Facebook has finally announced an invite-only public beta for Horizon, the company’s Ready Player One Oasis-style multiplayer virtual reality social space.
Currently, Horizon has new games, environments and new tools to help combat abuse on the platform, which includes a “Personal Safe Zone” where users can mute, block and report some of the people or content around them. If a moderator finds a specific user is being blocked or muted they’ll listen in on VR experiences and look into some of your recorded world data and ban that user outright if they find violations.
Facebook describes Horizon as “an ever-expanding universe of virtual experiences designed and built by the entire community.” The social gathering place lets users party up with their friends so they can chat and check out different worlds together. With Horizon; however, you can also meet up with people you don’t know and go into virtual rooms like game shows or even a theme park.
Devindra Hardawar from Engadget received the opportunity to hop into Horizon. There he played a game called Balloon Bash, a water balloon shooter, and watched a virtual game show. Hardawar also got the opportunity to check out the creative mode where he said:
In many ways, it reminded me of the white void from The Matrix — a room filled with limitless potential and creativity. Within a few minutes, my guide turned the empty space into a virtual beach, complete with sand, water and a golden sunset horizon. All the while, I spent a few minutes trying to create a palm tree. Creation mode unlocks even more menu options on your Oculus joysticks, and you can also make yourself giant or tiny to build out individual components.
The invite-only beta is available on Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform in the U.S. and Canada, to join the beta waitlist, click here.
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