Published on: 13/04/2022
Meta to test virtual goods sale for Horizon Worlds
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company started testing monetization for their Horizon Worlds virtual reality spaces to help creators start earning money. For instance, someone can offer paid access to a new part of a world in the metaverse or create and market attachable fashion accessories.
The good thing is, that it is neither a blockchain-based system nor non-fungible tokens (NFT) which have been subjects of criticism by some gamers and game developers. Horizon Worlds prohibits the selling of digital assets. Yet, as Meta has learned that a robust economy of virtual goods existed, they now strive to adapt to the same virtual marketplaces.
Horizon Worlds wrote on Twitter, “today we’re announcing new tools for creators to start making money from their builds. It’s just the start and we want to get this right so we’ll first be testing these features with a few creators”.
New tools to help creators earn money
The company has started testing two new tools. These tools will allow creators to experiment with various ways to monetize what they create in Horizon Worlds. Now, Horizon Worlds is part of Meta’s plans to construct the metaverse, an interconnected universe of virtual worlds, as shown in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.
Meta said that they launched the tools for some creators to test and get their feedback. The company said creators can earn a living by using the tools in the metaverse. The company will also soon allow people to buy digital goods, services, and more importantly, experiences.
Alex Chandler, the creator of Horizon Worlds, hosted a conversation with Zuckerberg regarding the project. There, Zuckerberg discussed the news and the prospect of a metaverse economy. He said they planned to start utilising these tools in Horizon Worlds to earn money. The Meta CEO said that selling virtual goods and taking them from one world to another will play an important part in the metaverse at some point in the future. However, to get the economy moving, people need things they want to buy.
Zuckerberg furthermore explained that “it requires a lot of experimentation and creativity from the people who are building the worlds and building these experiences and all kinds of different things. But this will be a really iterative process in terms of building this”.
“It’s not like we just put something out there, and we’re done. You know, we’ll see what you all build,” he continued. “And then we’ll see what resonates with the people using the worlds, and then we’ll build the next round of tools based on that and keep on improving it. And so that’s what I’m interested in, is just how quickly we can learn and iterate on this and keep on making it better.”
According to Meta, since the metaverse does not have physical bounds, it will lead to new levels of creativity. It also opens up new possibilities for the next generation of creators and businesses to follow their passions and make livelihoods. Business models will be more flexible, giving creators and entrepreneurs more options to work with.
