The Metaverse is a term we have heard in the Crypto universe, gaming world, and social media. But what does it mean? The word Metaverse comes from the famous novel writer Neal Stephenson in His novel Snow Crash. He portrays people in our analogue world experiencing and living in a new digital world.
The Metaverse is the virtual and digital environment experiences. Currently, Cryptocurrencies, Non-fungible Tokens(NFTs), Video games like Fortnite and Roblox and Virtual reality experiences are the best examples of Metaverse. In some games, players can build and customize worlds and have a social life in a digital world. Also, most social media companies are starting to offer metaverse experiences.
Is the Metaverse Useful?
Metaverse is not only useful, but we have been using it. For example, do you remember during the Covid 19 pandemic when you had to attend a class or a meeting from home? Or, are you a gamer who has bought cars, jets or weapons in the games you like? Did you attend the online concert sets? These are examples of Metaverse experiences.
Others include the online auctions for Digital collectables in the form of NTF and the CEO of Twitter selling his first tweet as an NFT for several millions. In addition, the Tokyo Olympics 2020 virtual reality and augmented reality spectators pushed the Metaverse capabilities to the world stage.
Big companies, investors, scientists, futurists, and developers are adopting Metaverse, stating it has enormous potential for social connection, entertainment, and experimentation. This translates as profit potential to investors and companies.
The venture capitalist, Matthew Ball, said that we should not view the Metaverse as a virtual world but as the successor of the mobile internet. Ball said that the products we are using now will integrate and add capabilities of experiencing the Metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, said that they want people to experience virtual reality and digital social experiences in Metaverse. This was the launch of Facebook Metaverse.
Facebook Adapts Metaverse
Facebook has relaunched as a social media company that is adopting the Metaverse. During the event, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he is changing its name to Meta Platforms Inc.
The main aim of Meta Platforms will be to make the users go inside a virtual environment instead of seeing it on a screen. Using Augmented Reality glasses, Virtual Reality headsets, and smartphone apps, people can play, work, meet, shop, and do other activities. This is the next frontier of tech
Microsoft 3D Avatars to Embrace Metaverse
Microsoft developers have added 3D avatars to its chat systems in an effort to join the Metaverse movement. Their mesh platforms will allow the users to meet in virtual spaces with or without the VR headsets.
Microsoft promises to launch these new features by June 2022. Unlike Meta, Microsoft’s Metaverse will not require Virtual Reality, webcams or Augmented Reality headsets. Instead, they are working on an AI that will mirror the user’s gestures to their avatar in the meeting.
Epic Games and Metaverse
Epic games are one of the early adopters of Metaverse. With their game Fortnite, they have pushed the boundaries of Metaverse to the brim. The company is pumping a lot of resources and personnel into building a better Metaverse experience.
The Ceo, Tim Sweeteny, describes Metaverse as the evolution of how users interact with each other, with brands and with intellectual properties on the internet. It would be a virtual communal space where people can meet to play a game, watch a movie on Netflix, or Test drive a car they want to buy.
The car will work and behave in the virtual world as the car in the real world. Sweetney’s vision is so revolutionary and is against the business models of some of the big companies.
Sweetney thinks that as big companies like Google and Apple work independently, they cause the devolution of the internet. Thus, they slow down the adoption of Metaverse. The vision of Epic is to have an internet of Metaverse where users will experience every brand and platform without any limitation. A place where you can access Apple, Google, Epic game, Nike, Facebook, Microsoft and other brands in the same place without boundaries.
Nike Adopting Metaverse
Nike is trademarking them to prevent them from being turned into NFTs by other people and maybe sell them as in the Metaverse. Also, they are offering jobs for Virtual Material Designers.
Nike has also partnered with Fortnite to develop two characters called skins that are wearing Nike sneakers. Though the company has not officially announced they want to join the Metaverse, all signs show they will.
Will Metaverse Die Off?
These are not the only companies with an interest in the metaverse loom. Companies like Coca-cola, Gucci, Ubisoft, Nvidia, Epic games, and others show signs of going into Metaverse. This means this Metaverse is about to receive a surge of investments and personnel that might push it into a closer reality