Instagram members, this could severely affect competition in both areas. Meta has responded to our concerns and offered a solution by setting up a separate Meta account to use the Quest glasses. Despite this welcome development, we are not concluding the process today. First of all, we want to continue to accompany the actual design of the options for users as well as topics of the merging and processing of user data from the various meta-services.

Although a Meta spokesperson tells MIXED that both Quest 2 and the new Quest Pro will be available in-country at some point this year, the exact date is unclear.

Thanks to our reader Blaexe for pointing out that it wasn’t a block, but an anticipatory halt on Meta’s part during the ongoing antitrust suit. We’ve changed wording to reflect this.

‘Batman VR’ App Allegedly in the Works for Quest, FTC Filing Claims

From roadtovr

Among documents released by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier this week is a claim that Meta’s VR studio Camouflaj, the developers behind Marvel’s Ironman VR, have also planned a Batman VR app for release on Quest.

The apparent leak was found by Janko Roettgers, formerly of Protocol and Variety. The document in whole can be viewed here.

“In September 2022, Meta acquired Camouflaj, which currently developing Ironman and Batman VR apps for Quest.”

The information comes as a part of wider antitrust investigation into Meta’s acquisition of Within, the studio behind the VR fitness app. You can read more about that here.

Last we heard from Camouflaj before the acquisition by Meta, the studio said it had “exciting things on the horizon,” maintaining it was still “all-in on VR.”

As early as May 2022, the studio was hiring for a host of positions to work on its “next exciting AAA project.”

A few months later the studio then released Iron Man VR on Quest 2, releasing it from its two-year exclusivity on PSVR.

Camouflaj hasn’t announced any new projects at this point either. We’ve reached out to Meta for comment and will update when/if we hear back.

Immersive VR Film Takes You On A Supersonic Jet Ride

From vrscout

Experience what it is like to train like an astronaut.

Emmy award-winning immersive production studio Felix & Paul Studios, the team behind the hit VR series Space Explorers: An ISS Experience, is back with yet another jaw-dropping 360-degree experience for Meta Quest VR headsets.

Available now via the Meta Quest TV app, Supersonic Flight – Space Explorers: Special Feature puts you in the cockpit of a T-38 supersonic jet, the same aircraft used by NASA to train astronauts for spaceflight. The roughly nine-minute 3D 360-degree video takes you through a variety of scenic locations—from a sprawling canyon to a snowy mountain range—at ridiculously high speeds.

“For the past 60 years, NASA astronauts have trained for spaceflight flying T-38 supersonic jets,” states the official description. “Now is your chance to jump on board and fly faster than the speed of sound!”

Similar to the Space Explorers series, Supersonic Flight makes excellent use of 360-degree camera technology to immerse you in a one-of-a-kind experience that would normally be out of reach for the general public. 3D brings the cockpit and its array of controls to life, further absorbing you in the virtual flight.



That said, this experience may not be for everyone. The high-altitude joyride features several moments that could prove jarring to those prone to motion sickness. If you are able to stomach the ride, however, you’re in for a serious treat. Felix & Paul Studios is responsible for some of the most visually-stunning 360-degree films available on VR headsets, and Supersonic Flight is no exception.

Most recently, the studio partnered with NASA to host an immersive VR live stream of the highly-anticipated Artemis 1 rocket launch this month. Supersonic Flight is just the latest in a series of exciting partnerships with the American space agency.



You can watch Supersonic Flight – Space Explorers: Special Feature now on Meta Quest VR headsets for free via the Meta Quest TV app. For more information visit here.

Image Credit: Felix & Paul Studios

Biggie VR Concert Will Feature ‘Hyper-Realistic’ Avatar

From vrscout

With guest performances by Sean “Diddy” Combs, The Lox, and more.

Meta today announced the latest in its series of immersive VR concerts, The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s The Limit: A VR Concert Experience. Coming next month to Horizon Worlds, the one-of-a-kind show will bring the late Brooklyn rapper to life like never before in celebration of what would have been his 50th birthday.

Credit: Meta

On December 16th, those with a Meta Quest 2 or Meta Quest Pro headset can log in to Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR metaverse, to catch an immersive VR concert featuring a “hyper-realistic avatar” of the late great rapper along with guest performances by Sean “Diddy” Combs, The Lox, Latto, Nardo Wick, Lil’ Cease, DJ Clark Kent, and more.

The experience will also feature a narrative portion, during which you’ll learn more about the life of the hip-hop legend. Written and voiced by American writer and music journalist Touré, this eye-opening journey will take you through The Brook, a virtual recreation of ’90s Brooklyn.

Credit: Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

When asked how the project came to be, Touré said, “I’ve worked with producer Alex Coletti on several projects over many years and I also interviewed Biggie several times, so Alex thought I could be helpful at bringing this to life.”

“We wanted to create a concert that had other aspects to it, so it was on me to figure out a pre-concert scene and a post-concert scene. It was a lot of fun trying to imagine what Big would be like and what he might be doing if he were still with us today.”



“It’s very exciting to be able to give people immersive experiences, so if VR can develop to the point where I can be at home but have the feeling of being in the front row of a concert and really feel like I’m there, that would be a really exciting opportunity,” he added.

 The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s The Limit: A VR Concert Experience will kick off on December 16th in Horizon Worlds, available free on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro. A 2D version of the show will be available to view on-demand via the official Notorious B.I.G. Facebook page.

For more information visit here.

Image Credit: Burst Live