Horizon Worldsil social network in VR is the Metais not having the expected success: even the team of employees who work there do not want to enter the metaverse. This is what emerges from an internal note leaked to the press, which complains about too many bugs and the frustrating experience.
Meta employees do not enter social media in the Horizon Worlds metaverse
The internal note, obtained from The Verge, bears the signature of the VP for Meta’s Metaverse Vishal Shah and the date of September 15th. In the body of the note we read that the team wants to remain in a “quality lockdown”, during which to make sure to “fix our qualitative gaps and performance problems before opening Horizon to new users ”.
Horizon Worlds has already reached 300,000 users, offering an experience halfway between the VR video game and the social network. Shah in his internal notes testifies that the work team strongly believes in the idea at the center of the project. “Since the launch at the end of last year we have been able to see that the central thesis of Horizon Worlds, that of a synchronous social network where creators can build interesting worlds is strong. But at the moment the feedback from our creators, users, testers, and many on our team is that the aggregate weight of jams, stability issues, and bugs is too harsh for our community to appreciate the magic of Horizon. Saying it simply, for an experience to be enjoyable, it must first be usable and well done.
A product that is rarely used even by those who build it
Zuckerberg recently promised new more realistic avatars and graphical improvements, which are likely to arrive at the Connect event that the company will launch. this 11 October. But at the moment this virtual world does not seem to convince even those who program it.
“For many of us, we don’t spend a lot of time on Horizon and our dashboards clearly demonstrate this. Because? Why don’t we love a product we’ve built enough to use it all the time? The simple truth is, if we don’t love it, how can we expect users to love it?Continues Shah.
In a September 30 note, Shah insists that managers should become accountable for using social media, asking employees to use it at least once a week. “Everyone in this organization should have the mission of fall in love with Horizon Worlds. You can’t do it without using it. Come in, ”she asks.
Meta continues to believe in the metaverse
Although it seems that the internal teams are using social media very little, on the other hand the message of the company does not change. The spokesperson Ashley Zandy she remarked to The Verge that Meta remains “sure that the metaverse is ithe future of information technology and that it should be built around people ”. He also explained that the company is “always doing quality improvements and acting on feedback from the creative community. This is a multi-year journey and we will continue to build it in a better way ”.
But on the other hand Meta will launch (it seems soon) a version in 2D per smartphone on Horizon to try to engage new users. With the aim then of making them live the experience in VR with a viewer. But also with the awareness that this step will not be immediate. The market response is essential to truly look to the future. And if users respond like the Horizon Worlds internal team, the road to Meta could be an uphill battle.
What do you think about it? Have you already used Meta’s social media in VR? Tell us about your experience in the comments.