I can't stop watching this awful Meta Horizon Worlds trailer – and it's so bad Meta removed it

Meta has invested billions of dollars to bring you their latest creation – a Godzilla footprint in the 'Wendyverse'

(Credit: Meta)

Update: Well, this is hilarious. Meta has since deleted the tweet of its awful Horizons World trailer, presumably after the overwhelmingly bad feedback it received. Thankfully, someone has captured the nightmarish Godzilla X Wendyverse event on YouTube, and yeah, it’s just as bad as we thought.

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Horizon Worlds fiasco

• 🤔 Meta’s Horizon Worlds game is getting an interesting crossover

• 🐲 Godzilla has invaded the Wendyverse, for some reason

• 😱 You can jump into the Metaverse and see the devastation firsthand

• 📸 Meta encourages users to share pictures of the “once-in-a-lifetime experience”

Original story: On November 15, Meta Horizon Worlds dropped a new trailer for its seemingly unnamed “once-in-a-lifetime experience”.

The footage mimics the type of shaky hand camera work present in the film Cloverfield and stars users such as Alpha_Chick and This_Guys_Avatar, which are definitely real people.

Before you rush down and watch the trailer, brace yourself for what you’re about to witness. Godzilla, the legendary Japanese prehistoric sea monster – whose legacy deserves far more respect than this – has apparently leaped dimensions and invaded the Wendyverse. That’s right, the Wendyverse.

From what I can tell, the Wendyverse is a place where a crudely-made Wendy’s building resides, sporting as much detail as an early PS One game.

It seemingly serves no purpose, either (I’m guessing you can role-play being at an actual real-life Wendy’s?), but unfortunately for the patrons of this fine fast food establishment, it’s now been destroyed by the world’s favorite nuclear radiation-empowered reptile, Godzilla – who has clumsily walked right through it. Doh!

I say walked right through it, but it would be more accurate to say Godzilla’s pinkie nicked it a bit.

The damage, though, as you can see, is catastrophic and has caused the legless, lifeless avatars of the metaverse to float around in panic. There are brown rectangles strewn all over the floor, and what looks to be various bits of polygonal debris. You can watch the carnage unfold below.

Meta Horizon @MetaHorizon

Godzilla has escaped from the movies and leaped dimensions, first sighting just happened in the Wendyverse. Jump in to Meta Horizon Worlds & wander through a giant Godzilla stomp straight through the restaurant. Don't forget to share photos of this once in a lifetime experience!

Harrowing stuff, right? Not because it’s in any way convincing, believable, or even remotely well-made. But simply because there’s no logical reason why this exists or who it would appeal to. Just like the McCripsy McDonald’s gaming chair.

There’s honestly so much to unpack here that even the world’s greatest minds and ancient philosophers would have trouble making sense of it all, but these are the most obvious questions that spring to mind:

• Is this really the result of billions of dollars of investment?

• Did anyone actually think this was a good idea?

• How much did Meta pay for the Godzilla license?

• What’s even the point of this experience?

• Who in their right mind would want photographic evidence that they actually attended this virtual event?

If it wasn’t obvious, I have a morbid fascination with this car crash of a trailer as somehow it gets even worse each time I watch it. It makes me want to laugh hysterically and sob profusely in equal measure, which admittedly might have been the goal – who knows at this point.

The sad thing is that Meta probably wouldn’t have had to cut 11,000 jobs if they didn’t keep throwing money onto this garbage fire, but it seems like Mark Zuckerberg’s personal pet project will keep on burning through Facebook’s billions for quite some time yet.

Meta averse ✋

Xbox’s Phil Spencer recently called the metaverse a “poorly built video game” and it’s hard to disagree. I mean just look at the state of this. Really, sit back and look.

Other high-profile company executives continue to distance themselves from the virtual reality space, like Snap CEO Evan Spiegal who described the metaverse as “living inside a computer” and said, “it’s the last thing I want to do at the end of the day when I get home from work, is live inside a computer.”

I still think the potential of VR is yet to be fully realized, and I’m excited about playing PSVR 2 games in the future, despite the PSVR 2’s eye-watering price point.

But this? A weird social experiment that looks like something that Roblox players would be ashamed to play? This isn’t the future. This is an embarrassment.

First published: November 17, 2022

Updated: November 18, 2022