Ah, the metaverse. It was all anybody could talk about for a minute last year, until AI came along to hog the headlines in its place. One of the biggest proponents of the virtual universe was – and remains – Mark Zuckerberg. And while the rest of the world seems to have moved on, Zuckerberg clearly still thinks the idea has legs.
It hasn't helped Meta that the company's visuals have thus far have had a certain cartoonish quality to them – especially when compared with the sleek AR style of the recently revealed Apple Vision Pro. Perhaps the most mocked aspect of Meta's avatars has been their lack of legs – but the limbs have finally been added. Whether that's enough to persuade you to buy the Meta Quest 3 is up to you.
As spotted by UploadVR, Meta announced in the Meta Community forum that its avatars now have legs in a beta version of Quest Home. Players will finally start seeing legs on Horizon Home and Meta Horizon Worlds “over the next few weeks,” according to Meta spokesperson Eliza Kern.
While it might sound a simple piece of character design, the journey to having legs has been a long one for Meta's avatars. Indeed, the company made quite the song and danceabout the fact that legs were "coming soon" back in October 2022 (somewhat stretching the definition of "soon"). In a frankly bizarre scene (above), Zuckerberg's avatar walked onto a wood-panelled stage (perhaps part of his terrifying wooden VR home office?) and jumped up and down. Meanwhile, old-style avatars (sans legs) clapped, whooped and cheered in the virtual audience. What a time to be alive.
Every since that first, hilariously basic, Meta avatar was revealed last year, the company has appeared to be on the defensive when it comes to the aesthetics of its metaverse offering. News of minor graphical improvements have been shouted from the rooftops by Zuckerberg et al, which perhaps explains why legs are being presented as such a big deal. Who knows, in a year's time, perhaps the Meta metaverse will achieve PS4 levels of graphical fidelity? If you're in need of a VR primer, check out our what is the metaverse guide.
