Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that user-generated content tools will help connect 2D gaming experiences on Facebook to Meta’s long-term vision for the Metaverse.

The Metaverse is the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels like Snowfall and Loan player one. Last October, Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta and shifted to a metaverse strategy, prompted by the company’s investments in virtual reality.

In the summer of 2021, Meta bought Unity 2 Games, a UK company that created a user-generated content tool called Crayta. Powered by Meta, Crayta will launch today as a cloud streaming experience.

Zuckerberg is also announcing that Facebook Gaming is expanding the availability of its cloud gaming catalog to more Western European countries, an important step as that same infrastructure will be instrumental in delivering metaverse experiences across platforms from Meta to the future.

With the addition of Crayta, Facebook Gaming continues its mission to make gaming more accessible and democratize game development, the company said.

First launching on Google Stadia in 2020 and later on the Epic Games Store on PC in 2021, Crayta offers thousands of user-created games and virtual worlds for people to play and interact with. It also offers an easy-to-use toolkit that allows everyone to collaboratively create their own games and create their own experiences from scratch.

For the announcement, Zuckerberg joined the creators of Crayta in the game to rebuild Meta’s headquarters campus courtyard, Hacker Square, with mini-games and amusement park attractions. During the build, Zuckerberg and the creators discussed the future of the creator ecosystem, the emerging category of game creators as global builders, the long-term vision for the metaverse, cloud infrastructure Facebook Gaming and its implications for delivering metaverse experiences, and more.

“One of the things I really love about it is the idea of ​​being able to design a space or design a game from inside the space or the game,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg worked with Crayta creators DryCoast & Kay to reimagine Meta’s Hacker Square in-game alongside Russ Dooley of Crayta’s development team.

Regarding cloud infrastructure, Zuckerberg said, “Historically, if you wanted something like this to run in this high-quality 3D environment, it would be really hard to render in a browser or on phones, but Being able to do that with cloud infrastructure and then send it over the network after you’ve already rendered it in the cloud is a pretty big step forward.”

Zuckerberg said he’s been a gamer since he was a kid.

“When I started building things as a kid, first I had a computer, I started playing games, then I started writing games and developing, then from there I started coding other things, I’m really excited to give people more tools to make games,” Zuckerberg said.

You see, you too can be a multi-billionaire, if you play games. Tell that to your parents.

On the potential of the Metaverse in 2D and 3D, Zuckerberg said, “A lot of times today people think of the Metaverse as 3D experiences that you can have in virtual and augmented reality, but I think what Crayta shows, is that you can both create and enjoy these kinds of experiences very easily on all kinds of 2D environments, including only in the Facebook app on phones and computers.

He added, “Excited to launch our Crayta social world and game creation environment on Facebook Gaming. Thanks to our cloud streaming technology, it’s super fast to create on both mobile and desktop, even if you don’t have a powerful system. I recently hopped into Crayta with some talented creators to talk about the future of gaming while building Meta’s iconic Hacker Square.

There are, of course, people who are skeptical of Meta, which has been losing around $3 billion per quarter in its Reality Labs metaverse division. But if you put the company’s entire finances in the context of those losses, Zuckerberg has plenty of time to experience the metaverse.

“For some, CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s quasi-fanatic obsession with the Metaverse represents a headache-inducing headwind. Last year, he said, “I think the Metaverse is the next chapter of the internet.” But context is important — it’s one thing for Zuckerberg to change the company’s mantra; it’s another to change his revenue stream,” said Charles Archer, financial editor at IG. “The CEO might be wasting that money, but it might as well be a wise investment from an incredibly successful entrepreneur, and Meta has generated nearly $118 billion in revenue and $29.4 billion in profits in 2021 He can comfortably afford to spend $1 billion a month on the Metaverse If the concept never takes off he can just shut down Reality Labs anytime and keep the extra money And with a price/b ratio Attractive earnings of just 15, Meta shares remain the global social media superpower.