Zuckerberg responds to the mockery of the Horizon Worlds selfie, saying it was taken quickly to celebrate a launch and promises major updates to avatar graphics

Earlier this week was supposed to be a celebratory time for the folks at Meta, as its reality-devouring project Horizon Worlds was now available in more countries.

Kotaku 2022-08-21 Patricia Hernandez

Context & Ripple Effects

Horizon Worlds had already moved from a private beta to broad adult access in the US and Canada through its wider North American opening. Its availability in additional countries therefore puts greater weight on the quality of the experience users encounter at entry.

The avatar-graphics pledge follows public criticism of the announcement screenshot and Meta's metaverse spending. The response turns a reputational problem around a launch image into a stated product-improvement priority for Meta.

First-order effects

Meta has publicly committed Horizon Worlds to major avatar-graphics updates, making visual quality an immediate product expectation rather than a background roadmap item.
People entering Horizon Worlds in the newly added countries will evaluate the expanded service against a product whose graphics have become a visible point of criticism.

Second-order effects

Meta's launch messaging now depends more directly on delivering the promised graphics improvements, since the screenshot criticism has linked the platform's presentation to confidence in its investment.
Horizon Worlds' wider rollout gives dissatisfaction with its visual experience a broader audience, increasing the cost of treating avatar presentation as a minor polish issue.

Third-order effects

If social-VR expansion continues to expose unfinished-looking avatars, visual fidelity will become a core adoption and brand-credibility constraint for platforms seeking mass-market reach.
The episode points toward social-VR competition being shaped not only by geographic availability but by whether platforms can make shared virtual identity feel product-ready at launch.

The trend: Social-VR platforms are discovering that broader distribution raises the strategic importance of avatar quality and public product presentation.

Discussion

@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
Wow. Mark Zuckerberg basically got cyberbullied so much over his company's metaverse graphics that he announced an update. https://twitter.com/...
@lifebettergreen Michael Green on x
Saturn devouring his son [Edited meme of Saturn Devouring His Son, with the heads being Mark Zuckerberg's Horizon World avatars]
@stevekovach Steve Kovach on x
Zuckerberg responds to his embarrassing Metaverse selfie, promises graphics will get better https://www.facebook.com/...
@hankgreen Hank Green on x
@CaseyNewton It's almost like they have no idea what they're doing without an extremely specific, measurable directive.
@om @om on x
I don't know why people are complaining about Metaverse graphics! Mark Zuckerberg has never looked more human! https://www.theverge.com/...
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
Thoughts on this style @TimSweeneyEpic? https://twitter.com/...
@walldo Brandon Wall on x
cyber bully more billionaires https://twitter.com/...
@howlmedia @howlmedia on x
Shorter Zuckerberg — “We rush things out before they're ready.” https://twitter.com/...
@hackingbutlegal @hackingbutlegal on x
@CaseyNewton It actually indicates, as we already know, that the bubble around Zuck is so thick, no one will tell him the truth. Nobody wants to upset the conductor and end the gravy train—or more likely, no one can anymore
@nateingraham Nathan Ingraham on x
@CaseyNewton He just wants to be Steve Jobs, right?
@kateconger Kate Conger on x
@RMac18 noooo the bad graphics are genuinely good and funny
@hmltn Ian Hamilton on x
Huh. Is that deeper in the uncanny valley? https://twitter.com/...
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
There's just so much obvious downside — the dunking surface is basically infinite — and no clear upside
@hackingbutlegal @hackingbutlegal on x
@CaseyNewton No matter how much he tries to convince us that he's actually a charismatic leader, he's a dictator, hence the idealized image of him we see the company promote https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
This is called the Sonic movie approach to product management.
@elipariser @elipariser on x
@CaseyNewton I think you're reading it the wrong way around. I bet they believe that the Meta-FB brand is fundamentally tied to Mark — so they might as well use cool product releases to try to improve the Mark brand. Not the right strategy but a plausible one?
@yoda Drew Olanoff on x
Real talk. Mark has completely steered the company into a ludicrous direction and has complete and total control over it. Can't be voted out. And he thought this looked impressive. This company is in trouble. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@limitlessjest Ben Flores Redemption Arc on x
Every glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg further solidifies Jesse Eisenberg's sniveling, petty performance in the Social Network as the most generous biopic portrayal of all time
@paultassi Paul Tassi on x
Okay I am taking at least 5% of the credit for this https://twitter.com/...
@kellymakena Makena Kelly on x
ok, but now meta horizons just looks like fortnite? https://www.theverge.com/...
@thrilluwu @thrilluwu on x
The internet just cyberbullied Meta into turning RTX on. We got more of a say than ya'll think. https://twitter.com/...
@adamnash Adam Nash on x
@CaseyNewton ... the upside is conviction. Any proxy has the lingering possibility that this isn't top priority for the leader. This likely reflects a desire to show externally (and internally) his conviction & support.
@peterpham Peter Pham on x
The question is why nobody internally thought to say something before? https://twitter.com/...
@benitopagotto @benitopagotto on x
imagine being the one who has to model all this versions of zuck and get something out quick bc of the fud 😅 https://kotaku.com/...
@leslievdb @leslievdb on x
guys we're upping the fiver budget from 5$ to 100$ get me something by tomorrow https://twitter.com/...
@bgurley Bill Gurley on x
Wild to watch a company spend $10B on a journey others have already traversed. Should have just written off the Oculus purchase vs quintupling down. Next stop: https://en.wikipedia.org/... Stop the madness and the stock pops big time. https://twitter.com/...
@howardlindzon Howard Lindzon on x
Twitters best use case and my favorite use case besides real time markets and sports is ArmChair CEO and Corp Dev... https://twitter.com/...
@anshublog Anshu Sharma on x
“Execution matters more than strategy” is an insane popular truism. Product strategy is really really hard. Look at companies like Facebook, Google and you will see how companies with 100s of billion can barely come up with one original good product. https://twitter.com/...
@amasad Amjad Masad on x
This tweet captures perfectly why VCs destroy so much value when they think they know better than founders — post hoc reasoning, pattern matching, analogizing — everything that makes them great at investing makes them terrible at vision and first principle thinking. https://twitt…
@nickdcarver Nick Carver on x
'Oh, you thought those were the real graphics? Nah, that was just some junk we put in there for a joke. We weren't even trying. The real stuff's gonna be so good. You don't even know.' https://twitter.com/...
@jetgreguar @jetgreguar on x
he looks like one of those makeover phone game ads you see on tumblr where he catches his wife cheating so you have to spray the crap and shit off of him with a hose so he won't get divorced https://twitter.com/...
@nathievr @nathievr on x
Looks like concept art to me https://twitter.com/...
@datnofact @datnofact on x
Zuckerberg got dunked on so hard he overhauled the graphics but now he just looks like a freemium mobile game ad. https://twitter.com/...
@mollywood Molly Wood on x
Oh my goodness. @karaswisher they pulled a Sonic the Hedgehog redesign after all. Wow. https://twitter.com/...
@karaswisher Kara Swisher on x
It was us. I am sure of it. ;) https://twitter.com/...

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