Official Quest Pro leak, harsh in-house criticism of Horizon Worlds
Meta is ahead of further Quest Pro leaks and simply leaks the device itself. Internally, there is trouble around Meta's proto-metaverse from Horizon Worlds.
In the depths of the Oculus software file structures, the Twitter account "@ItsKaitlyn03" has discovered an official image of Quest Pro for Oculus Link support. The image is saved with the file name "Seacliff" - the previously leaked codename of a version of the Cambria headset, which will be officially introduced as Quest Pro on October 11.
bruh seacliff in the fucking files for dash for link pic.twitter.com/92Hj7zErL0
— kaitlyn~ (@ItsKaitlyn03) October 6, 2022
The now officially leaked image matches renders of the new VR AR headset leaked weeks ago.
Meta employees aren't using Horizon Worlds enough
Another leak concerns an internal memo that fell into The Verge's hands. Metaverse VP Vishal Shah of Meta criticized the quality of the current product and the unwillingness of Meta employees to use Horizon Worlds. The internal dashboards clearly showed this, Shah said.
"Why is that? Why don’t we love the product we’ve built so much that we use it all the time? The simple truth is, if we don’t love it, how can we expect our users to love it?" writes Shah.
Horizon Worlds testing becomes manager's duty
On Sept. 30, Shah noted in a follow-up memo that internal usage times had not improved. Managers are now expected to order their employees to Horizon Worlds at least once a week.
"Everyone in this organization should make it their mission to fall in love with Horizon Worlds. You can’t do that without using it. Get in there. Organize times to do it with your colleagues or friends, in both internal builds but also the public build so you can interact with our community", Shah writes.
According to Shah, external feedback from early users has also been negative. He says the software has stability issues and bugs that make it difficult for people to "experience the magic of Horizon." For an experience "to become delightful", he said, it must first be usable. The onboarding experience is "confusing and frustrating," according to Shah.
Horizon Worlds doesn't have a product-market fit yet, Shah said, so all employees should accept ambiguity and change. Targets for increasing user numbers are being scaled back, he said, and instead the focus is on the quality of the experience, especially in light of the launch of the 2D web version.
In a statement, Meta says it is "confident that the metaverse is the future of computing and that it should be built around people."
"This is a multi-year journey, and we will keep making what we build better," Meta writes.
Note: Links to online stores in articles can be so-called affiliate links. If you buy through this link, MIXED receives a commission from the provider. For you the price does not change.
