According to Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of Ethereum, the metaverse lacks a proper definition and as a result, people don’t know what it is, and we don’t know if anyone is building it correctly. The connection to Virtual Reality is often misconstrued according to Buterin who made his comments at BUIDL Asia this week.

“To me, metaverse is one of those things that are very poorly defined,”

We have to agree to a certain extent.

What we all have in mind is Ernest Cline’s Oasis from his novel Ready Player One (yes I said Novel - the book is WAY better than the film).

But the harsh truth is we’re a long way from that becoming a reality. Or are we?

The ReadyVerse, part of OPEN - the project that Ernest Cline is currently working on did drop a pretty incredible sneak peak video on YouTube 2 weeks ago. Check it out below.

You’ll recognise the lead character Wade Watts, or at least his avatar Parzival walking towards that famous TV from the last scenes of the movie, where he found the first easter egg ever made in a video game.

But, what this video made me think about was the IP issues and rights ownership in the Readyverse - which is looking just like the world Warner Bros. Pictures et al created.

How do you think this will play out? Let us know your thoughts on X (formerly Twitter).

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In the meantime, whilst we may not know what the metaverse is, yet, The Sandbox continues to pump its version of the metaverse. Including recently announcing that there are now 1,000 user-generated experiences and 5.7 million all-time accounts created, 25,000 virtual landowners, 60,000 avatars sold, and 200,000 SAND wallets.

But is this the metaverse we need, the one we deserve, or are we still just at the very early stages of this technology’s development?

Below is the recent Experiences of the Week video. I want to know, have you played any of these experiences, and if not, would you? (Be honest).

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In other news around the Metaverse, Quest’s recent game release The Pirate Queen is showing people what could be the future of educational VR games. Would you have preferred to learn in an immersive video game environment? We know we sure would!

Could Canon become the next big player in the VR space? Their recent new concept cameras are arriving in sync with the invigorated interest in VR headsets this year, spurred on by the Apple Vision Pro. David Parry, Canon’s Imaging Product Marketing Lead stated: “We’re heavily invested in Virtual Reality and want to get these products out there as soon as possible” and added, “VR is in its infancy and I don’t think we’ve seen half of what it's capable of”.

Until next time, keep exploring the limitless possibilities of the metaverse. Stay curious, stay connected - and let us know what you thought of this week’s newsletter.

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Welcome to this week's journey into the digital frontier!

In this edition, we're diving into the vibrant and sometimes controversial world of the metaverse. From virtual reality's legal challenges to its promising future in business, we've got the latest stories that are shaping tomorrow's digital landscape.

Police Investigate Alleged Rape in the Metaverse. In a groundbreaking case that's testing the boundaries of the law in virtual spaces, police are investigating a report of rape in the metaverse. This incident raises crucial questions about safety, consent, and legal jurisdiction in digital realms, where users interact through avatars. As virtual environments become increasingly realistic and populated, the need for clear regulations and protective measures is more pressing than ever. Click here to read more.

🌐 Dive into the Heart of the Metaverse with Our Exclusive Market Report! 🌐

Are you ready to unlock the secrets of the web3 metaverse? Every month, we meticulously craft the Metaverse Market Report, your gateway to the latest and most crucial insights in the web3 universe.

🔍 December's Edition Unveiled:

• Market Powerhouses: Discover the top 3 metaverse projects with a staggering combined market cap of over $2.5 billion.

• Exclusive Ownership: Learn about the unique ecosystem where only 35,000+ wallets are privileged LAND NFT holders.

• In-Depth Analysis: Understand the dynamics with an average of 2,313 holders per project balancing LAND NFTs and ERC-20 tokens.

Your Journey Awaits: This is just a glimpse! Our December report is packed with comprehensive breakdowns, offering you a clear view of the web3 metaverse market.

👉 Get Your Free Copy Now and Step into the Future of the Metaverse!

Futurverse Launches Readyverse Studios. Futurverse is making waves in the virtual world with the launch of Readyverse Studios, a creative venture inspired by Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One." This ambitious project promises to redefine immersive entertainment. Click here to read more.

Olivia Rodrigo's Virtual House Party. Music megastar Olivia Rodrigo takes the metaverse by storm with her virtual house party, showcasing how digital platforms are becoming the new stage for artists. Click here to read more.

Fortnite and GTA6 Lead in Metaverse Development. Before the crypto enthusiasts could, Fortnite, and potentially GTA6, have taken the lead in creating functional metaverse experiences, blending gaming and social interaction in new, exciting ways. Click here to read more.

The Metaverse's Promising Future in Enterprise. Contrary to sceptics, the metaverse is far from dead. Its potential in the enterprise sector is not only promising but also rapidly evolving. Click here to read more.

Until next time, keep exploring the limitless possibilities of the metaverse. Stay curious, stay connected.

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Each month we create the Metaverse Market Report, with all the latest information about the top web3 metaverse projects.

You can download your free copy of the December report here to get access to insights such as:

• The top 3 projects have a combined market cap in excess of $2.5bn.

• Only 35k+ unique wallets hold LAND NFTs from these projects.

• On average only 2,313 holders from each project hold LAND NFTs and the relevant ERC-20 tokens.

And so much more info as we break down these top 3 projects to really understand the #web3 metaverse market as a whole.

Download Your Free Copy

The metaverse company, Improbable, has divested it’s gaming division and continues to strengthen its focus on the future of useful metaverse experiences and worlds. Their CEO, Herman Narula on CNBC this week, talked about the value generative AI will bring to this space.

Ubisofts Ethereum based NFTs ‘Champions Tactics’ are proving to be popular. The free to mint collection was minted out within 20 minutes and some of the digital collection were available on the second hand market for more than $600 shortly after. Read more here.

The VR Market seems to be shrinking, but what does that mean for the metaverse? Is there a correlation, or is their far more to metaverse experiences than putting on a headset. Read more here.

Reebok has partnered with the Futureverse, looking to create a metaverse experience in 2024. This sees the sports and lifestyle brand join the likes of Nike, Adidas and Puma. Read more here.

The Sandbox’s recent partnership with CoinDCX and Okto could make India its largest market. Whilst India’s position on web3 and crypto has been made clear, the country has yet to formally pass a bill on how to legislate it. Read more here.

Feel free to come and join the XP3 team over on X.com (formerly Twitter). We’d love to see you there and have you as part of our community.

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This week, something special for you. You see for the last few months we’ve been hard at work building a brand new data platform to help you better UNDRSTND the way blockchain projects work. As part of that process, we created the Metaverse Market Report, a monthly report with all the latest information about the top web3 metaverse projects.

You can download your free copy of the December report here to get access to insights such as:

• The top 3 projects have a combined market cap in excess of $2.5bn.

• Only 35k+ unique wallets hold LAND NFTs from these projects.

• On average only 2,313 holders from each project hold LAND NFTs and the relevant ERC-20 tokens.

And so much more info as we break down these top 3 projects to really understand the #web3 metaverse market as a whole.

Download Your Copy Now

Although not considered to be a metaverse by everyone, Roblox the gaming experience platform, has been making strides in attracting brands and businesses to create interactive content on their platform. It’s reported that players visited branded games more than 1.8 billion times and spent more than 11 billion minutes (that’s the equivalent of about 20 centuries worth of time) in those virtual worlds. Read more here.

Microsoft is targeting the industrial metaverse and their roadmap seems to include everything from AI and ML (machine learning) to mixed reality and digital twins. All the key buzzwords to make everyone pay attention. Read more here.

The Sandbox introduced CATALYSTs, the key they say to “empower creators”. These ERC-1155 tokens will allow creators to mint assets on The Sandbox’s market place, and define rarity and other properties. All LAND owners have been given these tokens that come in 5 levels or rarity. Read more here.

You can’t talk about Metaverse without hearing something about Meta. And although Zuckerberg has been hit with the “metaverse is dead” stick a lot in the past 12 months, it’s clear to see that Meta as a company hasn’t done too badly. Read more here.

Will the Apple Vision Pro be a stepping stone to mass market interest in virtual worlds and experiences? No one knows for sure, but we’re excited to see what comes next, especially as Apple employees start getting access to the device. Read more here.

Feel free to come and join the XP3 team over on X.com (formerly Twitter). We’d love to see you there and have you as part of our community.

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Mocaverse, the metaverse project created by Animoca Brands that raised $20m has now teamed up with Ubisoft. As web3 gaming leaders, Animoca Brands has a network of 400+ portfolio companies. Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab is looking to support it’s web3 initiatives by joining the Mocaverse. Read more here.

Is the job of the future designing Porsches in the metaverse? The metaverse offers unparalleled opportunities for interactive customisation and production of vehicles. Forget about selecting options on a website. Why not sit in the car in VR and change the interior till your happy. Read more here.

How significant a role will the metaverse play in the next Crypto bull run? As things heat up in the Crypto space this week, with Binance’s CEO CZ stepping down and the worlds largest exchange agreeing to pay a $4bn fine, the markets themselves don’t seem to have been negatively affected. Has the next bull run already started? Read more here.

Instead of receiving a laptop when you start a new job, imagine being handed your new Meta Quest headset. Meta’s latest business focused foray sees them closing Oculus For Business and focusing their efforts on Quest For Business. The new Quest 3 headset costs a fraction of the Oculus Pro headset. Read more here.

AWS plays a HUGE part in the web2 world, offering everything from web servers, app hosting and easy to run blockchain solutions. Let’s look at the pivotal role AWS could have in the future of the industrial Metaverse, including VR, AR & MR. Read more here.

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Is the metaverse still something that brands should be paying attention to? The hype may have died down, but when it comes to tech evolution, it’s often the unexpected that triumphs. With new headsets from Apple, Meta, and potentially Google/Samsung, brands should continue to pay attention to the space. Read more here.

Japan’s SBI Holdings have announced the creation of a new $663 million fund, looking to specifically invest in web3, AI and the Metaverse. The fund hopes to help bolster and grow these key technology sectors in the region. SBI Holdings is reported to have assets of over $150bn. Read more here.

Virtual worlds and environments offer the perfect opportunity to create digital twins of real life equipment and offer training environments. The Marine Corp has decided to do just that. People often forget about the possibilities for industry, engineering, defence, education created by metaverse. It’s not just about gaming and entertainment. Read more here.

And finally, retailer J Crew creates a holiday themed shop in the metaverse. Created on experiential commerce platform Obsess, the virtual experience includes a snow lodge for women’s apparel and a ski chalet for men’s. This winter themed experience follows on from the Beach house created back in the summer. Read more here.

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This newsletter is now brought to you by the amazing team at XP3. Keep an eye out for some pretty awesome new opportunities to become a part of our community and get rewarded.

Starting next week you’ll see what we’re talking about. Don’t miss out.

Now, let’s get back to business, and look at what’s been happening this week in the Metaverse.

Gucci brings their physical heritage to the metaverse, launching Cosmos Land in The Sandbox. The virtual experience gamifies the IRL immersive experience in London. - Read more here.

S&P Global released a report specifically focused on the intersection of AI and the metaverse. AI might be claiming all the press attention recently, but our favourite quote from the report is; “the metaverse marches on regardless!” - Read the report here.

Sports have played a key part in the web3 space for some time, and it’s no different when it comes to the Metaverse. From MLB’s Virtual Ball Park to the PGA Tour on Roblox, it’s clear to see the opportunities to connect with a new virtual audience. Listen to the full SportsPro Streamtime Podcast Episode here.

The XR Association has warned Congress that the US could fall behind of the rest of the world when it comes to this space. It warned that Europe could set the standards and guidelines for the space and that China could sort of “own the field”. Read the full story here.

And finally, should advertisers still focus on the metaverse? According to FastCompany, if brands are in the real world then it’s time to be in the virtual world too. Read the full article here.

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As we look to the future of Metaverse building, Sam tells us all about:

• How he got into the Metaverse industry

• The current state of the Metaverse 

• What the future of virtual land looks like

• How we can democratise the Metaverse

Listen to the Latest Episode here

In other news…

We’re excited to see what Apple has to offer, on Monday WWDC is happening, and everyone is expecting to see a headset device (will it be VR, AR, or a combo?). You can watch the live event here.

