Last Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on his Facebook account the launch of the Avatars Store, enabling individuals to purchase digital clothing items for their Metaverse avatar.
Meta is making the service available on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, allowing platform users to buy items for their digital Horizon avatar. Soon, Meta is also making Avatars Store available on virtual reality (VR) devices, like the Meta Quest.
Mark Zuckerberg added:
Digital goods will be an important way to express yourself in the metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy. I’m excited to add more brands and bring this to VR soon too.
For the launch, Meta is collaborating with major fashion brands such as Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne to create digital goods. With Zuckerberg suggesting that more brands will come on board soon.
Meta is distributing the Avatars Store in the coming weeks in the United States, Canada, Thailand, and Mexico, with other release regions unconfirmed.
Meta Launches Horizon Worlds
Last week, Meta launched Horizon Worlds in the UK for the first time, following a limited US release, with an extended European launch planned.
Horizon Worlds is a Metaverse platform that combines a variety of VR environments to support immersive gaming, virtual events, enterprise-grade collaboration, and socialisation.
The Menlo Park-based firm sustains different use cases by splitting its Metaverse platform into additional services, including Worlds, Home, Workrooms, and Venues.
Additionally, Meta encourages native content creation by giving tools to VR developers at all levels to create VR worlds, experiences, and assets. Meta runs a $10 million creator fund for building bespoke Horizon Worlds experiences.
To protect users in Horizon Worlds, Meta employs peer-to-peer safety and privacy measures. The Menlo Park-based firm introduced the Conduct in VR and Horizon Worlds Prohibited Content Policies informing Metaverse users of online regulations, following significant controversy during the platform’s beta testing period.
Meta also employs Safe Zones allowing a Horizon user to block out and mute individuals violating the platform’s rules. Additionally, Horizon Worlds lets users control conversations with blocking and encryption tools. Meta also introduced a 4-foot personal boundary that stops non-friended individuals from interacting with a user.
