Magical butterfly wings that give you the power to soar in your favorite meditative VR world? They can be purchased for a price. Meta is beginning to unlock monetization in its open-world Metaverse VR app, Horizon Worlds, starting with items you buy in individual worlds. But these items won’t be things you can take to other worlds… at least not yet.
The latest update to Meta’s social platform aims to build an economy, something the free, open-world app doesn’t have. Meta had plans to open up the Metaverse trade in things that could be bought and eventually carried through apps, but those early steps in Horizon Worlds are much smaller: these in-game items only work in worlds they originated in. Basically, they are a way for individual world creators to monetize their individual creations.
The new monetization tool has currently been rolled out to a limited number of creators selected by meta, and there are plans to roll it out to others at some point.
“This is exciting, but at the same time, we want to do it in a way that will eventually scale across worlds, in shared spaces, and beyond. Costs and payments for the Creator Platform are processed through the Meta App Store for app purchases or additional content in games or apps. Marketing Manager.
Meta calls these early monetization efforts “testing” in their blog post, hinting that the rules may continue to change and evolve. The company aims to open up opportunities to sell creator-made items that could be carried over to the rest of Horizon Worlds, like avatar clothing, but for now the company sees items from the inner world as a way to tip players to give or support. They could end up leading to things like VIP access to worlds or extra content. Meta plans to have its Horizon platform live on devices beyond the company’s own VR headsets.
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