Meta will take a 48 percent cut from sales in Horizon Worlds

Don't expect to make a fortune from digital items sold in Meta's virtual world. Meta has confirmed to CNBC that it will take a total 47.5 percent cut from digital asset sales in Horizon Worlds, including 30 percent through the Meta Quest Store and 17.5 percent through Horizon Worlds itself. Creators may need to charge a premium to ensure healthy income for themselves, then.

In a statement to The Verge, Meta's Horizon VP Vivek Sharma argued the company's cut was a "pretty competitive rate." However, that's not necessarily true for some content. CNBC pointed out that the NFT marketplace OpenSea takes just a 2.5 percent share of transactions. There's also a degree of irony when Meta blasted Apple's 30 percent slice of in-app purchases and said it would change subscriptions to help creators keep more revenue.

Meta is promising "goal-oriented" bonuses to virtual developers whose worlds are particularly active. Nonetheless, the rate isn't exactly pleasing to digital product makers. It's steeper than at many other online services, and may make it difficult for some creators to operate in Horizon Worlds when it might be practical elsewhere.