Social media giant, Meta has announced that Horizon World is testing several new features, one of which allows creators to monetize what they build in the Horizon World.
Horizon World is Meta’s social metaverse platform. The platform is available only in Canada and USA as of now.
Two new monetization features have been announced for creators in the Horizon World. The first is, a handful of creators will be able to sell virtual items and effects within their space.
Only persons over the age of 18 are allowed to purchase the things. Meta will take a percentage of the creators’ sales.
Talking about these new features, Mark Zuckerberg says, “clearly the ability to sell virtual goods and take them with you from one world to another is going to be an important part of it. But first, there need to be things that people want to buy, to get that economy going.”
The second feature is a Horizon Worlds Creator Bonus program for creators in the USA. The bonuses will be in the form of “goal-oriented monthly programs”. The bonuses will not be subject to fees and creators will be paid in full for their progress toward the goal.
Every creator using these features will have to comply with the ‘Conduct in VR Policy’ and ‘Horizon Worlds Prohibited Content Policy’.
The funds for these monetization programs will come from the $10 million Horizon Creators Fund which was announced last October.
The platform has also announced the upgradation of several creator tools to enhance the creators experience.
A new template has been launched for the game ‘Arena Clash’ so that creators can develop a game of their own. The platform also promises to keep releasing “mechanics, scripts, and art from the experiences and games built” to make the game building process easier for creators.
A new dashboard for creators has also been launched. The new analytics dashboard will allow the creators to see more information about their world and the effect on visitor traffic and engagement due to changes in their worlds.
Meta plans to bring Horizon Worlds to mobile phones and gaming consoles sometime this year.
Lastly, the company announced expansion of their VR developer programs, Oculus Start and Oculus Launch Pad.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta a few months ago as part of metaverse push.