Meta makes a big announcement, just 4 days before Apple’s headset is rumoured to be announced. The Meta Quest 3 is the latest iteration of Mark Zuckerberg’s VR and AR headset. You can find all the details here.

NVIDIA announced ACE, a new generative AI that could completely revolutionise games by giving NPCs and virtual characters a back story and allowing them to interact using natural language. Watch the video demo here.

In a recent study by EY, 47% of executives have reportedly invested in or are already using metaverse technology in some form. See the full report details here.

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We talk about:

• Why Jeremiah started to look for a way to showcase his art in the Metaverse

• What tools - including no-code tools - can allow any artist to transport their art into a 3D virtual world

• What the future of the metaverse could mean for artists

• How we can expand human imagination further than ever before

Listen to the Latest Episode Here

In other news…

If VR is dead, how come Samsung has just acquired a technology company for next-gen VR displays for a staggering $218 million? Link

With all the ongoing drama around Meta giving up on the Metaverse, this week the company acquired Magic Leap which produces high-tech lenses and associated software around AR. Link

Blockade Labs dropped a very popular video showing how their AI tools can be used to allow anyone to create stunning virtual environments to be used in games or the metaverse. Link

After Metaverse Fashion Week, will Metaverse Beauty Week be a thing? Neutrogena, Ulta Beauty, Lush and Lottie London seem to think so. The event is set to take place from 12th - 16th June. Link

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In this episode, we talk about:

• RIP The Metaverse – An article by PR Exec Ed Zitron which has had a huge amount of coverage over this past week. But is the Metaverse dead?   

• Education in VR/the Metaverse – What could happen if training & lessons were taken into VR worlds, minimizing the costs and logistical requirements for training?

• Why is no one creating up-to-date reports around the Metaverse? Currently seeing news articles referencing the “latest figures” but in reality, most of the reports being quoted are from 2022. 

Here are some of the interesting links to find out more information: 

• RIP The Metaverse – The awful op-ed that has been pushed as if it’s news. 

• Immerse.io – a training company using VR

The All About The Metaverse podcast is brought to you by Social INK, the Digital Marketing consultancy for Web3 projects. 

Watch on YouTube:

Join Our Weekly Metaverse Newsletter:

This show is brought to you by:

Episode Full Transcript

Alexis 0:01
the metaverse as we know it today, my soap balls. But the metaverse is is going to go within a decade. Oh man, this is going to be just stunning.

Chris Bruno 0:12
Welcome to all about the metaverse podcast, the show that keeps you up to date with the latest technology, trends and news about our future digital world. I’m joined by Alexis, as always now not invited.

Alexis 0:25
Fantastic. Ciao, Chris. Hello, everybody. Nice to be back forever. Again, I guess we have another session filled up with quite a fair bit of things. It’s good that you send me a couple of articles during the week where, you know, we can scramble a little bit, bunch of information that comes up. And a lot of the stuff that came up, it’s usually not quite positive. So it begs the question like, why are we still doing this? Why would keep doing that? But you know what, it will be good that we clear this shit out a little bit as well. Yeah, yeah. 100%.

Chris Bruno 0:58
And I think that’s it. We’ve kind of been referring it right? When we talk about these things internally. We’ve talked about it a lot about just this meta bashing, right? Or the metaverse bashing. And we’ve said on every episode, I don’t care how small the attendances for an online event or how small the attendance is for an online virtual world, etc. If people are still doing things, then it’s a positive step in the right direction. And this week, just gone by we had the insider article written by a PR specialist, apparently, and very simple title. He went with rip met of us. Thanks. Yeah.

Alexis 1:37
Well, you know, the thing is, again, he’s a PR guy, so you know, if we’re talking about him, so he’s making he’s doing a buzz, right? He’s doing a buzz, even if you bad publicity is good publicity. But again, I think it’s a bit it’s a bit easy, you know, to pick on, you know, the, the unwanted kid at recess, or stuff like that. As you said, Chris, a lot of stuff is being built. Here. Again, I’m in Bangkok, Thailand. And this is to be considered as Metaverse hub. And I’m telling you in all the meetups, I’m going to a lot of stuff happening, a lot of people are working, even though the largest company keep firing, you know, like, ref, right? Left centre here, people are hiring as a matter of fact, yes, it’s still a very local crowd, but they’re building stuff. Okay, so it’s not our, our IP quite yet, I’d say, especially that from one of the stuff that you said, and something that we, you know, continuously talk about. And one of the things where I believe it’s going to be one of the driving force, and that’s not being born. One of the driving force of of the metaverse would be education. Okay. And those companies that I talked to here in Thailand, you know, the building the building solutions for, you know, refineries, hospitals, you know, stuff that you use in on a daily on a daily basis for the for the workers, they, you know, they they just teach them how you would know, deliver a child or how you will, you know, use that particular machinery, right? And I think the metaverse definitely comes into the fold, you know, to save on costs on training people at the location on sites, right. So we definitely should not rip quite yet.

Chris Bruno 3:18
I think that this is the thing that annoyed me about the article, right. And again, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, I respect that. But in the article, and I’ve taken a couple of notes as well, because it talks about, you know, the meta is dead, it’s buried, it’s gone. It’s gone the way of and I think he referenced Google Glass. Now Google Glass, like people, some people write, I wrote it, rip Google Glass. But let’s bear in mind as well, like if we do rip for the technology, like rip, CD, players, rip, DVD players, rip, all of these things are going into a particular direction. But the Google Glass was released, not developed, released in 2030. That’s a decade ago, like in the last year and a half, we have changed. Again, a massive jump with personal computing that you can now buy an Apple MacBook with an M one chip for $900. And it’s better than anything you’ve ever owned in terms of a portable computing device, right? Things are, it’s mind boggling the jump we’ve made just in the last year and a half. And what that’s caused the technology to do. We’ve got Apple rumoured to be releasing a headset, an AR VR headset, where you could say very clearly, if Google had never done the glass, does Apple ever create the their own headset?

Alexis 4:36
Oh, well, though, maybe, maybe maybe. I mean, again, I think I think technology is going to become more and more portable, right? And to the point that the you know, it becomes portable, all the way to the point it becomes like embedded into into our into our body. Again. As you know, Microchip isn’t coming smaller and smaller and smaller and therefore, you know, we will have a tendency of of wanting to have those vise is really you know, like, embedded in us. Right? So I don’t know, man. I don’t know if they inspired himself from the Google Glasses. Definitely do it the ecosystem when Google launched Google Glasses was not quite right. quite ready. Do you remember MiniDisc? Yeah, I

Chris Bruno 5:14
love the MiniDisc player.

Alexis 5:15
I love that man. I loved it. I of course, I was the hated kid because I had one. And I thought that was the future. That was awesome. And if you didn’t have one where you were complete to add, because you don’t understand technology. And I love that thing, right?

Chris Bruno 5:29
My friend put one in his car, and it obviously just went the way of like, it was dead. So then he’d have to record some stuff on his iPod onto a mini disk to be able to put them in the car.

Alexis 5:40
So this is this is what I’m thinking. You know, I hope the metaverse and I hope those Google Glass or Google glasses were a little bit like that. That mean it is but I really hope the metaverse doesn’t become that, you know, awesome technology. That becomes you know, obsolete because something a lot cooler was gonna come. Now, the metaverse as we know it today, my softballs. But the metaverse is is going to go within a decade. Oh, man, this is going to be just stunning. Imagine, but that’s

Chris Bruno 6:09
the thing, right? You can’t get to that last version unless you start with this version. And I think you know, I’m not saying that Apple copied Google Glass to create their own headset. But Google takes a plunge and says right Screw this, let’s build a headset. Nobody else is building a headset at that time. And then definitely not doing anything in AR like what what was AR No one we weren’t talking about ar 15 years ago, most of us anyway. So when I hear these things, I kind of try and put this into perspective. So I picked up a couple of things. Like, if you go back to when the Google AR came out, the iPhone five had come out. iPhone five, we’re on the iPhone 14 Currently, that jump just try and think back to your iPhone five, what that looked like and what the killer apps were that you were using, right? It’s crazy to think about that just think about what the speed of 3g was back then compared to how we’re rocking 5g And what was available at that time, that would have allowed you to actually make an AR device that was really seamless and amazing. It wouldn’t have been possible. But these are the things that I think drive tech forward. And I think again, if you go back to that 2013 time, compare it to today, and I’m reading the numbers, so I don’t make the mistake. There are three times as many apps and games on the App Store today, as they were a decade ago. Three times as many. Yeah, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem so much three times No. But it takes us to well over 2.1 million apps available to download today, or 2.1 million. But if you said to people name 10 killer apps, or to name the 10 most important apps are the biggest developments of apps, people will tell you the same ones, right? where companies have really changed the world. So Uber, Airbnb Grindr. So all of these things, I think, are a massive difference, right? But those are the key moments. I think, where, again, if you’re saying that the metaverse is dead, if you likening the metaverse as a concept to what Google Glass did a decade ago, like, really

Alexis 8:11
well, let’s see now the event. Again, we keep saying this, and I know that the podcast is called all about Metaverse, but it is clearly that it’s clear to me at least that AI is going to be you know like a central feature of building meta versus it’s going to improve at least this experience is going to improve so many things about the metaverse and the metaverse wanted to not it will happen okay, it is it will happen is happening as we speak and as a matter of fact the as I said before a lot of people are still building on it right now what’s gonna happen though it’s a lot of AI is going to you know, partake into the party. Yeah, so I man, I can’t wait. I can’t wait to see what what the future holds for for the metaverse powered up by a by by AI.

Chris Bruno 8:54
But this is another interesting point, right? So in this article, and I know I’m kind of really hammering I really am not happy I’m a hater of this article. I’m not gonna lie like I’ll put my hands up. I’m the hater on this article. But I just think it’s way too easy, right? So the guy says about you know this is going to death metal is dying. Metaverse is dying. Capital M Metaverse is dead. But then says like, you know generative AI is the future like that’s where everyone’s Whoo, this is exciting. And I’m sitting there going these two things are inexplicably linked regardless, right? If Facebook figures out Metaverse figures out meta, how to bring their generative AI into a virtual world things change very quickly, right?

Alexis 9:36
Remember, remember military reports mean? Minority Report. I don’t know if your auditors ever seen that scene, I invite you guys to to look at the movie. I don’t know if he’s aged very well, but at that there’s a sequence where you know, like you have Tom Cruise, you know, just like taking apps and building stuff together just with these, you know, like, tactile sort of gloves that he had and all that was powered by A Well, AR VR and AI. And this is gonna happen. Yeah.

Chris Bruno 10:06
And this is the idea, right? But if you think about like even that all of those things we talk about generative AI now like it’s a normal thing. This didn’t exist in the real world, six months ago, seven months ago. So what we’re already seeing those guys do and what that could mean for the metaverse I think is huge. And again, I don’t think this is a one or the other. I think the AI changes the game for the metaverse completely and for all virtual worlds, games, content creation. It’s huge what the difference can be. And then again, the last piece like I after this, I promise you I will stop hating on this stupid rip Metaverse article. And the guy says literally in this article, the future is you know, future tech is self driving cars. Now I just want to make this really clear to everyone. The first ever self driving car that was done was in 1995 1995. But here we are nearly 30 years later. And I still can’t order a self driving car to pick me up and take me to the pub. It doesn’t exist. So in 30 years, this isn’t this isn’t a failure, like this is this had 30 years it hasn’t worked yet, but we’re still calling it the future. So this is where I really believe there’s a lot out there, which is just meta bashing, not even Metaverse, but the metaverse gets lumped into it. And it’s all about hitting meta, and making them look bad. And somehow I don’t know why somehow just making sure you keep hitting that company. And I don’t know if it’s a financial thing.

Alexis 11:36
Okay, by the way, we’re not we’re not we’re not sponsored by MIT, to, you know, to give them to give them grace or whatsoever. No, we’re not. But if you’d like to

hear us, if you hear us, we try to we try to keep you offload. Okay.

