Wendy’s, or better known as The Wendy’s Company, is a huge fast-food chain that is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio and for the better part of its online presence, has been foremost in keeping up with the trends. One such trend could be companies joining Meta’s VR platform for social marketing of their products. Promoting services and products in the VR world is the latest fad for commercialization and Meta itself pushes creators and companies alike to join the bandwagon.
Offering up a host of VR mini-games and costumes in it’s latest Super Bowl Questy advertisement, Meta was able to provide an example of just how companies can market themselves in virtual reality. So the newest most company to use the virtual platform to carve a niche for itself is Wendy’s. Yes, you heard it right. Wendy’s has decided to extend it’s glorified burger business in the Metaverse, now giving VR players the opportunity to travel to Wendyverse and enjoy their gaming overtures.
The food chain has released a video previewing how players can have their share of fun in the so-called Wendyverse, where upon entering the Wendy’s store, they can play with burger-balls. Which is basically a substitute for basketballs in a poorly constructed basketball court. Players can also play darts with Frosties and straws, all the while placing their food orders in the store. They also have access to a slew of costumes, avatars and mini-games.
This gamified virtual version of their store will be hosted on Horizon Worlds. Meta’s VR platform, Horizon Worlds, formerly Facebook Horizon, was developed in December of 2021. Simply put, it is an online VR game title for Meta’s own Oculus headsets and it also comes with an integrated game creation system.
If you want to try out Wendys’ attempt at their own VR title, you can download Horizon Worlds on any of Oculus’ platforms and follow the below instructions:
- Select the line icon from the Personal Menu by turning over your left wrist.
- Then select the Pin icon at the bottom.
- In the upper right, select the magnifying glass to search for “Wendyverse” using the virtual keyboard. Then tap on the picture to travel to your destination.
Honestly, Wendy’s venture into the Metaverse is less than impressive, having an ill-designed VR environment and absolutely basal gameplay. The inconsistent framerate and the brass background music is nothing to write home about. Wendy’s may be one of the first companies to market in the Metaverse, but it probably would’ve been better to have ventured later with an improved VR design and gameplay.
