Facebook announced on Thursday that it is opening Horizon World, its virtual reality world of avatars, to everyone ages 18 and older in the United States and Canada.
Courtesy of Meta
Facebook parent Meta is planning a cut of up to 47.5% in sales of digital assets on its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds, which is a key part of the company’s plan to create what it calls a “metaverse.”
The social media giant announced in a blog post Monday that it is letting a handful of Horizon Worlds developers sell virtual assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within the worlds they build. However, the company failed to mention in the post how much Meta will charge creators for the sale of their wares.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday that Meta will take an overall cut of up to 47.5% on each transaction. This includes a 30% “hardware platform fee” for sales through the Meta Quest Store, which sells apps and games for its virtual reality headsets. In addition, Horizon Worlds charges a fee of 17.5%.
The size of the cut has upset some in the NFT community. A Twitter user wrote: “I hate you Facebook.” Other called: “If Meta wants 47.5% of NFT sales, they need to talk to the IRS because I don’t even have that after taxes.”
Elsewhere, NFT marketplace OpenSea takes a 2.5% cut of each transaction, while rival LooksRare charges just 2%.
In recent months, companies and individuals have snapped up everything from art to real estate in virtual worlds on platforms like Decentraland and The SandBox. Hip-hop star Snoop Dogg has bought virtual land and a fan paid $450,000 to buy property next to him on The Sandbox in December.
Vivek Sharma, Vice President of Meta at Horizon, reportedly told The Verge, “We think it’s a pretty competitive price in the market. We believe the other platforms can have their share.”
Horizon Worlds (formerly Facebook Horizon) is a free virtual reality online video game that allows people to build and explore virtual worlds. Meta released the game on its Oculus VR headsets in the US and Canada on December 9th, but it has yet to launch globally.
Meta vs Apple
Meta’s fees for selling virtual assets on Horizon Worlds are significantly higher than Apple charges developers in its App Store.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives have previously criticized Apple for charging developers a 30% fee for in-app purchases through the App Store.
In November, Zuckerberg said his company would try to help Metaverse creators avoid Apple’s App Store fee.
“As we build for the metaverse, our focus is on providing opportunities for creators to monetize their work,” he said. “The 30% fees that Apple charges for transactions make this difficult. So we are updating our subscription product to allow developers to earn more now.”