Featured Image Credit: Abaca Press / Alamy / Mark Zuckerberg
Topics: US News, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg
Gabriella Ferlita
Topics: US News, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has updated his metaverse avatar after his icon was mocked online.
Originally, criticism calling out VR platform Horizon World's lacklustre graphics came at the social media app's premiere in France and Spain this week.
Zuckerberg shared his previous avatar posing in front of a cartoon Eiffel Tower and Barcelona Cathedral, which was then slated by the internet for looking oddly similar to the now outdated ‘Nintendo Wii’ graphics.
One Twitter user wrote of the CEO’s old graphics: “He has spent billions on creating the old Nintendo Wii level graphics.”
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Other tech experts chimed in, with New York Times columnist Kevin Roose dubbing the graphics in the VR app ‘worse than a 2008 Wii game’.
Data scientist and activist Emily Gorcenski added: “Come work for Meta, where the most brilliant technologists of the day have achieved 1995-level graphics.”
Others noted how ‘creepy and ‘dead-eyed’ Zuckerberg’s avatar looked in the Horizon Worlds app.
However, on Friday, Zuckerberg took to his Facebook profile to back his original avatar, stating that ‘it was taken very quickly’.
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He wrote: “Major updates to Horizon and avatar graphics coming soon. I'll share more at Connect.
“Also, I know the photo I posted earlier this week was pretty basic - it was taken very quickly to celebrate a launch.”
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He then stated that the graphics in the app ‘are capable of much more’, despite how his avatar previously looked.
The Meta founder said: “The graphics in Horizon are capable of much more - even on headsets - and Horizon is improving very quickly.”
He then followed up his explanation post with a new avatar selfie, looking far more detailed and modernised.
This app marks Zuckerberg's plan to allow users in the US and Canada to socialise online with others, play games and build their own virtual environments.
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Users must be 18 years old or over, as well as have access to proper tech - a Quest 2 virtual reality headset - in order to use the online platform.
Horizon World was first announced back in 2019, and was launched last year on a beta version for invited users.
Since the launch earlier this week, the platform is now out for all users over 18 and with the proper technology, without the requirement of an invitation to use the beta version.
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