Chris Bruno 11:50
But I don’t want them to they also bash decentraland. They’re bashing web three saying the whole of web three has died in this article, right? Hey, let’s

Alexis 11:57
do a podcast as a podcast on one of those meta verses, you know, just for the sake of putting the money where our mouth is? Yeah, there’s no hanging. Audience? Yeah, let’s ask the audience where they would like to see us doing one of those podcasts, come up with some comments, let us know where would you like us to, to have one of those podcasts. And as a matter of fact, we’ll do a podcast, maybe you you’ll be there.

Chris Bruno 12:21
Come and join us. Well, listen, stop hating on this guy. I don’t like the article. Below, you can read it for yourself. And you can make up your own mind at the lawn and ate it with me but on your own in your own space. But so we came across a company this week as well, that I hadn’t really heard about. And again, this is new for me. This isn’t financial advice, saying you guys should look into this buy stuff from them or anything else. It’s definitely not a sponsored plug either. But we found a company called immerse.io. And I absolutely love what these guys are doing, which is basically VR training. And you started to allude to this a minute ago as well. Where this is a huge I think this is another huge thing. We’ve talked a lot about education as being one of the cornerstones of what the metaverse could be. But actually, when we jumped in to see what these guys had on offer at the moment, I was blown away, right there is things from first aid training, through to how to deal with the media, and our media interview in like a studio kind of thing so that you feel like you’re in the environment that you would be in. And I thought to myself, This is gonna be a great way to train. And again, especially with things like chat, GPT now being able to ask the questions and and react to your answers. This is huge, right? I thought this was really cool. And again, another great example of how these worlds could be used.

Alexis 13:35
Yeah, well, this is where, as you said, this is where the technology is going to come, you know, to help humanity. I’ve been suffering a couple of frustration this week, because of technology. And I really hope technology is really going to come to to humanity’s aid. But this is definitely this is definitely one of the side of technology that I’m looking forward to, you know, being immersed in an environment that it’s unfamiliar, could be a little bit, you know, stressful and knowing that it’s a virtual world, where, you know, you’re allowed to do mistake where you’re not going to be judged so harshly, you know, where, where it becomes all of a sudden, a little bit more, let’s say inclusive, maybe, you know, that might definitely be the angle that we want to see. Or at least I’d like to see that right. So education is definitely a go for me. And whenever whenever people or whatever institutions are willing to implement, you know, a certain form of VR education to schools Hobby Lobby the app for that Biafra, because I remember then you can bring that education tool back home as well. Of course that does not replace standard and you know, normal education systems I’d say, but is definitely going to come to to help.

Chris Bruno 14:51
But if you imagine as well, like if you’re someone who is scared as public speaking, for example, right or is something that you know, you really don’t feel comfortable about it, but You know that you’re going to have to do something soon. These are great. I think these must be good ways. I don’t know this for a fact, right. But these must be good ways to get involved to start experiencing that to be able to stand up and be able to talk, maybe even get some feedback from some colleagues and friends or family that you trust by looking back at what you actually did and how it went. But again, this is fantastic, what a great way to start immersing yourself in these things. But I brought it up here on my computer as well, because I just wanted to have a quick look. They’ve got everything from clear communication skills, how to conduct a sales, meeting, conference presentations, construction management, construction, road safety, CPR, right how to actually do things on a CPR ended on a virtual model, customer services, dropped objects, electrical hazards, I mean, equality and anti racism training seminars that have all been virtually created, which means now, instead of having huge costs of bringing in a training company, who needs to bring you a specific trainer, who then has to come to your location so that your six men now

Alexis 16:00
during $2,000 VR set

Unknown Speaker 16:05
times 100.

Chris Bruno 16:06
I’ve never once you’ve got the VR sets, right, and this is an again, we’re not talking about really 1000s If you look at the the PICO for that came out last year, I think so that’s it, like 400, and something dollars, which again, sounds expensive. But if you actually start looking at how much a training costs, I know somebody who’s a coach who does basically very high end sales and negotiation training, it’s a four day programme, it can cost 30 grand for a team to go through his programme with them. And he works with huge multinationals, s&p 500 companies, like it’s a lot of money. And that will be for a group of eight to 10 people maximum. So that’s, you know, three grand per person, these sorts of headsets are 500 bucks or not even 1000 bucks. If it gave you access that you means that your sales team could do the sales, a library

Alexis 16:53
of tonnes of of courses. And yeah, of course,

Chris Bruno 16:57
I agree. Absolutely. And everything from this as well, like you go, depending on what job you’re training for. Some people need to go in, for example, fire safety, you need to go into a building and be able to recognise what could be an issue, what couldn’t be an issue. These are great models that you could actually start doing these trainings, virtually learn your job to figure out whether you miss things, what sort of things you should be looking for. I think it’s a great opportunity. And again, I think we both agree, right education is going to be a killer app, or maybe the killer app for education is actually VR once it gets good enough.

Alexis 17:28
Yeah, fair enough. Yes, indeed. Well, let’s see, let’s see what the market is going to be awash with what type of product because again, you know, I also believe that is the quality of the of the product that they’re going to define a little bit what’s gonna, what’s gonna be developed on them. And, and hopefully, there is not going to be some proprietary technology that you only need to, you know, build something this content in that particular format that feeds that only particular VR said, because otherwise that that will definitely kill the chicken in the egg. Right.

Chris Bruno 17:58
So yeah, and I think this probably brings us really well on to the last thing as well. So we’ve seen lots of articles recently, lots of people talking about all sorts of things, whether it be the metaverse is going to be a $5 trillion industry in the next sort of six years, 10 years, whatever it might be. But actually, I realised as they started digging in a lot of the reports that we’ve even been talking about as well, when I start digging in. It’s data that’s based on figures that were researched and surveys that were conducted back in 2022, which is probably at the time when there was the most hype, where are

Alexis 18:28
they today? Where are they? Right? Where are these guys today?

Chris Bruno 18:32
So where are the where are Deloitte, where KPMG? Where are those guys right now?

Alexis 18:37
Where’s the money? Where’s the money?

Chris Bruno 18:38
So the money’s gone is the money. So now they start doing the charity AI reports and things like that. But what is left is a massive gap, whereby people rely on that kind of information to make decisions, apparently, as companies as investors, or whatever it might be. And since that it’s gone, too. We don’t talk about anything, right? Like, there’s nothing new

Alexis 18:58
is there. Some is left I got for us. Great. Good. So we’re gonna have to do the research. There you go.

Chris Bruno 19:05
If you would like a report, if you would like to sponsor a report, PM, but it’s a crazy one, actually. Because when you look at this, you say, all of these people. Are they supposed to be helping industries? Or are they actually part of the cause of the problem? Like if you have these massive hype generating cycles, and then rip the metaverse, according to whatever his name was the PR guy. The reality of it is is is that actually being helped or made worse by companies like KPMG jumping in when there’s a massive boom, or when there’s this kind of big hype cycle, and then afterwards, literally, just don’t talk about it. We just don’t mention anything.

Alexis 19:46
But you know, one of the things that I am either more comfortable with is the nomenclature used to describe the metaverse. I think that’s going to be you know, we’re gonna have to revise this and just even simply calling it the metaverse right I think at Just that that name has got so much baggage now, right? So anyway, but as soon as you, you’re going to bring up the word Metaverse as much as the word NFT. People, you know, people can relate to that. Oh, no. And if God came to Oh, no. Okay. And no, it’s not it’s, it’s awesome.

Chris Bruno 20:17
And you see that a lot, though, don’t you with NF T’s have become Oh, yes. So assets, right? Like we don’t talk, you don’t really see many big brands now talking about NF Ts and Kryptos become web true. Yeah. And even then, that’s also apparently dead, according to the PR article. Even though right now,

Alexis 20:35
when women didn’t mention us, you the dimension.

Chris Bruno 20:40
After this goes out, again, there you look at this. So market cap currently for Bitcoin and Aetherium. And I look at a theory of more, but theorems at about 220 billion as a market cap. And I use Aetherium as an example, because lots of people use it to build things. But bitcoins sat at 500 billion, half a trillion dollars. And this is in a bear market, as we call it, like things are not particularly great. There is no hype cycle currently going on around this. And I think if you can look at those numbers and still say, web three is dead. I mean, I I’m struggling to understand where that comes from. How is so like, yeah, yeah. And how do you back that up? If you want to be someone who’s writing as a journalist, like, we can say, whatever we want this podcast. But if you’re writing real publication, like Yeah, how do you justify that? Show me the numbers or show me the figures or the statistics that make it so that web three is dead? And I think you’re right, the metaverse will change, the names will change, things will change. But yeah, shame. When I

Alexis 21:41
started to dig up a little bit, let’s see if those, you know, big auditing firms and research firms come up with a recent paper about a man ever has because I mean, at the end of the day, they did put quite a fair bit of ink into it. I mean, you don’t call you don’t call an industry, the next cornerstone of human evolution, where it’s going to pump like 30 trillion, gazillion, bazillion. Come on. At some point you’re gonna need to go live. Okay. We’ve made as a slight mistake, but here are the facts. Here are the facts and companies are still out there doing stuff. It’s going to look somehow decent in the next coming months or years. And, and by then we’ll still be here.

Chris Bruno 22:27
Absolutely. We’re not leaving even if it goes good or bad. We’ll keep staying and we’ll keep talking about it. Well, it’s an Alexis, I think that covers everything that we had planned for today. But if you’ve listened to this, and if you’ve enjoyed the show, please don’t hesitate, hit the subscribe button down below or follow us on your favourite podcasting app. We’d love to hear from you as well. So you can find all the links down below to get in touch with us, Twitter, LinkedIn, whatever you prefer, it’s not a problem. We’d love to hear from you. And also, we’d love to know what your thoughts are on the podcast if you think we should be doing more content that’s more research based instead of KPMG. We’ll get on top of that as well. But, Alexis until next week, thank you very much me.

Alexis 23:03
Thank you for having me again. Thank you, everybody. Thank you to our listeners and see you next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post Is The Metaverse Dead? appeared first on All About The Metaverse.

Now, we’re lucky enough to be taking the reins. Welcome to the new All About the Metaverse Weekly Newsletter.

We run a weekly Metaverse podcast, and now we’ve acquired this weekly newsletter - starting this week, we’ll be sharing the top stories, things we found interesting and anything that piques our interest about the Metaverse.

And of course, you’ll get updates on the podcast too.

Latest Podcast Episode:

In this week’s episode, Co-Hosts Chris Bruno and Alexis Nicosia talk about:

• Meta Platforms Q1 Financials - Has the company that lost $4bn this quarter really given up on the Metaverse?

• YouGov Metaverse report from 2022 (which has been recirculated recently in the news) with insights such as why people are entering the Metaverse and how these groups break down into trialists and the curious.

• And finally, the ongoing battle of whether AR will take over from VR, and what does the future of the Metaverse look like? Screen-based, AR, VR or all three? All this because Microsoft patented a new eye-tracking technology (could they be working on a new headset?)

If you haven’t seen it, we also mentioned briefly the new video game, Unrecord by development studio Drama. The footage blew everyone away on Twitter when it was originally shared and left a lot of people (including us) thinking it was fake at first.

You can listen on your favourite podcast app or our website - simply use the links below:

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Going forward, we’ll be sharing 1 free newsletter per week. It will include recent interesting news and stories from the metaverse, as well as the latest episode of our podcast.

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Before you go though, as an incentive to maybe stick around, we’ll be launching a competition next week, and we’d love for you to have a chance to win. Keep your eyes peeled 👀.

We’re really excited to be here on this journey with you all and looking forward to getting stuck in!

Speak soon.

Chris Bruno & Alexis Nicosia

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A big thank you to everyone who makes the All About The Metaverse - Weekly Newsletter & Podcast possible:

In this episode, we’re digging into:

In this episode, we talk about:

• Meta’s Q1 Financials ($4bn losses at Reality Labs – maybe they haven’t given up on the Metaverse yet).

• The YouGov Report (apologies Chris said this was a new report, it’s not, it’s from 2022 – but was reshared in the News as a new report).

