Meta Launches $50 Million Creator Fund for Horizon Worlds Developers

Meta has introduced a new $50 million Creator Fund aimed at supporting developers who build games and experiences for its virtual space "Horizon Worlds," with a special focus on mobile and mixed reality (MR) content.

The fund will distribute monthly payments to creators based on several factors including engagement, retention, and in-world purchases.

For those not familiar, Horizon Worlds is Meta's virtual reality platform where users can create, explore, and interact in various virtual environments. Think of it as Meta's attempt to build their own Roblox-style metaverse platform but with a VR-first approach [as of now].

This is actually a pretty smart move by Meta. By expanding beyond VR headsets to mobile, they're potentially reaching billions of new users who might not own Quest hardware.

As their blog post puts it: "By investing in mobile content, we can reach a lot of new people who don't yet own a Quest headset and ultimately grow the pie for everyone."

Alongside the Creator Fund, Meta is launching a series of competitions throughout 2025 to encourage diverse creators. The first contest, starting March 11th, will offer $1 million in prizes specifically for mobile-focused content creators.

The company is also expanding its monetization options for creators to 15 additional countries beginning February 24th. Previously, this was only available in the US, UK, and Canada.

For the tech-minded developers out there, Meta just released a desktop editor for Horizon Worlds in early access. This is a significant upgrade that allows creators to use traditional 3D asset creation tools instead of being limited to in-VR building.

This desktop editor addresses one of the platform's biggest criticisms - that world-building in VR was too limiting for complex creations compared to established platforms like Roblox.

For creators in the United States, the desktop editor includes generative AI capabilities such as sound effects generation, ambient audio creation, and TypeScript generation.

The timing makes sense with Meta's recent Quest 3S headset launch bringing in lots of first-time VR users. They've noticed younger audiences are particularly drawn to free-to-play experiences and social content.

Breaking down the barriers between headset and non-headset users seems like a smart strategy, especially since Horizon Worlds has been compatible with Oculus Rift S, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 3 but still limited to those owning VR hardware.

As Meta puts it, now "members of the MR community can play with their friends with or without headsets."

Despite mixed reviews about bugs and user experience issues, Meta seems committed to addressing these concerns and positioning Horizon Worlds as a central element of their metaverse vision.

This $50 million investment signals that Meta isn't giving up on their "mini Roblox in VR space" ambitions, but rather doubling down while making it more accessible.

What do you think? Will Meta's massive investment and mobile expansion help Horizon Worlds overcome its rocky start, or will established platforms like Roblox continue to dominate the user-generated content space?