Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to overhaul the company’s flagship metaverse app Horizon Worlds after it received heavy criticism due to its graphic simplicity. The backlash was received as a consequence of one of the selfies of Zuckerberg’s avatar in Horizon Worlds presented to illustrate the launch of the platform in Spain and France.
Horizon Worlds will get Graphics Overhaul
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, a social media and VR company, announced that a series of changes are coming to Horizon Worlds, Meta’s metaverse-focused app, to make it more immersive and visually impressive for users.
Zuckerberg shared the news via Instagram. He also displayed the new design style for the platform’s future graphics. He explained:
Major updates to Horizon and avatar graphics coming soon … The graphics in Horizon are capable of much more — even on headsets — and Horizon is improving very quickly.
This overhaul was announced in response to the backlash generated by a selfie of him as his avatar that was used to announce Horizon Worlds’ launch in France and Spain. Some users considered it outdated because of its simplistic graphics.
Zuckerberg Explains
Meta’s graphics were criticized by columnists, influencers, and ordinary users due to the way they looked. Kevin Roose, New York Times stated:
It’s genuinely puzzling that Meta spent more than $10 billion on VR last year and the graphics in its flagship app still look worse than a 2008 Wii game.
Some others also criticised the company and compared its graphics to pre-2000 tech. Emily Gorcenski (a U.S. activist, data analyst). declared:
Meta is a place where some of the best technologists in the world have created graphics at 1995 levels.
Zuckerberg, however, explained how Zuckerberg created the images for the digital selfie by saying:
I know the photo I posted earlier this week was pretty basic — it was taken very quickly to celebrate a launch.
Meta had been spending significant funds in Reality Labs, its metaverse unit. This is why the criticism has come. The unit saw sales surpass $400 million in Q2 2022. However, it lost $2.8 billion over the same time period. In order to continue financing its operations and its metaverse division, the company issued 10 billion dollars in bonds this month.
How do you feel about Horizon Worlds’ graphics redesign? Comment below.
Image credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Diego Thomazini / Shutterstock.com
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