Wendy's opens store in Metas Metaverse

Wendy's opens store in Metas Metaverse
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  • added Trailer

Update:

The following video shows the "Wendyverse" in action. You can actually play basketball with burgers.

Original article:

Meta is working with burger chain Wendy's to give a first taste of what the commercialisation of Horizon Worlds might look like.

Starting April 2, visitors of Meta's Horizon Worlds will be able to enter a virtual Wendy's store. Wendy's is the world's third-largest fast-food hamburger chain after McDonald's and Burger King. It is especially popular in the US.

"Ready Player Bun": Welcome to the Wendyverse

Wendy's "Wendyverse" is based on Meta's Horizon technology, similar to how, say, Nike's Nikeland takes place in the Roblox universe. So if you're in Horizon Worlds anyway, you can access the digital Wendy's restaurant from there without any additional login or download. The Wendyverse is reserved for Quest 2 users for the time being.

Auf dem virtuellen Basketballfeld von Wendy's wird mit Burgern gespielt ...

Playing with burgers on the virtual Wendy's basketball court. | Image: Wendy's / Meta

The world of Wendy's Horizon offers two areas: The virtual Wendy's restaurant and an additional basketball court, the "BiscuitDome", where you can play basketball with hamburgers. The restaurant and surrounding areas also contain hidden Easter Eggs related to Wendy's brand and various interactive elements.

The announcement does not mention a virtual ordering service for real food, as McDonald's has patented. However, there is supposed to be the possibility to win vouchers for real Wendy's branches in VR.

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Meta activates Horizon's creative talents

According to Meta, Wendy's is working with Horizon creatives for the Wendyverse. These are people outside of Meta who build custom VR worlds with the tools provided by Meta - for pay or for the fun of it. In this context, Meta wants to develop into the Metaverse marketplace and earn money as an infrastructure provider in possible future transactions.

Since the end of 2021, Horizon Worlds has been available to VR users from Canada and the US. It is not yet known when the digital world will open its doors worldwide. Meta also plans to expand Horizon Worlds to smartphones.

Other Metaverse building blocks of the company are the virtual living room Horizon Home, the coworking app Horizon Workrooms and the event app Horizon Venues.

Read more about Horizon Worlds:

Sources: Oculus Blog