Meta (formerly Facebook) opened access to the virtual-reality social network Horizon Worlds for adults in the United States and Canada. The app is free to use and requires a Quest 2 VR headset and a Facebook account.
The company also unveiled a new mini-game Arena Clash, a three-on-three laser-tag-style game, similar to лазертаг in a three-on-three format.
Horizon Worlds is one of the pillars of Meta’s metaverse strategy. Mark Zuckerberg described it as “the internet you are in, not just looking at it.” However, the company has yet to present a cohesive vision of where the technology is headed.
Meta hopes that users will shoulder a greater share of populating the Horizon Worlds virtual space. To that end, engineers have provided access to tools for creating their own games and workflows for the virtual world.
Horizon Worlds was announced in 2019. Since 2020 the company has run a closed beta test of the service, with several thousand users taking part.
On October 28, Facebook underwent a major rebranding, renaming the company to Meta and shifting its focus to the metaverses.
During the presentation, Oculus researcher Michael Abrash demonstrated realistic avatars, the environment in which they exist, and a neural interface that enables controlling them.
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