McDonald’s Launches VR Experience in Meta’s Horizon Worlds

My friends, welcome to the future…

This is a screenshot of McDonald’s new “McDonaldland” VR experience, that will be made available within Meta’s Horizon Worlds platform this week.

The McDonald’s VR world includes interactive mini-games, themed zones, and an opportunity to interact with classic McDonald’s characters. There are also hidden collectibles and in-game wearables.

There’s also an IRL tie-in, with McDonald’s also launching a themed meal that comes with a souvenir kit.

As reported by Upload VR, McDonalds developed its new VR experience with media agency Admerasia, building a fully immersive VR environment, which can also be experienced on the web (though not in VR, of course).

And if Meta’s metaverse vision ever comes to reality, it could well be the future of digital interaction, giving people an opportunity to engage in custom, themed VR environments, that are linked to real world purchases.

Though the current state of it does remind me a little of this:

Remember this image, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared to much derision back in 2022. The basic textures and graphics of McDonaldland look much the same, which doesn’t really capture the opportunity of VR, and how advanced Meta’s VR experiences are becoming over time.

I mean, the fact that a brand can even create an immersive VR world is a massive step, while the basic graphics, when you consider that they need to be rendered in fully immersive environments, make sense. And they’re no worse than the presentation of Roblox, which has millions of young users, so when you factor all of the elements in, it is a significant undertaking, which could resonate with the target audience.

But it’s not blowing anybody away, and while it may well be a technical achievement, I don’t it’s going to get a heap more people buying a Quest headset.

But it’s still early days for VR, and for Meta’s metaverse vision, which is still a thing, despite Zuck and Co. shifting their focus to AI of late.

It’s worth noting that Meta’s also developing advanced VR creation tools, which will eventually enable anybody to build their own custom VR environment, by simply speaking it into existence, and letting Meta’s AI tools create the back-end code to support the concept.  

And as Meta’s VR rendering gets better, that could lead to some truly breathtaking experiences.

But it’s still early, and brands are still exploring what’s possible, in VR, the metaverse, gaming worlds, etc.

So while it may not seem hugely impressive now, McDonald’s is working to keep up with the next shifts, and to build tools that will enable it to remain present wherever attention shifts.

And if McDonald’s is investing in VR, that’s probably a sign that this is a serious opportunity, which will be coming in the near future.