Metaverse strategy: Meta integrates event platform into Horizon Worlds
Meta's Metaverse platform Horizon Worlds grows: Meta integrates the event app "Venues" into Worlds.
Venues launched back in 2018, long before Horizon Worlds, then called Oculus Venues for Oculus Go. The app later came in an improved version for the first Quest. The social VR environment is related to Horizon Worlds in style and function: cartoon-style avatars move through a 3D environment and can interact with each other.
While users can engage in many activities in Worlds, Venues is all about events - mainly video streams of comedy performances, sporting events, concerts, movies and so on.
Venues merges with Worlds
Back at the beta launch of Horizon Worlds 2020, Meta fundamentally overhauled the event platform in the style of Worlds. Now, Meta announces that Venues will be completely merged into Worlds in the near future. The standalone Venues app (see trailer) will be discontinued on June 6.
According to Meta, Venues will become a standalone world in Horizon Worlds. Venues and Worlds will be connected through portals that will allow users to seamlessly switch between game, social and event environments.
Meta puzzles its way to the Metaverse
Meta's biggest and most expensive VR event in venues to date was a live-streaming concert by rock band Foo Fighters to coincide with the Super Bowl last February. However, the event struggled with technical issues and was also optimized for traditional 2D screens instead of VR.
Other building blocks of Meta's Metaverse vision include Horizon Home, the virtual living room, and Horizon Workrooms. These, too, will likely be merged into worlds at some point. That would be in line with the vision of a seamless, all-encompassing Metaverse, as described by Jason Rubin, Metaverse manager at Meta, in 2018. Rubin is responsible for the Metaverse content strategy at Meta.
View of the Venues event space in Horizon Worlds. | Image: Meta
Currently, Horizon Worlds is only available in the US and Canada. According to Meta, other countries will gain access starting this summer. Germany is not expected to be included, as Meta does not sell the Quest 2 VR headset in Germany due to a conflict with the Federal Cartel Office.
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