As part of Horizon Worlds’ v109 update notes released by Meta, creators using the platform’s social VR playscape will no longer be able to create dedicated events, a feature that some creators hoped would be improved.
This unexpected move by the company came as a surprise as it’s one of the features of the platform that creators enjoy using. However, Meta says existing events that are scheduled to take place post-Tuesday can still happen, including some official ones.
Meta wrote in its v109 update notes, “As we’ve refocused our development in Worlds toward improving the overall quality of the platform, we’ve taken time to also revisit some legacy features that aren’t quite living up to our renewed quality standards. As part of this effort, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue the event creation tool in Worlds.”
A community-focused metaverse?
The Facebook parent company went on to acknowledge in a Discord post that, “While events have been a powerful way for some of you to connect with your engaged communities, we’ve also heard your feedback. It’s clear that our current events system isn’t living up to the needs of our community at large.”
Meta has been criticised lately by many who say that it has abandoned its metaverse vision and has now focused on AI. And although Zuckerberg has said that Meta remains committed to bringing its metaverse vision to life, the decision to discontinue events in Worlds will be seen as a terrible move by many creators.
Zuckerberg has also said that 2023 will be a year of efficiency for the company despite expecting its Reality Labs division’s operating losses to increase year on year throughout this year.
Meta adds that although the event creation tool has been discontinued, “You’ll continue to see some official events featured in the UI. Over time, we’ll continue to test and learn from these events, which may help to inform what the future holds for events more broadly.”
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