• And finally the ongoing battle – will AR take over from VR – or will VR finally come good and be the holy grail?

and here are some links to the stories we featured:

• Meta Q1 Financials

• YouGov – August 2022 Metaverse report

• Microsoft patents new eye-tracking software

• Trailer for photo-realistic video game Unrecord by Drama development studio

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Episode Full Transcript

Alexis 0:01
I looked at that and he really looked like just so much is strapped the body cam Did you just felt so real and kind of impossible to do today with a tech but the tech is there.

Chris Bruno 0:12
Welcome to all about the metaverse podcast, the show that keeps you up to date with the latest technology, trends and news about our future digital world. Alexis, welcome back to another episode of The all about the metaverse podcast.

Alexis 0:26
Hi, Chris, thank you so much for having me very delighted to well fed kicking again, I guess. So. Let’s, let’s kick it right into into the thick of it. You already have lined up a couple of discussions. So let’s go.

Chris Bruno 0:40
I have Yeah. And I think again, like just so that everyone knows, I do consider you a co host not a sidekick. This is

Alexis 0:49
exactly as long as you don’t, you know, beat slap me. Like, you know, like that meme of it is rather boring. All right, well, we’re delighted to be co hosts.

Chris Bruno 1:03
I’m definitely going to drop that meme in now. My name and your name later on. Right. Okay. So there is three really big things I think that we should talk about today, one of them being last week. 10 days ago, meta announced their financial results. And this is a huge one because whether we like it or not, meta is a big player in the metaverse. Lots of people are talking about them as being they’re never going to make the metaverse, they’ve lost so much money and look at what they created and blah, blah, blah, blah. I think there’s a lot to be said for that. But I wanted to start with what are your thoughts? So this quarter, they’ve reported that they lost 4 billion in the reality labs section of the business, which is what’s focused on making this Metaverse and the VR side of things. And that’s after losing 14 billion last year. So in a quarter, this sounds like they’re not easing up in terms of their investment. What are your thoughts?

Alexis 1:52
Well, I think we had a quick discussion before and you were very right. When you mentioned like you You’re such a large company doing such investments to them. It’s it’s peanuts. And if you if you were to keep growing at a staggering rate as they used to be growing, then you need to venture on some new tech. Okay, so it’s very clear that they, they chose which horse they want to bet in, and the horse seems to be okay. Well, Metaverse seems to be definitely one. Even if right now it’s a loss. Maybe on the long run, it’s going to be with let’s see, I don’t see them going into AI quite yet. But they haven’t made it very clear. I find I find it quite quite realistic, is either the fallacy of sunken costs going on here. Or they really have something very big in the pipe that nobody’s aware. Because even though Okay, nobody gives a shit if you lose $4 billion, but it’s still a big number, even even by meta standards.

Chris Bruno 2:54
Yeah, I think that’s the big one that this is a bit crazy kind of concept, right? I run a small business when you start talking and things like we lost 4 billion, but it’s okay. Like, we’ll be okay. And you think how, how is it going to be okay, but I do think it’s important to note that Facebook, sorry, meta, gotta keep remembering that meta didn’t lose 4 billion in that quarter. And this is what’s really interesting, even with that 4 billion loss for reality labs matter. Overall, I think the total profit was about 5.7 billion for the quarter. So they’re still making good amounts of money, right? The only people that probably wanting to make more money is the shareholders, especially the big ones that are saying, oh, cut costs, reduce the numbers make more profit. So bearing in mind, they’ve now laid off 13,000, maybe more people so far, this is making them a profitable company. And that’s including, I’m guessing, having to pay out all sorts of redundancies and packages to lay people off, etc. So they’re still making real money.

Alexis 3:53
You know, I think we are not giving them a break enough, because again, the technology that they’re putting forward, it’s it this is high tech, this is high, high level technology that needs to be, you know, pleasantly accepted by the masses. And in order to do that, you need to have, you know, a nice smooth tech that doesn’t bugs that doesn’t make you dizzy, that it’s you know, friendly, that has a real purpose. And you don’t build that in a year. I mean, we’re all being you know, big babies here like, Hey, come on, I want everything now. Alright. And again, you can’t steer a company just, you know, to please, investors investors have to see as well, what’s, what’s coming on the long term. Again, I might be biassed here. But and we said that before on the podcast, the next iteration of the web, Okay, the next internet, it’s going to be happening in a digital form an immersive digital form, whereas mixed reality what is like Metaverse like deep into the metaverse, I don’t know but it looks that it will take a little while to get it writes which doesn’t need to be every time for sure.

Chris Bruno 5:02
It’s an interesting one, because I think what we were talking about just before we hit the record button as well, I think it’s the all in podcasts with Jason Calacanis, Chumash sacks. Somebody else can’t remember the guys name now sorry. But they were talking about it in the sense that these big companies that have all been kind of announcing their numbers this the the financials for the first quarter. And what they’re realising is that these companies aren’t doing 100x growth, and there’s not a scope for them to do 100x growth. They’re no longer big growth companies. So for me, one of the things about this kind of play is this potentially, could be a 10x growth in the future, if it works out. And if it all goes, well, it could be. I’m not saying it will be. But it could be if this is the next version, and like you say, the next iteration of the internet, and it’s this virtual world and everything else. There’s a statistic that may be might like my mind boggled from this, but as part of what meta have done, they’re kind of creating the meta signing rather than Facebook rather than Instagram, etc. So you’ve got this meta signing, but they’ve also allowed people to create their own meta avatars. And so far, they announced the other day that there’s been over a billion meta avatars created. Now this is whilst there is nobody using the metaverse but a billion people have created a digital avatar just because they could

Alexis 6:19
Yeah, maybe if you want to do a business that does 100x, maybe you should start to do like a paper token, rather than you know, like building a ginormous, ginormous company that will onboard 10s of billions. I mean, when I say 10s of billions, I mean, when I say 10 or billions is like, you know, users, right? Not not not only users but users, right? Could be businesses could be people. And again, you definitely have like more than 10 billion Internet pages. Right. So so it will take a while.

Chris Bruno 6:49
I’m going to leave Papist open to everybody else. Do your own research. This is not financial advice, please.

Alexis 6:56
Absolutely not. Absolutely not buy paper token.

Chris Bruno 7:00
Don’t buy it don’t buy anything based on what we say never buy anything based on what we say.

Alexis 7:05
Yeah, we’ll never ask your money.

Chris Bruno 7:09
Unless you want to buy a black T shirt, which will be available soon. In every metal.

Alexis 7:12
Yeah. On the on the NFT. Standard 5606. Yeah, right. Absolutely. All metal versus Yeah.

Chris Bruno 7:21
Well, listen, let’s jump into the second topic. I don’t know if we if everyone else has seen this yet. Or maybe it’s just because we’re super geeky in this space. And we like this. But YouGov released a report the other day about the metaverse and how people are looking at this. So for people who don’t know, YouGov is a internet research marketing research company. They’re based out of the UK, I believe, but I think they also now work across the globe. They put together a big ass Big Ask report bag. It’s got lots of lots of pages with lots and lots of statistics. But if you want to read that, we’ll leave a link in the bottle link in the show notes below. Yeah, but I think one of the really key things was I do want to set the stage for this before anyone starts talking about it. But when surveying nationally representative UK and US audiences YouGov defined the metaverse as a virtual world where you can create an electronic version of yourself, and then take part in activities on your devices and associated equipment. So it’s really specific language, but this is what they use to set the tone for what they were actually doing as part of this market research. Now, here’s what I found really interesting. More than half of all the people that they asked, had heard of the metaverse now. So this is now because he doesn’t want people know. Yeah, this is huge, right?

Alexis 8:33
Well, there was another report I saw that they did in Ireland. Actually, not so many people heard about the term metaverse. So again, our Irish friends, get get up to speed. Yeah.

Chris Bruno 8:46
Well, listen, I mean, like looking at those numbers, if you say 57, or 55% of people actually have said that they have heard of this. This is already for me anyway, it’s a big thing. Like nobody really knows what it is. Nobody knows exactly what it will be. Lots of people have very different definitions of that. But I think what’s really interesting is that actually that, as you keep reading the report, some of the other data suggests that I think this was the one that I’ve really liked as well that the metaverse is currently expected to manifest as an improved and extended version of virtual reality. That’s how people see it, or that’s what people are expecting this to potentially be. And I think that’s a really important one, because we’ve talked about this before as well. And we’ve crossed paths on on this topic. What is the metaverse? Is it accessible through your phone? Is it accessible through Chrome browser on your computer? Is it accessible through AR VR headsets? What is that kind of development? What does that development look like? But it seems like actually the majority of people that are talking about knowing about it or understanding what it is potentially, they’re seeing it as being a VR thing, a VR play. What’s your thoughts?

Alexis 9:45
Well, VR, it’s coming. So now what people perceive it’s obviously quite far away from what the reality is going to be. Another thing that’s going to happen quite quickly and people might not be ready for it. And I’m saying it I’m saying here on that, on that podcast viewed by billions of people, I think that’s what four is in the cusp of being created. When you have, you know, Metaverse, Blockchain, you know, AI all coming together and anthos. That’s good to be, you know, wet for. So what, what he creates here is that the expectation of people is only on on a certain level, which it’s, you know, not quite deep enough, I would say the surprise that we’re going to get is going to be really something that is going to be close to being plugged into the matrix. Now, I think it’s quite nice that more people, you know, figuring out what the metaverse is, but i It seems that the expectations are misaligned with what has been delivered. Okay. And it’s going to be even more. So. I think what it’s going to become, it’s going to be even more than what people think it’s going to be. Now, of course, we seen that Apple and who else has has unveiled? You know, some new tech, I think was Oh, you were saying micro Microsoft. Right?

Chris Bruno 11:06
So yeah, so this is the news that came out this week, which Microsoft have apparently filed a patent for brand new eye

Alexis 11:14
tracking software’s. So they’re all coming out, right? So the old

Chris Bruno 11:18
doing a play? For sure. Yeah. And I think this is so really interesting. Because if you look at these numbers, right, we might come back to the YouGov reports that might have some other statistics. If you talk about this idea of like the AR VR, the screen based metal versus how does that actually play out? So I think it’s interesting to see that you got for most people in their minds, they still picture this probably influenced by films, you know, the things like Ready Player One, they still see this as being a VR, you’re talking about it as like, you go into the matrix, and you’re really grossed in that. So PlayStation created or released serie last month, I think about a month ago, the VR to their second generation headset for VR, it has been mind bogglingly well received by the community, like in terms of what people have said about it. The experience has been fantastic. connected to something like a PS five, obviously just gives you that next generation of AAA experiences that can be built. But what I thought was really interesting about it is they’ve said I think the figures that they’ve released officially are they sold between 270 and 300,000 units in basically a month. Did you get yours? I haven’t No, I can’t afford it. Now. Station five, please sponsor this podcast to help us get up here.

Alexis 12:31
Yeah, I want one too. For sure.

Chris Bruno 12:34
The the reality of this is though, like it took them five months to sell just under a million units with the very first VR headset, if they’ve managed to hit like a third of that in just over a month. Like this is crazy numbers in terms of how this is actually ramping up. And I still believe that the PlayStation five is probably not as integrated everywhere as it is right? There’s a generation of people a bit like me that have a ps4 haven’t upgraded. I don’t get enough time to play games as much as I’d like to so I haven’t got into the next generation.

Alexis 13:05
So wait a minute. So now it’s gonna be the competition between again Microsoft and Sony. Oh, who’s going to get you know, the very best tech like, you know, maybe I I censored? Yeah. Well, wait. I mean, Stephen Hawking came up with that already. I mean, oh, Intel actually came up with that already. Stephen Hawking was actually leaving in the metaverse already. Well,

Chris Bruno 13:27
put it this way. If Microsoft come after this market right now, I think this is huge, right? Like Microsoft has just had a bit of a blow their Activision deal that they wanted to put through the UK regulators have said they can’t. So the UK really stifling that. I’m based in the UK for anyone listening. So this is a big, big slap that that’s the only country that’s really pushed against this. So look, if Microsoft are coming after this market, it’s for a reason. I don’t believe that all of these players and all of these very smart people at these very big companies that have been integral to the way that we’ve lived our lives online gaming, Microsoft, I mean, it’s just mind boggling. Imagine what they’ve done with chat GBT and their investment in open AI in just such a short period of time. If these guys are doubling down on VR, if these guys are doubling down on that experiential kind of way of interacting, the headset, the technology how you can be within that environment. There’s got to be something more to it right like I think we might have a second season in us.

