Mark Zuckerberg announced the debut of Horizon Worlds in France and Spain earlier this week by posting an image of his digital avatar in front of the Eiffel Tower and what I believe to be the Sagrada Familia. Unfortunately for him, the visuals were, as one Twitter user put it, “roughly on par with the Teletubbies game for the PlayStation One,” and the internet pretty much right away began dragging and meme-ifying the screenshot of the virtual reality platform.
Evidently having seen the memes, Zuckerberg wants you to know that Meta is creating the visuals. He uploaded some fresh images on Facebook and Instagram on Friday, showcasing a far more realistic representation of himself and an eerie plaza. He remarked, promising to provide more information at the next Connect conference, “Major upgrades to Horizon and avatar visuals coming shortly.” A spokeswoman for Meta, Peter Gray, told The Verge that the firm had no information to disclose on the date of the event, but that the previous year’s event had taken place in October.
He acknowledges that the initial screenshot isn’t exactly flattering. “I’m aware that the picture I uploaded earlier this week was quite simple; it was snapped in a hurry to mark a launch. Even on headsets, the visuals in Horizon are capable of considerably more, he said. Personally, however, I would probably refrain from posting hurried screenshots of a virtual reality experience if my company had been investing billions into it. This is especially true if I had recently announced a $100 price increase for the Quest 2, making it significantly more expensive to access. It’s just me, however.
Better visuals are not the only thing that other metaverses promise to provide in exchange for users’ participation. Roblox revealed last month that it was also upgrading its customary blocky and low-res visuals, and Josh Anon, the product lead, stated in an interview with Protocol that the company’s ultimate objective was to “replicate the actual world.”
However, the use of images is what matters most in the end. Even if Horizon receives a fresh update from Meta that raises the graphic quality to that of, say, Fortnite, it won’t matter until the game’s virtual environments provide anything intriguing to look.