Meta is making a major push to revive its struggling metaverse platform with two powerful new tools announced at Connect 2025. The company unveiled the Horizon Engine for better graphics and performance, plus Meta Horizon Studio that lets creators build VR worlds using AI assistants. It's Meta's boldest attempt yet to make Horizon Worlds competitive with platforms like Roblox.
Meta just dropped its most significant metaverse update in years, and it's betting everything on AI to finally make Horizon Worlds stick. At Connect 2025, the company unveiled two game-changing tools that could reshape how people create and experience virtual worlds.
The star of the show is the new Horizon Engine, which Meta claims delivers "better graphics, faster performance, and more advanced" VR experiences with "much greater concurrency." Translation: more people can hang out in the same virtual space without everything falling apart. It's a critical technical leap for a platform that's been plagued by performance issues since launch.
But the real breakthrough might be Meta Horizon Studio, the company's new world-building editor that puts AI front and center. Creators can already use generative AI tools to whip up textures and audio on the fly. Later this year, Meta's rolling out an AI assistant that'll let developers have actual conversations about their projects. The Verge's Jay Peters witnessed a demo where a developer chatted with an AI chatbot to request environment changes and tweak NPC personalities in real-time.
[Image: Meta's fantasy-themed Horizon Worlds environment showcasing the new engine's visual improvements]
This isn't just about shinier graphics - it's Meta's answer to Roblox's massive success in user-generated content. While Roblox has built an empire on letting anyone create games and experiences, Horizon Worlds has struggled to gain traction despite expanding from VR to mobile last year.
The timing couldn't be more critical for Meta's metaverse ambitions. The company has poured billions into Reality Labs, its VR and AR division, while facing mounting pressure to show returns on that investment. Horizon Worlds was supposed to be the killer app that justified Meta's metaverse pivot, but it's been more of a ghost town than a bustling virtual society.
[Video iframe: Developer demo showing AI assistant conversation for world creation]
Meta tried throwing money at the problem earlier this year with a $50 million creators fund, but cash alone hasn't been enough to spark the creative explosion the platform needs. The new AI-powered tools represent a different approach - making world creation so easy that anyone can do it, not just experienced developers.