Alexis 14:29
Yeah, well, listen, I’m first of all most I’m looking forward to what Apple is going to do. For sure. Microsoft’s huge machine is a huge is huge enterprise right so they will not come up with something very cool on like Skype. But I’m more looking forward to see what Apple is going to come out because they announced it’s going to come out in September, isn’t it?

Chris Bruno 14:53
I don’t know how official all of this is and knowing apple and I’m a big Apple fanboy like I basically have only owned a piece See, to be able to game and do a few things here and there. But outside of that, everything I use for work is my MacBook Pro. My iPhone, like everything I 100% love what Apple does.

Alexis 15:11
The story is this, this podcast is not being sponsored, so easy.

Chris Bruno 15:14
Please sponsor us. The reality of it is though, like they have had some issues when it comes to releasing quite big banging announcements, and they’ve made some light, you know, we’re going to make this product that sounds great. So one of their wireless charging pads was going to be fantastic. One thing out there, and then all, it’s not out quite yet, we’ll have to push that a bit further down the line. And currently, I think Apple’s having a bit of a transitionary phase as well, since they went into their own silicon chips, it’s been really interesting to see this, the average person is no longer upgrading. Because the difference between their first m one which blew people’s minds is what I use, it’s incredible. But then to transition to an m two for a marginal difference hasn’t shown people enough to actually make them do it. And I think this is becoming a thing for them as well. So maybe the the AI headset is the next phase. But I think as well, AI I know you don’t keep telling me this isn’t the AI podcast. But the AI game is also going to play huge.

Alexis 16:11
I know we need to we need to add, yeah, we need to add some some sprinkles of AI that podcasts, I think, I think this technology, it’s now clear that it’s going to continue, you know, flourishing and adding some salt and pepper to whatever tech is out there already. And definitely is going to be a part of the meta versus well, just just in terms of you know, creating those beautifully coloured and sensor rich environments. Right.

Chris Bruno 16:39
Yeah, 100%. And I think, again, like just to sort of remember this as well, Apple make incredibly nice. Let’s call them sexy products. Right? They are Yeah, they do, let’s but when we talk about Microsoft, we’ve got to remember as well, it’s not about the tech or the lack of tech that they make in that sense. It’s actually about the gaming people. There’s a huge, huge community through x Xbox, through PC through etc. that are using the Xbox, online gaming facilities, let’s call them. But if you start looking at those, there’s 120 million monthly active users as of December 2022. Again, just pulling up, that’s really quickly. But that’s a big audience right to play with.

Alexis 17:21
They’re gonna get it right, obviously, because they don’t want to lose the awesome market share that he can just capture. Very quickly. Imagine if you come out of the gate with an awesome device. And right away you have 100 50 million users right there. And then like right away out of the gates. Okay, well, let’s you very well ahead of the of the of the race.

Chris Bruno 17:40
100%. Yeah. And again, like this is just getting better and better. Right. So there’s, I don’t know if you saw this as a video game that came out recently. Sorry, that was announced recently. And it looks photorealistic. Did you see that one? So if you five. So Unreal Engine five. I’ll drop the clip down below afterwards. And they released this people actually immediately called out the developer on Twitter and said, This is fake. Right? You’ve just filmed this using a body cam.

Alexis 18:04
Oh, wait. Oh, wait. Yeah, yeah. I saw that. I saw that. Actually. Yes. So

Chris Bruno 18:08
then showed manipulating this environment in engine in Unreal Engine. And that’s the moment where I clicked and went, Oh, my God, like the next phase, you’re talking about triple A games, where games look very good. To going to, I don’t know, quadruple a games where it’s realistic to the point of being a simulation.

Alexis 18:29
To be honest, I didn’t believe it. I looked at that. And he really looked like just someone just strapped the body cam and went into you know, like, some some ghetto and, and play, play. Play guns. I don’t know, GG just felt so surreal. And kind of impossible to to do today with the tech but the tech is there. So yeah, that was definitely definitely beautiful to watch. I’ll put the link below so our auditors can have a look at that if they haven’t seen it already.

Chris Bruno 18:57
Absolutely. I will add that there. And I think that’s again, probably a great place to call it for today. But there are some monumental shifts happening right now. I think we have to, again, our premise of this show, we don’t bash anybody. But if Microsoft are building out something if Apple is releasing a headset, if there are game developers now making things that are so photorealistic that it’s hard to tell all of this sort of screams, you know, there’s a direction here that could play out. And the VR could play a massive part of it AR as well. But this is a really interesting space and the time to be looking at this space, I think more than anything else.

Alexis 19:30
Absolutely. Absolutely. I agree with you. And I think that will give us more legs than for more episodes, because I’m really, as you said, this is a great time to to live into this into this tech, and we’re going to be witnessing incredible things. Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Bruno 19:48
Also, just to let everybody know before we wrap up as well. We have just acquired a brand like a newsletter, but for us it’s going to be brand new, but we’ve acquired a newsletter that’s all about the metaverse, it’s going to be a weekly newsletter. so that we’re going to be pushing out if you’d like to sign up to that, please check out the link down below. Or you can find it on all about digital, all about the metaverse dot XYZ. So and then you’ll be able to find all that latest news. We’ll also be covering some of the greatest stories that we see during the week, and you’ll be able to get access to that. So feel free to have a look, link down below in the comments. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, please do hit that subscribe button as well. It means a lot to us and it shows us that we should continue making these episodes. Oh, for sure. Obviously we enjoy if you’re listening, but he’s enjoying it. And we can continue to build from there. Alexis, thank you so much. And take care everybody. Thank you, Chris.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post Meta’s Q1 Financials, the YouGov Report and AR vs VR appeared first on All About The Metaverse.

In this episode, we’re digging into what’s been happening in the metaverse, specifically how one report stated the Metaverse will be $14 BILLION market in South Africa alone by 2030.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Apple’s leaked VR & AR headset

• BiliBili’s recent move into digital assets

• Has Meta given up on the Metaverse?

• What will education look like in the Metaverse?

• What’s the future of content creation?

and here are some links to the stories we featured:

• South Africa Metaverse Report

• Apple’s AR VR headset features leaked

• Could Meta become Met-AI?

• How the metaverse can transform education?

• BiliBili – China’s version of YouTube – Launching blockchain-based digital assets as the first stage towards its metaverse

• Mandala Metaverse – This is NOT a plug – DYOR – We just thought this sounds interesting as a concept.

The All About The Metaverse podcast is brought to you by Social INK, the Digital Marketing consultancy for Web3 projects. 

Watch on YouTube:

Join Our Weekly Metaverse Newsletter:

This show is brought to you by:

Episode Full Transcript

Alexis 0:00
If this is going to happen, then I’m sure this is going to be no the advent of new content consumption creation. The Metaverse nai will decouple the capabilities of people for breaches.

Chris Bruno 0:12
Welcome to all about the metaverse podcast, the show that keeps you up to date with the latest technology, trends and news about our future digital world. Welcome back, everybody to a brand new episode of The all about the metaverse podcast. We’re still here, Alexis, thanks for coming back.

Alexis 0:29
There we are. We are. Thanks for inviting me again. You know what I’m gonna stop just saying thank you for inviting me again. You know what? Even though the metaverse is never going to go through, let’s continue doing many podcasts or whatever, you know, maybe the bell best plays that we do our own Metaverse, I’m seeing some platforms out there that allow you to do your own metaverse. You know, really,

Chris Bruno 0:49
we’re gonna end up having to do something just so that we can keep doing this show. But now I do think there is a lot to talk about, because there is still a lot of things happening. It just seems to me that the big newspapers, the big media outlets are very much focused on the idea that no one’s really talking about the metaverse. There’s nobody in the meta versus a lot of like bashing of the the industry overall. And although we both agree that that is true to a certain extent, and we discussed this on various episodes, and with Gaurang, as well in one of the previous episodes, talking about how it needs to be more fun. I do think that there is actually a surprisingly large amount of stuff still happening in this Metaverse space. That’s right.

Alexis 1:25
That’s right. Well, there’s something that we don’t hear so much is the activity that’s happening in the Far East in terms of Metaverse, you know, like, so it’s it’s quite funny, like, every time that China does something, we say like, oh, it’s China doing something like, you know, it’s like, you have a secret services in the UK like, yeah, okay, that’s mi six euro in China, like, not the Chinese. You know, it’s like, you know, the US or the NASA is doing something not, it’s the Chinese like, Okay, well, actually, there is a company in China that started to do something as well, right, which is discuss this, this streaming service called BT BT,

Chris Bruno 1:59
as well, Billy Billy, so that that basically is kind of China’s equivalent of YouTube, right. And for some people, they probably don’t necessarily know about this. But I think last year, the numbers that we managed to find last year on average was about 330 million monthly active users, which puts it I think, above Twitter, in terms of number of users, just to put that into some kind of context. This isn’t a small platform by any means. And it’s currently doing something quite interesting, right? In this space. Yeah, they are

Alexis 2:27
starting to build their own infrastructure. So the whole entire blockchain infrastructure in order to move their digital assets. So I think start from that. But obviously, they are eyeing on the you know, what they call like the $10 trillion market opportunity, which is the metaverse, which, you know, if you continue saying this, we might believe it that is a $10 trillion market opportunity, which will save our podcasts. I’m just saying there was

Chris Bruno 2:51
a report today in the news, so I get a news alert every day to talk about things for the metaverse and there was actually a report. I’ve just got it here in front of me. South Africa’s Metaverse Market Report, large telecom giants are launching Metaverse, platforms and events to drive the popularity of the virtual world. And if you listen to them, I believe they put it at a $14 billion industry by 2030. So that’s seven years to go. And I think we’re currently a long way from those numbers. But it is interesting because a lot of people are still talking about this in a very positive way, aren’t they?

Alexis 3:23
Yeah, and and as a matter of fact, you I saw as well the the future headset that Apple is going to release. Okay, I don’t know exactly what names you rumoured. Oh man, I saw I saw some I saw some I think those are leaked leaked pictures. That thing looks like thing was good. Yeah, even for $3,000 the headset I think it’s but besides the fight is a beautiful looking objects. It looks like you know, the packing quite a fair bit of technology in there. And the sense that there’s a lot of, you know, ar, VR and mixed reality sort of capabilities. So yeah, large companies are still putting some money in. We discussed as well last time that it seems that meta is capitulating, but not really, is it?

Chris Bruno 4:07
No, I don’t think they are capitulating. And I think that’s again, another one of the we’ve said it right for us for this show. It’s not about bashing, we will comment objectively on what’s happening in the space and what’s going on. But I think basically everyone’s now said, like, oh, you know, Zuckerberg has given up on the metaverse, he’s now changed his direction altogether, and is now focusing on AI. And I think everyone at the moment is a little bit AI crazy. And I think it’s also going to have a very big positive impact on the metaverse on gaming in general on the way we tell stories on cinema. I mean, it’s going to change the way we just consume content altogether in a huge way. Yeah, content entertainment. Yeah. 100% sure has to rush or No, I haven’t. And there’s been some really interesting articles come out recently of like even big cinematographer saying, you know, the future of cinematography and Hollywood isn’t I’m gonna go and see the latest film in a cinema or it’s going to be you sit at home and you say, I want my character me How to be in a romantic comedy with Marilyn Monroe. Go tell me your story, and it can produce this kind of setting me up. Yeah. I mean, can you mentioned in one of the last episodes I think for adult entertainment industry, it could be very different. But yeah, so I think one of the big things is obviously now, we saw the story and I’ll link it down below if anyone else wants to read this. One of the Wall Street firms has basically said is met are going to change their name now to met a I met I. And I think that’s kind of an interesting one, right? They’re buying up loads of chips from Nvidia to basically make sure that they can be competitive when it comes to AI. And I think that’s a huge step. I don’t think they’re actually building the metaverse thing. I just think this is a huge step as to how do you create a Metaverse that people actually care about? I think AI plays a huge part in this and Goehring I think said it on the last week’s episode. And you know, these idea of these agents that you can interact with in the metaverse is going to play a huge part in that right?

