Update (August 16, 2022): Horizon Worlds has now launched in France and Spain and will be coming to other countries soon.

Update (July 13, 2022): Horizon Worlds has now launched in Ireland and Iceland.

Original Post (June 17, 2022):

We’re excited to announce that Horizon Worlds will begin rolling in the UK this week on Quest 2 for people 18 years of age or older. And as we’ve mentioned before, we plan to keep rolling out Horizon Worlds to more countries in Europe later this summer.

With Horizon Worlds, you can create and explore together. Whether it’s a comedy club where you can step on stage and try out your dad jokes in front of an audience, a bowling alley where you hit the lanes with friends, or even a place to learn about the diverse people, lifestyles, and languages of Asia, Horizon Worlds has something for everyone. Since launching in 2021, we’ve been blown away by the boundless imagination of our always-expanding creator community.

From the very beginning, we’ve envisioned Horizon Worlds as a creator-friendly VR environment featuring top tier social world-building tools. And by developing those tools and listening to and incorporating feedback from creators, that’s just what it is. But we’re always working to make it even better. For example, last month we launched our first asset library, a collection of pre-made items that creators can use any time they want. Plus, we’ve also committed $10 million USD to help creators get their worlds off the ground.

Build the World of Your Dreams

Whether it’s a mini-game, a place to teach people about health, a contemplative world to relax and meditate in, or anything in between, you can build it in Horizon Worlds. And now’s the time for you to join our rapidly growing community of creators. The only limit is your imagination. Click here to dive into a set of easy-to-follow tutorials on how to get started building the world of your dreams.

Customized Control for Everyone

We want everyone to have control over their experience in Horizon Worlds, so we’re always working to add more tools and features that let people customize their own experiences. To start, our Conduct in VR Policy and Horizon Worlds Prohibited Content Policy outlines what is and is not allowed on our platform. If someone bothers you, you have several options. From your wrist menu, you can tap the shield icon and pull up Safe Zone, which allows you to take a break from your surroundings and block, mute, or report anyone engaging in unwanted behavior. All new Horizon Worlds users go through an onboarding process that explains how to use Safe Zone. Further, anyone violating our policies may have their account restricted, suspended, or disabled, depending on the specifics of the case.

Today, we’re announcing a new setting known as Voice Mode that will give people more control over their Horizon Worlds experience. When this feature begins rolling out in the next few weeks, it will allow you to choose how you hear people who aren’t on your friends list, including the option to not hear unwanted conversations at all. By default, you’ll hear all nearby users at the same volume, but with Voice Mode, you can easily switch to Garbled Voices, in which non-friends’ voices come across as unintelligible, friendly sounds.

If you enable Garbled Voices, strangers will see an indicator that you can’t hear them so they don’t feel like you’re ignoring them. But if you do want to hear what they’re saying, you can simply raise one hand with the controller to your ear to temporarily un-garble them without having to add them as a friend.

The features we’re sharing today come in addition to others we’ve recently shipped, including the Horizon Worlds personal boundary, which gives the choice of setting up a 4-foot distance between you and either anyone or any non-friend, and which is on by default for non-friends.

Also, Community Guides now have a tool that lets them send educational warnings as a pop-up to people who behave disruptively.

Thousands of Community-Built Worlds

Horizon Worlds is available for people 18+ to download for free on Quest 2 in the US, Canada, and the UK. Stay tuned to the blog for future updates, and join the official Horizon Worlds Facebook Group to connect with the community and maybe even find someone to build your dream world with.