Meta’s Horizon Worlds is so buggy it’s driving users nuts

For users, it’s more like Hell-rizon Worlds.

A look over the past six months of user complaints on the r/HorizonWorlds and r/OculusQuest subreddits reveals that the game’s bugginess seems to pervade nearly every aspect of the consumer experience.

Here are some examples:

• “You can get your entire oculus device bricked just by doing something ‘wrong’ in game.”
• “Why can’t I download Horizon Worlds?”
• “I downloaded it, and selected it but I can't get past the loading screen.”
• “I find myself in an environment with buildings floating in the sky. I’ve got arms, but nothing happens, none of the buttons do anything, it just sits there.”

The bugs are making the space unusable for even its employees.

A pattern of problems. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 15 that Meta is taking action to address the bugs, putting Horizon Worlds on “lockdown” and revising its adaptability goals from 500,000 a month by the end of 2022 to 280,000. Documents obtained by WSJ showed that users tend to stop using their Quest headsets within six months.

Meta’s stubborn attempts to make its VR platform work at all costs are running up against the reality of how the company’s workforce is actively avoiding using the game. Lack of enthusiasm among Meta employees is indicative of the broader issues tormenting the game.

Reporting from The Verge on two memos from Vishal Shah, Meta VP of Metaverse, show the company’s struggle with the game’s problems. In September, Shah acknowledged that the “aggregate weight of papercuts, stability issues, and bugs is making it too hard for our community to experience the magic of Horizon.”

But on September 30, Shah demanded Meta managers be held “accountable” if they didn’t usher team members into Horizon once a week.

Meta has made it easier for users to flag problems in the newest update with an in-app reporting system in real time, they announced on October 5. The company also announced it had fixed a number of existing bugs, including overflow scrolling, rendering defects, image preview malfunctions, audio choppiness, player stats, and others.

“Thanks in advance for your help hunting down these bugs!” Meta told readers.—EH

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