Meta Launches $50M ‘Horizon Worlds’ Fund to Support Struggling VR Studios

Today, Meta unveiled a substantial $50 million initiative to encourage the development of innovative content within Horizon Worlds, their flagship social gaming platform. This effort arises amidst challenges faced by established studios creating standalone VR experiences for the Quest, as Meta points to a changing demographic among headset users as a factor affecting sustainability.

Since the Oculus Rift launched in 2016, standalone VR apps have played a vital role in Meta’s VR ecosystem, attracting a growing audience. Despite their significance, Meta now envisions its future success pinned on a broader “metaverse” — a unified world of interconnected experiences.

Enter Horizon Worlds, Meta’s ambitious metaverse project, designed as a hub for both play and creation. It’s a platform where users can craft and share content with the community, with an inherently social aspect at the core — a concept quintessential to a leading social media entity like Meta.

However, Horizon Worlds has struggled to reach the mass userbase Meta desires despite being VR-accessible for years. As a strategy to widen its audience, Meta extended Horizon Worlds to work on phones and computers. While this expansion invites more users, it poses a challenge for creators aiming to cater to both VR and traditional screen experiences.

Of course, a critical challenge Horizon Worlds faces is content that keeps users engaged and returning. Without engaging activities and replayability, attracting and retaining users is tough, much less enticing new ones to explore the platform.

To improve content, Meta has steadily attracted more creators and developed its own games within Horizon Worlds. In a major push, Meta has introduced a $50 million “Creator Fund” to reward creators whose worlds achieve strong user retention and visits.

According to Meta’s announcement, creators can earn monthly bonuses from the fund by contributing engaging mobile and mixed reality experiences that boost time spent, retention, and in-world purchases.

Alongside this fund, Meta has launched the Horizon Worlds desktop editor, a tool that empowers creators to undertake more complex projects using their computers instead of relying solely on VR headsets. This tool reflects the workflow of traditional VR developers who typically use engines like Unity.

This aligns with Meta’s belief in Horizon Worlds as a pivotal component of its long-term strategy. The mobile version, in particular, has been emphasized as a crucial element needing to succeed.

While the new creator fund represents a significant opportunity for those embracing Meta’s Horizon Worlds vision, it presents challenges for developers of standalone VR and MR apps. During Meta’s shift toward prioritizing Horizon Worlds, several high-quality standalone VR apps risk being overshadowed by amateur or derivative content.

Developers of standalone apps express frustration, feeling these changes redirect consumers from their products to Meta’s platform, where creator revenue-sharing is reportedly less favorable. As a consequence, even established studios have had to downsize amid difficult conditions in both the Quest platform and the wider gaming landscape.

Despite this, Meta hasn’t ignored standalone VR app developers, dedicating substantial funds for VR content creation. Initiatives like Oculus Start have been in place to help indie developers, and Meta continues to offer grants for exploring MR content and lifestyle apps.

However, some developers worry about the platform’s volatility due to Meta’s shifting focus—from standalone VR to MR, and now to Horizon Worlds. Meanwhile, Meta attributes the downturn of standalone app companies not to its strategic shifts but to a demographic trend with a preference for free-to-play apps over paid ones.

Indeed, success stories like “Gorilla Tag,” boasting over $100 million in revenue from in-app purchases, underscore the potential of free-to-play models to achieve significant reach and profitability. Other companies like Digigods are also thriving, reflecting robust growth from players embracing social, free-to-play, and user-created content models.

Meta assures that paid VR apps remain integral to its strategy and insists on continuing investment in standalone VR projects. However, some reports have recently questioned the consistency of these investment efforts.