Alexis 5:56
Well, there are a couple of things that I find that the metaverse will be the most relevant, definitely will be education. You know, there’s something that that puzzled me so much when you look at the evolution of let’s say, let’s say transportation, I mean, before you had, like, literally you just put yourself on a carriage. Okay, and then we moved on, on, you know, like, like a sort of a total bill, and then a car and our electric car and then in the future, God knows where we’re going, I’m gonna go overboard or whatnot. Okay, and many things like that have evolved throughout humanity. Okay. But going to class, going to class exactly the same way. Has this been done? You know, like, since since the antiquity, right? I mean, it’s not like you you’re going in Star Wars and you’re going, you know, to this even class training helmet that the young Lynx they have and then, you know, stuffs happening. Why should we should we using? You know, the metaverse for that purpose? Because the metaverse needs to be again, it needs to have purpose other than just entertainment. Right? The capabilities are great, but let’s let’s let’s make it like education is one.

Chris Bruno 7:09
I think that’s a really big one actually. And funnily enough, so meta, although they’re getting a lot of stick in the big press and by the Wall Street company saying they don’t care about the metaverse, etc. I think it was only two weeks ago, they released a an article saying how the metaverse can transform education. And it is completely sensible, it makes complete sense that you could suddenly give people access to potentially some of the best education in the world, right? What’s stopping you from listening to a lecture in Harvard, talking about a particular subject, other than the fact that you’re not physically able to be there. And the world has changed a lot, right? Because of COVID. Because of what happened in 2020, everyone had to find ways to be on Zoom calls and attend school remotely, it didn’t work. But imagine a way to actually engage people to bring them into the same space and to give them access to being able to actually meet people to have other other students within that area to be able to actually connect with people, whether it’s to listen to the content, to start doing a project to work together and collaborate on a project, or even to do the research to do the learning around it to just socialise around with those people with those should be in your class. I think that’s got huge potential, I think, I think meta are probably actually playing this, that drip feeding a little bit of information. I think this could be huge as well. And again, I’m not saying meta will get it right, I’m just saying that meta is so well funded, that there is a strong possibility that they can actually get something to the end, as opposed to maybe some of our crypto web three counterparts and companies that we’ve seen that we liked the sound of and who don’t ever quite get to that point, because again, we’re not talking about hundreds of 1000s of dollars or millions of dollars, we’re talking about billions of dollars, and even with billions of dollars and some really intelligent people, they haven’t cracked the code. And that’s a big thing, right?

Alexis 8:58
Well, there’s always this low hanging fruit, right, that people should go after. And as much as it seems that, you know, like a government agencies and collectivities and whatnot. They seem that I mean, at least in the Western world, it seems that dedication has decreased in terms of quality. Well, you know, with the technology that we have today, of course, the internet now, you know, the metaverse, I mean, as you said, we could be tomorrow be sitting on an awesome lecture at Harvard and, and soaking it all in, right? And only, you know, even doing it, you know, like in the traditional way, but even having, you know, like, maybe in a different environment, you know, could be floating in space, or stuff like that. So it’s all a matter of going after the low hanging fruit and if education is being so low, that’s definitely a low fruit to pick up. Right? Because everybody needs education, even even myself at 40 plus years old. I mean, I need to you know, pick up my skills and you know, like, Okay, let’s take a course. But you know, again, it would be much more fun if I could be there you know, like that. As relaxing lounging chair, putting my goggles on and then Okay, let’s go. Let’s learn something. And having fun.

Chris Bruno 10:06
I guess as well, like leech said, 50 6070 years education really hasn’t changed a huge amount. Yeah, fine. They’ve got tablets now and classes and things like that rather than books and pens and paper. But outside of that, we haven’t really changed the fact that you have to sit there 30 children looking at a screen or a board, and you wait for whoever’s at the front of it to tell you how it works. But imagine learning things like so I didn’t particularly like history, because when I was when I was younger, it basically just felt like I had to learn on this day this happened on that day that happened on this day that happened. And I’ve never really found it that engaging as an older sort of as an adult. I’ve read tonnes from the World War Two, all the way back to sort of history of religions and how things started. I’ve got an interest in it. But back then, I was bought. And I think Imagine being able to experience

Alexis 10:52
history and reenact reenact the history, right? Yeah. Wow.

Chris Bruno 10:56
Could you imagine like, how would you like to learn about Henry the eighth. And the Tudors, for example, other than walking around in that time and seeing what was happening, could you imagine like, as a kid, you’d spend 30 minutes, you’d learn the information. But in the same way, as they can tell you what every character from the MCU in the Marvel Universe is like, what their story is, where they came from, what they do, what their powers are. Imagine that if you had the same sort of engaging content, the kids would be able to tell you everything about what Henry the Eighth was doing. Six Wives were called what was going on at the time, you know, all of these things.

Alexis 11:28
Yeah, absolutely. And let’s, let’s see who’s going to have the balls to step into that arena and go like, Hey, okay, we’re building the metaverse, you know, to have to have the capabilities of teaching, you know, history and other other I mean, other subjects in the most realistic manner to our students. That that will be that will be really, you know, groundbreaking I think. And, okay, sorry, don’t quote me that last time I said that porn will be maybe the groundbreaking element, we will rise. We will learn from that and then we go through education. Okay. Well, okay,

Chris Bruno 12:05
it’s two very different spectrums, like different edges of the spectrum, like different angles. But it’s, it’s definitely one of those things that what we what we talked about more than anything else on this show is the purpose, right? It’s the Why are you jumping into it? And if it isn’t fun, if it’s not interesting, if it’s not engaging? Are you going to jump into this? Is anybody going to jump into this? And I think this is still the biggest challenge for the metaverse, right? It’s finding a way to get people to actually care about what’s happening.

Alexis 12:32
You’re not something I find that maybe the metaverse got wrong, or at least from the web three blockchain and token perspective, is that they try to model a model that they know which is land sale, and they all got into like, okay, land sale, and then for on your land, and of course, the land, you’re free to do whatever you want. But it was all about that pecuniary, you know, idea of okay, I’m going to make money out of versus Okay, now, I’m just going to have like a great experience. Right? And of course, you had to fund the means right? To have such operations. But everybody went into like, Okay, let’s do a land sale. And it was successful until he was not anymore. Right? So what if tomorrow, they will be like a Metaverse platform, they’re gonna say, Hey, listen, we are we are just selling content. Okay, we are selling history books, we are creating, you know, the reenactment of that battle that situation. And all of a sudden, you go, you wire yourself in and then boom, you learn, right?

Chris Bruno 13:37
There’s, there’s definitely a case for the actual content is going to play a huge part in this. And I think, again, I hate to say this AI is going to drive that massively. Because all of a sudden, you could create with the use of AI, that fundamental law that runs your universe, your Metaverse your story. And then basically anybody could come in and out of it, and be subjected to that world and AI would take care of everything else in between. So AI can take the story of the NPC characters to a whole new level, they could interact with you. And then one day, I could meet them six years later, and they would say, Oh, actually, I think I met your friend Alexis years ago, just because of the fact that we were linked as friends on that platform. So you can have these stories that would be super engaging. But it was one of the universes that I’ve been looking at the moment Metaverse project, so that I’ve been looking at, which is Mandela. So again, this one, by the way, is not sponsored in any way shape, or form. And this is just preliminary, me looking at this and thinking this sounds interesting. They’ve gone cross chain, they want to do this so that it’s open for lots of people in different ways. They’re also trying to figure it out. But really what they’re trying to do is make a system of content that goes across multiple different platforms. So there will be a comic book graphic novel kind of style element. There will be video elements where the story is being told, and there will be a Metaverse element where You get to play a part in that kind of story. Now, if you imagine playing this out on a bigger scale and taking it to the nth degree, 20 years from now, imagine the fact that actually instead of one person writing the story of The Lord of the Rings, imagine if we all took part in writing the story that then can be finished and finalised in 20 years time or maybe that never gets finalised. Right, it just a continuing evolution that’s happening. And the only thing I can think of this ever even come close to this is that years ago on I think PlayStation two matrix game or matrix game came out sorry, that followed in between the second and the third films. And it literally had characters from the films, that we’re doing stuff in the same universe. And it was kind of playing alongside but it wasn’t you replayed the film in the game. It was literally just complimentary. And that kind of stuff, I think is where you could really wit like MCU right has proved it marvel that belongs to Disney now. They have created I can’t remember 40 Odd films that are all connected. This is the biggest single universe that’s ever been made. I think other than Star Wars, by the way, also owned by Disney. Right? Like it’s this people want to be consumed by these universes?

Alexis 16:15
Yeah, of course. Well, let’s see, let’s see what’s going to be in store as well with the, you know, some some creative themselves. Because, I mean, we’re talking about like large, large studios, of course, Disney and Pixar. And, you know, I mean, those are large, large companies. But I do believe that, you know, AI is going to come here just to help in terms of design, but we’ll never be as creative as the human mind. I mean, we are, I mean, we are damn creative, right. So I do believe that there’s going to be some some people that they will have the capabilities or the enhanced capabilities, thanks to the technology to do just that right to be able to create unbelievable stories and unbelievable intricate universe that they will be taking place on the metaverse. So I really can’t wait for this to happen. Really. I mean, you know, you following people on Instagram or YouTube and whatnot. That is just the very start of, you know, those content creators universes, right? Even if he again, leave it to me to create my own metaverse. And you know, it will be I mean, it will be so psychedelically funky right then. And with so many intertwine story and Leto I mean, this is going to happen, it is going to happen. And I’m sure this is going to be you know, the advent of new content, consumption creation, and the metaverse and AI will decouple the capabilities of people for doing just that. So yes, beautiful mantra, Mantra. Was it Mandela? Yeah,

Chris Bruno 17:47
it was really important that what you said there’s, you’re right, humans will always have that next step of creativity, I think where it becomes interesting is instead of one or five people coming up with the entirety of a story or one person writing the next big franchise, like the Harry Potter books, or whatever it might be, we have the ability exactly that actually create stories that could involve 1000s of people. And each individual character could be represented by real human beings that actually, as they interact with these worlds, the story is being written. And that story can then be played out and can be created into films into books into whatever it is. But all of these things are literally capable now. And again, I don’t think they really were in the same way before. But I think he’s given us a real opportunity to look at this and say, the way we consume content is going to become more interactive. And I think there’s, you know, there’s been a couple of Netflix shows where they’ve tried to give people options, and you could choose left or right, or whatever might happen that yeah, this is like the next level of that. But not all of us do. Yeah, we tried a couple of them. And then also, I think most recently, we watched Kaleidoscope as well, I don’t know if you’ve seen that one. So it’s another show where there’s eight episodes, I think, but everyone watches them in a different order. So you get the whole story from start to finish, but you get it in a different timeframe, or a different timeline. You see a bit before bit after. So again, it’s a really clever way of getting people to consume content in different ways. But again, all of this is just possible now that you could create the next Harry Potter world, the next whatever, MCU, but it could have be belonging to 1000s of us 10s of 1000s, if not hundreds of 1000s on us. That’s right. And we could all be helping to write that story.

Alexis 19:27
I agreed, agreed, agreed. Well, again, maybe maybe we would have come up with, you know, sufficient sufficient viewers that will be paying for our contents and then we’ll be able to build our own Metaverse and, okay guys, watch the space. We are coming up with our own metaverse.

Chris Bruno 19:45
We’re gonna write ourselves with AI

Alexis 19:48
mat as well. I can’t wait. I can’t wait. You know, something that I’m wondering and I, as we were discussing about, you know, like the low hanging fruit of the metal person, you know, like informations. One education is another and something I’ve always wondered like, how can we compete? Yeah. Which I know is a foundation. And I know it’s like a supposedly nonprofit. But imagine if tomorrow, you know, Wikipedia were to, you know, power up their, the library to the metaverse, right? And then create a Wikipedia Metaverse right there.

