Facebook owner Meta Platforms said Monday it will soon begin testing tools for selling digital assets and experiences within its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds. This move is an important part of the company’s plan to advance the Metaverse.
Meta said in a statement, “The applications will initially be available to a select group of users creating virtual courses, games and fashion accessories within the company’s immersive platform, accessible via VR headsets.”
With the help of a tool, the selected users can sell their accessories or offer paid access to a digital place they have created.
Meta Platforms is also testing a “Creator Bonus” program for a select group of Horizon Worlds users in the US, where participants pay monthly to use any new features the company introduces.
During the discussion with the early adopters present in Horizon Worlds as avatars, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “We want there to be a lot of great worlds, and for that to happen there have to be a lot of creators, who can take care of themselves and make it their job.”
Meta Platforms has invested heavily in virtual and augmented reality to demonstrate its new interest in the Metaverse, a futuristic idea of a network of virtual environments that can socialize and play across different virtual environments in which users work.
The company fights future players in virtual worlds where land, buildings, avatars and even names can be bought and sold as NFTs or blockchain-based virtual assets. The market for these assets has exploded over the past year, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in turnover. (AFP)