THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall

Mark Zuckerberg spent seven years and $80 billion attempting to build Horizon Worlds, a virtual reality "metaverse" that peaked at around 200,000 monthly users in October 2022. After years of decay, Horizon froze the creation of new worlds in VR this week, shifting the platform's focus back to mobile and marking the effective end of Meta's virtual reality ambitions. This week, the lads perform an autopsy on both Horizon Worlds and Mark Zuckerberg's dream of the metaverse more broadly, discovering how a platform built on the vision of a revolutionary gaming headset eventually gave way to a world solely inhabited by dozens of eight-year-olds screaming slurs in 360 degrees of immersive 3D.

Media Referenced in this Episode:

• Meta Horizons Worlds for Oculus Quest, including the following worlds:
  • “Horizon Central”
  • “Bobber Bay Fishing”
  • “NBA Arena”
  • “Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour”
  • “METDONALD’S”
  • “Pizza Kitchen”
  • “Bad Roommates UPDATED!”
• “I Spent A Week Alone In The Metaverse” by Jarvis Johnson (August 1, 2023)
• Kickstarter campaign for Oculus Rift
• Oculus VR profile on Crunchbase
• “Happy Go Luckey: Meet the 20-year-old creator of Oculus Rift” by Robert Purchase (Eurogamer, July 11, 2013)
• “John Carmack's former employer claims he stole tech for Oculus VR when he left” by Ben Gilbert (Engadget, May 1, 2014)
• “Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near-Billionaire Secretly Funding Trump’s Meme Machine” by Ben Collins and Gideon Resnick (The Daily Beast, September 22, 2016)
• Palmer Luckey’s post about Nimble American on Facebook (September 23, 2016)
• “Palmer Luckey distances himself from Nimble America group” by Matt Kamen (Wired, September 26, 2016)
• “Facebook launches beta of Spaces, its goofy and fun social VR platform” by Lucas Matney (TechCrunch, April 18, 2017)
• The Mark Zuckerberg/Sweet Baby Ray’s edit
• “Zuckerberg blasted for tone-deaf 'magical' VR tour of Puerto Rico” from CNET News (October 10, 2017)
• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Flatiron Books, 2025)
• “Introducing Oculus Quest” from Meta Developers (February 13, 2019)
• “Oculus Quest Basics Tutorial” from Meta Quest (May 20, 2019)
• “Everything revealed at Facebook's Oculus Horizon presentation” from CNET Highlights (September 25, 2019)
• “Building the Tools to Power the Future of Work” press release from Facebook (May 21, 2020)
• “Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed” by Ryan Mac, Charlie Warzel, and Alex Kantrowitz (BuzzFeed News, March 29, 2018)
• “Zuckerberg Says He Strongly Disagrees With “The Ugly” Memo By Top Facebook Exec” by Jim Dalrymple II (BuzzFeed News, March 29, 2018)
• “Facebook Horizon | New Worlds in the Making” from Meta Quest (August 27, 2020)
• “Facebook launches ‘Horizon Workrooms.’ Here's how it works” from CBS Mornings (August 19, 2021)
• “The Metaverse and How We'll Build It Together -- Connect 2021” from Meta (October 28, 2021)
• Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook post announcing Horizon Worlds launching in France and Spain
• Announcement that legs are coming soon
• Footage of Meta Connect 2024 in Horizon Worlds
• “What Went Wrong With Horizon Worlds? Former Meta Devs Share Surprising Insights -- And a Solution to Still Save It” by Wagner James Au (March 12, 2025; archived from the original on March 16, 2025)
• “Eli Roth Brings His Brand of Horror to Meta Horizon Worlds + Meta Quest TV” Meta press release (October 14, 2022)
• “Why The Metaverse Was Doomed From The Start” by The Art of Storytelling (March 27, 2026)
• “Zuck Never Understood the Metaverse” by The Morbid Zoo (April 4, 2026)
• “How Did the Metaverse Fail So Badly?” by Patrick Boyle (April 12, 2026)
• “What does Meta actually do now?” by Good Work (May 8, 2026)
• “Meta burned $19 billion on VR last year, and 2026 won’t be any better” by Lucas Ropek (TechCrunch, January 28, 2026)
• Announcement from Meta that Spark will be shutting down in January 2025
• “Meta is closing down its VR meeting rooms as part of its wider cull” by Mariella Moon (Engadget, January 16, 2026)
• “Meta Lays Off 8,000 Employees, as A.I. Casualties Mount” by Eli Tan, Kalley Huang, and Mike Isaac (The New York Times, May 19, 2026)
• “Backrooms uses the bluntest of metaphors to capture a uniquely Gen Z fear” by Joshua Rivera (The A.V. Club, June 5th, 2026)

TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com

Interstitial: “Connect Keynote Address 2026” // Written by A.J. Ditty // feat. Brian Alford as “Zucks”