A new internal VR gaming studio called Ouro Interactive is helping Meta update its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform.The faltering platform recorded $3.7 billion in losses for the second quarter of 2023, and it looks that consumer interest in the metaverse is waning.Through a new internal VR gaming studio, Meta is attempting to revitalize its flagging Horizon Worlds platform in an effort to help it recover significant losses and pique users’ fading interest in its metaverse.
Vishal Shah, vice president of Metaverse, said that the company is creating fresh first-party games through a brand-new internal studio called Ouro Interactive in an interview with the tech publication Lowpass.The creator of the newsletter, who played “Super Rumble,” one of their newest titles, claimed that the studio is utilizing new technology developments to create “much better-looking and immersive experiences.”
“We’ve really raised the ceiling on what can be built in Horizon in terms of visual complexity, interactivity and fun gameplay,” Meta’s metaverse VP Vishal Shah told Lowpass.
Although it’s unclear when it will do so, Shah claims that the platform is also attempting to better target the allegedly billions of mobile gamers throughout the world. Cross-platform play, according to Shah, will move the platform even further away from being “VR only to a place where we’re going to be VR first.” The smartphone version is intended to serve as a bridge for individuals who don’t own a VR gear.
The ability for developers to import assets from games created with third-party technologies has been a major priority for Horizon Worlds during the past year.In order to enable people to construct in its environment without being familiar with specialized 3D rendering tools, it is also investing in generative AI technologies.
“This is definitely more than just a new world,” Shah told Lowpass. “[It’s] the next generation of Horizon Worlds.”
In an earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg reaffirmed Meta’s dedication to AI and the metaverse, calling them both “major priorities” that are now “overlapping and complementary.”
“For Horizon, the team is focused on retention right now and we’re making good progress on that,” he said. “We made big improvements on avatars as well and that’s going to be a bridge between our mobile apps and our VR and mixed reality experiences.”
Even so, the business and research division behind its Quest VR headsets and Horizon Worlds platform, Reality Labs, recorded an operational loss of $3.7 billion in the second quarter of 2023.According to a press statement from Meta, continuous product development will cause Reality Labs’ operating losses to rise year over year in 2023.At a time when other businesses are curtailing their metaverse efforts, Meta has rekindled its enthusiasm.Disney apparently terminated its metaverse team and stopped developing virtual worlds in March.