Chris Bruno 20:21
So I think the the key challenge is, and this is where, again, like a hate to say this, this is where AI can change things, right? Because all of everything that Wikipedia is currently text, right? It’s text links and images. Let’s give it that. So if you can get AI to create the virtual environment where you could experience a Wikipedia page, but in a an interactive way, that changes everything. If you had to programme that every page yourself. I mean, it’s game over like this would take hundreds of 1000s of hours of programming of visual coding of like drawing of graphics of illustration modelling, so it doesn’t work necessarily. But I think that’s where it becomes really interesting. It becomes even more interesting, I think, is if, if you think to all the content we’ve made as a race, right, as a human beings for the last 7080 years, maybe even longer, if you can take all of that and feed it in, it means that we could bring people back to life. Like you could go on to the Wikipedia page of Ronald Reagan as ex President of the United States. So

Alexis 21:23
we’re just not include Walker them into that. That is all right. That one, that part will leave it out. Okay. Now within this, there was this kid was kid that bit

Chris Bruno 21:34
I pretty much would be able to go on to like a virtual Wikipedia page for Marilyn Monroe, right? We mentioned her earlier, because she was mentioned in one of the articles and you could have an interview, you could interview Marilyn Monroe, tell me what your favourite film was. And again, it would pick up based on other interviews that have been made where she had been quoted what you’ve done. And you could get that real information. I’ve obviously, obviously, it’s not going to be able to fit in all the gaps. But if you wanted to keep it completely real and based on what was there, all of that is possible now because of AI. And if you play this out long enough, it’s mind boggling what we could do,

Alexis 22:06
where it’s coming is definitely coming fingers are we living we’re living very we’re living really like encouraging creating them in the times that we live in are incredible. I mean, we sending, you know, we were reaching for the stars and new planets. And, you know, we want to become like interstellar species. We having you know, the awakening of AI, we are building meta versus I mean, the whole entire thing is really happening. We really live in such incredible times. I mean, this is unprecedented. I

Chris Bruno 22:33
agree with you more. I couldn’t agree more. The next big. Yeah, there’s another big shift for technology that’s just about to happen. Well, listen, Alexis, I think this has been awesome. As always, there’s plenty to talk about around the metaverse, but we’ll be back again next week for sure. Thank you for listening, everybody. If you haven’t already, please do hit the subscribe button. We really appreciate it. You can find us on LinkedIn. And you’ll find us on Twitter, Facebook, as well as on YouTube, where you can see us in our black T shirts talking about this content as well.

Alexis 23:00
For sure for sure. Absolutely. Well, invite me again next week. We have plenty to talk about.

Chris Bruno 23:05
Yeah, we got to stop saying you just you’re here every week, so it’s okay. Okay, I

Alexis 23:09
got my weeks done. Okay, then see you guys next week. Thank you for listening. Bye. See you Chris. Take care. Bye bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post Metaverse will be $14 BILLION Market by 2030: Content, Education & Experiences appeared first on All About The Metaverse.

In this episode, we are joined by Gaurang Torvekar, CEO at Indorse and Co-Author of ERC-5606, the multiverse NFT standard. 

Ever wondered what the future of digital assets would look like when it came to the metaverse? Well now’s your chance to understand. 

We explored: 

• ERC5606 – the new Multiverse NFT standard 

• The potential impact of AI on the Metaverse

• The sneaker analogy – why siloed digital assets don’t make sense

and

• Why Gaurang doesn’t believe there will be 1 metaverse to rule all metaverses

The All About The Metaverse podcast is brought to you by Social INK, the Digital Marketing consultancy for Web3 projects. 

Join Our Weekly Metaverse Newsletter:

This show is brought to you by:

Episode Full Transcript

Gaurang 0:02
Metaverses are in the disillusionment phase right now people are thinking, Oh, it’s just a passing fad. It’s not going to take off but it will be there. It will become mainstream in the next five years.

Chris Bruno 0:12
Welcome to all about the metaverse podcast, the show that keeps you up to date with the latest technology, trends and news about our future digital world. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to episode three of the all about the metaverse podcast. Super excited today. I have my co host Alexis with me. Hey, Alexis.

Alexis 0:30
Hi, everybody. Hi, Chris. Hi. Hi to our growing community. Delighted to be here. Nice to to tag along with this third episode looking forward for some more, even though the state of the metaverse has been a little bit limping in there, but as long as the metaverse survives, I hope I’ll survive. Yeah,

Chris Bruno 0:48
the good news is it’s not just about us today. And actually, hopefully, somebody’s going to tell us all about the good things that are happening in the metaverse right now. So without further ado, introducing Gaurang, our guest today CEO of endorse, that guy has been working on all sorts of projects, whether it be NFT projects with block bots, getting gaming systems together so that people could use digital assets within video games. But more importantly, recently, he has also co developed the ERC 5606, which we’re going to talk about in more detail, but Goring, thank you so much for joining us today.

Gaurang 1:18
Hey guys. Hi. How are you doing

Alexis 1:20
away? I’ll put my hands together for five or six. Achieving Well done. Well done.

Gaurang 1:26
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it’s been it’s very long road as well read. So no, I’ve been I’ve been I’ve been writing smart contracts for the last six, seven years now since 2016. And I think this is the first time I have written an EIP which has actually gotten accepted and finalised and now it’s ERC 5606 I’m really proud of that. Yeah, thanks.

Chris Bruno 1:49
Well, let’s tell people what ERC 5606 is what it does why you created it. Tell us a little bit about that.

Gaurang 1:55
Yeah, absolutely. So ERC five since we call it multiverse NF Ts. And you know, we believe that there’s never going to be one Metaverse which rules them all there’s going to be a lot of meta versus there’s going to be a lot of web three games. And each of these meta versus each of these web three games. They’re going to use NF Ts in the future in the near future. Already. A lot of them are using NF Ts. But NF T’s are going to become mainstream in these games and in these meta verses. So literally everything you do, everything you buy, everything you own will be an NFT. And in the future, what needs to happen is these NF T’s needs to need to be interoperable. So you know the holy grail of Metaverse is the holy grail of web gaming is that you should be able to take one weapon or like one item from one Metaverse to another one game to another. And that’s what we are trying to achieve with this new ERC 5606. We want to create interoperable NF TS we want to create a standard so that all these meta verses and web three games can adopt these interoperable NF T’s. And you know, from the ground up when you’re creating your NF TS when you’re creating your Indian game items, they should be interoperable. So that’s what this is all about.

Chris Bruno 3:13
So what we’re talking about here really is the idea that if you imagine this, I buy one particular item, let’s say sunglasses as a good example. So I buy a set of sunglasses. And if I buy that particular multiverse NFT it means that I can then use that in multiple different worlds. So things like decentraland or sandbox or voxels, or some somnium space or wherever it might be. But I’d be able to use that same item in those different universes.

Gaurang 3:35
Yes, yes, that’s the basic idea. So the way it works is what we have done is we we have kind of created like a wrapper NFT. So using the ERC 560 standard, you create something that we call a wrapper NFT which is an NFT at the top level. And this NFT essentially encapsulates all the different incarnations, or all the different outdoors of yours and classes in these various meta verses. Because one problem right now is that the sunglasses that you’re wearing in real life, or in one Metaverse, they are not compatible with other meta verses. So for example decentraland has high fidelity 3d graphics, while sandbox as voxels. And let’s say another Metaverse has some different style of 3d graphics. So your sunglasses need to be designed in different ways. Your metadata will be different for each of these meta verses. And hence, the same pair of sunglasses the same file will not be compatible with all these mattresses. So the way he or she faces there are six boxes. You buy one rapper NFT, which is at the top. And this NFT actually gives you the ownership. This gives you gives you access to all the versions of your sunglasses across these teams. Are these metal verses Yeah.

Alexis 4:51
Okay. I have a question on the sounds that it’s okay redundant is not the word, but it seems to be quite To have a difficult undertaking to design, you know, that particular design that suits every Metaverse out there. So now obviously, as you know, with the emergence of AI, are you guys planning to, you know, implement some AI eyes attached to that, to that system in order, you know, to facilitate, you know, so when you, when you when you when you meet your NFT, in five, six or six standard, the AI behind is already, you know, like a generating, you know, for, you know, suitable for five to 10 metal verses? Is that something that can be done? Yeah. No, that’s

Gaurang 5:36
a great and indeed, intriguing idea, right. So, actually, just, I was reading another report, so Adobe, they released their own AI now, and you can touch your videos, and you can do some colour corrections and everything in videos and in photographs using Adobe. And that’s crazy, right? Because I just remember chat GPD came out, like last year or something. And things are moving so fast. So you never know what’s going to happen, right? Because see, at the end of the day, if you take the same example, sunglasses, what do you need to do as you need to make sure that these sunglasses are actually compatible with all these different file formats, and I’m sure there will be an AI which can convert these things into different file formats. There will be some loss of graphics, there will be some loss of 30 Call the crispness, for example. But I think that’s okay. As long as your sunglasses can be worn in different matter versus different games, I think that’s what we all want, because we don’t want to be buying. Or let’s say we don’t want to spend $100, on buying sunglasses that work in decentraland. You don’t want to spend another $100 for sunglasses that work in Sandbox, and you don’t want to spend another $100 for sunglasses that work in fortnight, or, let’s say Call of Duty, because we want to buy the one item just one time. And we want to use it everywhere. Right? So I’ll give you an example. Right? So let’s say Alexis, you live in Thailand. Chris lives in London and we live in, you know, in the UK, we if we buy a pair of shoes, or if we buy a pair of sunglasses. And if I’m coming to Thailand, the Thai people, they cannot say hey, you can’t wear these shoes. Yeah, because they’re not compatible in Thailand.

Alexis 7:08
Watch them. Watch them. Buy a new pair here in Thailand. No, no, sir. No, no.

Chris Bruno 7:18
Somebody in customs in Thailand is like that challenging. is now on a watch list when he arrives Excuse me. So you’re gonna have to take those shoes off. They’re not compatible in Thailand for real?

Gaurang 7:28
Yeah, that’s that’s what is happening in meta was right now. There’s like so much gatekeeping right now, these items don’t work in other meta versus and we want that to happen. Simple as that.

Chris Bruno 7:39
We just talked a little bit and we’ve broached on the subject of like AI and I think this is really important here. Like, what in your opinion? Goron? What does AI and the metaverse look like? How does that come together? Because I’m reading a lot I’m seeing a lot. And there’s probably a couple of different schools of thought from imagine how amazing it would be to have procedurally generated characters, procedurally generated items, etc. All of this could be created by AI in the future. And I think this is a huge kind of moment of all this is very exciting. So what do you think? What do you think that future looks like? How does AI in the metaverse play together in the future?

Gaurang 8:14
Yeah, AI is here to stay. AI is not going away. We might or might not have autonomous agents in the next five to 10 years. But AI will help or AI will augment whatever we are doing. And there’s just life changing ways, right? So Chad GPT, it can actually do some nice coding, I would say chargeability is at the level of a junior developer. It has some bugs. It has some problems, but that’s what you need as opposed to write. The code has some subtypes and some serious. So the code is not very optimised. But the same principle can be applied to graphic design. It can be applied to video editing, it can be applied to multiple other things. Even in crypto. You can see a lot of companies you can see a lot of projects who are combining AI and crypto. So Metaverse is just another use case for AI. And I think AI will be game changing for meta versus quite soon. And imagine that when you combine AI and Metaverse, that’s going to be like just mind boggling. See, the basic premise of a meta verse is that you have humans who go there and interact with other humans. But if you read some really amazing sci fi novels, like, you know, all the metaverse books, you will see that there are some AI agents in there as well. So you will have humans and you’ll have AI agents, and these AI agents can maybe start creating things, they can start creating new items, they can start creating new experiences in the metaverse and that’s going to be really cool.

