The Wall Street Journal reports that Metaverse is struggling to keep users occupied with its glitchy features and empty worlds, as well as users’ refusal to return to the Horizon Worlds platform after the first month.
According to reports, only 9 per cent of user-created worlds are ever visited by at least 50 people, and the majority receive no visits at all. Internal documents also show that Meta has far missed its monthly usage targets.
The company had set a goal of 500,000 monthly users by the end of 2022, but that number has since been reduced to 280,000. According to the documents, the platform has fewer than 200,000 current users, and more than half of the Quest 2 headsets are out of use after six months.
Despite paying $400 to access the platform through the Quest 2 headset, users are treated with confusing brand content, persistent bugs, and empty worlds without user interaction, and staff also seem to dislike the platform due to its lack of quality.
Last month, the Horizon platform was suspended following complaints from users who complained bitterly, leading to a pause in the rollout of new features while it works to improve the user experience of existing elements in virtual reality, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Other complaints include the lack of legs on the avatars, as well as sexual harassment and digital groping. Although Meta tries to combat sexual harassment by introducing a safety feature that creates a virtual 4-foot buffer around avatars on the platform, it is unclear what it intends to do with the legless avatars.
The sources for this piece include an article in BusinessInsider.