Chris Bruno 9:47
And then that’s when we end up with either the matrix or Skynet, right? That’s what that’s what we’re talking about

Alexis 9:52
there, believe it or not, but yesterday night, I showed the matrix to match my young wife because she’s never watched it. And I will be satisfied Ah pretty well, was pretty freaky to to say this. And I don’t know if you guys watch it recently. It’s it’s I mean, stunning movie for sure. But definitely be chilling.

Gaurang 10:12
You know, only autonomous agents are being created like that’s happening right now, you know? Yeah,

Chris Bruno 10:19
well actually so this is a really good point as well Garang. So I’m sure you saw recently the news of people like Elon Musk signing together and open letter saying we don’t understand what the impacts of open AI and what they’re currently doing in the chat GPT models. And they basically kind of asked everyone to slow down and to have a bit of a break right to have six months of pause before they try and release a new model. Now that was only I think two years ago, three weeks ago that that kind of letter came out. Since then, I believe Elon Musk has announced that he’s raising funds for a new startup to build his own AI, which I think is Cheeky as hell, right? You guys stopped working for six months, and I’ll build something at the same time. But what is your thoughts on that? Like, how quickly could this progression? And I’m not gonna say cause problems like The Matrix, but make people unemployed? Definitely. I can see this being a big thing quite quickly, right? Well, this

Alexis 11:07
this show is called like all about managers and all about the AI. What’s going on?

Chris Bruno 11:13
It’s gonna be a piece of it’s going to be a big piece of the advancement of the metaverse. I agree. I think AI is one of the things that’s going to make the metaverse it’s either going to make it or break it really. I mean, we’re looking for something that makes it a game changer.

Alexis 11:26
Now we will have to be integrated. You have to be integrated with with AI for sure. I mean, I will have a lot of saying into the metaverse, right. Yeah, so

Gaurang 11:35
one, one problem. In one of our earlier podcasts, Alexis, we had discussed one problem where most of the metaverse is right now are empty. So essentially, there’s very few people in there. There are not a lot of things that you can do in the metaverse. So I think if you actually add autonomous agents in there, it might not, you know, some Puritan people, they might not like this idea. But if you add some autonomous agents in there, it might just become a little interesting. So if you’re, if you’re in an area, if you’re in town, there’s no one there’s no activities happening. But if you have some autonomous agents, you can maybe go and fight with them, you can go and do some activities with them. That might just make it interesting. You know, so yeah,

Alexis 12:18
good segue. I wanted to ask you a bit of a tricky question. And not because I want to corner you, but I mean, you writing you a new, a new stat NFT standard, so you will definitely have an opinion on that one. Why, why meta versus Mt. Ma? why nobody’s interested? What’s happening there. You building you’re building the whole entire infrastructure to make the metaverse fun, and all the phonies slipped away. So what’s up with that?

Gaurang 12:47
Yeah, that actually, you just answered your own question, Alex. Moving on.

So far is that the websites are there? The apps are there, right? But the problem right now is with the content creation, so there’s not a lot of content out there. So you can go into the metaverse, you can be there, but there’s nothing for you to consume. Right. So if you go to like Facebook or Twitter or Tik Tok, for example, every second, you’re getting bombarded by like hundreds and 1000s of like videos and silly reels and all these things, right? But in the meta was, you just don’t have that. If you go to gaming, there’s like so many games out there, for example, CSGO is still being played, because there are players there who want to go and start killing each other, for example, but in the metaverse, you don’t have that you don’t have the content. You don’t have a critical mass right now. And I think that’s why it’s lagging in adoption. Once you get that, I think it will take off definitely and again the fiasco with the meta Facebook did not help last year right. So the brand image of meta versus is kind of tarnished right now. But I think it will, it will it will come back. So, yesterday I was talking with Edie. And you know, what we are discussing is if you look at the lifecycle of a new technology, adoption, matter, horses are in the disillusionment phase right now. So, you know, people people are thinking, Oh, it’s just a passing fad. It’s not going to take off but it will be there and it will it will become mainstream in the next five years.

Alexis 14:27
I tell you what, it will all it will all come together once porn goes to the metaverse

Chris Bruno 14:33
and this is why I’ve marked this podcast as not safe for children.

Alexis 14:38
Pornography was was just a word pornography. Pornography is what made internet so popular. I mean, who cared about internet before people could watch pornography? Like you try to do like some nice pornography on the metaverse. You’ll see people will be doing stuff.

Chris Bruno 14:54
Well, to be fair, it’s quite interesting actually, because that has been a subject for a lot of things including format for years, right? So it was long before the internet the conversation was actually what formats like in terms of DVD, DVD blu ray versus Do you remember laser discs? Yeah, that had their little time. And basically the porn industry was one of the big kind of shifters that went towards DVDs and bang, it happened. It moved very quickly. And actually, that’s happened quite a few times. And I think, and then except for the Internet, yeah, and the Internet sort of thing. And, again, these things, I think there’s a there’s a lot of momentum to still happen for the metaverse is but I get well Garang and Alexei, as you’ve said it as well. Currently, they’re just not fun. That’s the problem, right? It’s just not fun. If you go in there, the three of us go and walk around and we go well, what do we do now? Or the three of us can jump on a game of fortnight and have a great laugh, like, you know, playing with 100 other people should have

Alexis 15:48
a black T shirt meetup in one Metaverse, let’s see how many is happening? Let’s do let’s see how many people let’s see how many people have black tissues in at least three different meta versus using the five six or six NFT standard? Let’s see.

Chris Bruno 16:04
Well, wasn’t it wasn’t it Ready Player me like I think Ready Player One? Sorry. The film literally like the characters. The standard is a pair of jeans and a black T shirt. So we’re fine. We never have to buy digital assets. We’re okay black T shirt. I’m good to go.

Gaurang 16:19
Exactly. And I can wear that in multiple countries and multiple cities as well. No one is

Chris Bruno 16:25
definitely on the shortlist in Thailand for

Alexis 16:31
another question for you. Goron. Again, tricky question, not just just to make yourself extremely uncomfortable. What do you think? What is the nicest? The nicest Metaverse out there to? To develop on? What is the nicest one was the most fun? And answer answer from the answer with your developer hat on. And then with your you know, like user on?

Gaurang 16:55
Yeah, so without user perspective, I would say decentraland. Because you can use it right now. Sandbox is definitely great. And I love it. But you can’t use it. They’re not open yet. So they’re doing some public alpha again. And again. I don’t know when they’re going to open up or if they’re going to open up, but

Alexis 17:18
that’s okay.

Gaurang 17:27
Loud, but yeah, it’s just not open, so we can’t use it. So what are we going to do? So yeah, I think the top two options right now are like decentraland and voxels. But yeah, I think decentraland has more people using it. So if you build something in decentraland, there’s a chance that it might get used by other people, you know, and you have to spend less effort on marketing it for example.

Chris Bruno 17:51
I have a question for you guys. Because recently we saw the fortnight basically massive announcement, right? They’ve opened up their Unreal Engine, they’ve said to their community, go crazy, build whatever you want, have fun. You can monetize it. And if people buy it, we’ll give you 40% of the revenue that’s generated. For me, I’m looking at fortnight right now and going. This is a Metaverse because it doesn’t matter what sort of game you want to create or experience. It doesn’t even have to be a game. It can just be a wandering around in nature if you wanted it to be. This to me is a metaverse. Would you agree with that?

Gaurang 18:23
Yeah, so nuclear really. Matter was can be anything. It’s it’s not constrained to like something that is called metaverse. Metaverse is a concept I would say, right.

Chris Bruno 18:34
So how do we get these web three meta versus and I’m gonna start referring to them as web three metallosis. So the Sandbox is a decentraland and everybody else involved? How do we get them to start actually realising that the fun part is what makes fortnight have I think we talked about this Alexis last time, right? 400 million monthly active users or something crazy like that. I mean, we’re not talking about 1% in decentraland of the fortnight audience, we’re talking about 0.001% Maybe. And I think this is a massive thing, right? How do we get these web three? Metaverse is to start embracing this, right? We need it to be fun. It needs to be a game it needs to get people involved. And it needs to have that community around it. Otherwise, there’s just nothing there.

Gaurang 19:17
Yeah, no, absolutely. So just as an example, in decentraland, one of the most popular apps and like the places there is ice poker, which is a gambling game. So it has a lot of traction. It has a lot of people actually playing that poker. See, right now the problem with web three meta versus is that most people actually look at it for getting some tokens or you know, earning some money, really. So it’s not about it’s not about actually going and engaging and having fun. It’s about earning money somehow. And I think that’s a big problem. These meta verses need to pivot from there and they need to focus on the fun part they need to focus on the engagement. See, they’re trying to do partnerships with these big brands like Adidas, Nike, all these shoe brands, awesome, you know, singles and all these things. That’s good. You might have some concerts there. But I think gaming is one definite ly crucial aspect that needs to be in there. So you need to have some fun games, you need to have some fun experiences and where people can go and keep playing it again and again and again and again. And yeah, just find something to do that. I think that’s very important. Okay, well,

Alexis 20:28
let’s, let’s wait for the fun to to happen again. Now. Let’s talk a little bit about like, next moving trends. Okay, we spoke about AI. We spoke about like, all those meta versus that, you know, what they need to do in order to attract more people? How do you see maybe, you know, people creating? I’m talking about a trend, right? This is just like sort of brainstorming but I want to have your opinion on this. What do you think about people creating their own little meta versus like, you know, now you have aI supercharging you know, the ability for people to create their own little metaverse. For example, if tomorrow I want to create my little open Metaverse for everybody to come and join and have fun. And that will be a very, you know, not long lasting Metaverse, for example, like you know, he would last 10 days. And within this 10 days, people go completely insane in my in my metaverse. Do you think something like that could could could fly?

Gaurang 21:23
No, that’s that’s a great question. And let me just dive a little deeper into this on the technical side, right. So there are two aspects to this. The first aspect is the tech side, the infrastructure the infra So creating that infra itself. So when you’re talking about creating a Metaverse so there are two aspects. One is creating the infra itself. So something like fortnight, something like sandbox, something like decentraland, where you have a system where you have a platform where people can come and create their experiences. And the second aspect there is creating something where people will come and do something. So let’s say, Alexis, you want to do your own Metaverse, I don’t think it makes sense, or I don’t think it’s possible to do or do matter was or a new protocol on a new platform where easy is such a haste a lot of time, it takes a lot of time, it will take you at least two to three years to make make something good, make something that is robust. And that’s something that millions of people can use. But I think the best way to go right now is to use something that already exists like fortnight, or like decentraland, go there, buy some land. In San Blas, you can buy some amazing land, and very cheap with great experience. Yeah, very few at the moment. And you can build a great experience there. And that’s something that you’re talking about, right? So you can buy at land, you can build that experience for 10 days, you can bring it down, you can build something new on the same land. And I think that’s something that will, that will create a lot of engagement. So there’s no point in creating a new platform, no point in creating a new protocol. You can do it, obviously. But you need massive investment for that millions of dollars and multiple years.

Chris Bruno 23:00
Talking of multiple years, millions of dollars and everything else. Did you see the other side? Trip to?

Gaurang 23:07
No, I haven’t Victoria, how are you? Okay,

Chris Bruno 23:11
we’ll leave it there, then if you haven’t seen anything from it, then I won’t ask you any questions. I’m just intrigued because I think this is another one of those moments. Yeah, I think that’s another one of those moments where we’re talking about bringing lots of people together and stuff. And I think that’s one of the interesting ones to watch for now. But again, like you said, not like decentraland That’s actually open and you can do stuff. It’s very much a closed beta at the moment or closed alpha depending on which way you want to talk about it. So that’s a different conversation. I think we’re going to wrap up really swept simply with one last question. And I think I already know because I think you actually answered it in part in in in amongst these other questions. But for you Gaurang you don’t see this as being one Metaverse to rule them all, do you,

Gaurang 23:48
Lord? Oh, no, not at all. Not at all. Yeah, so Alexis wants to do a meta was every 10 days. I’m saying we won’t. Maybe we won’t get there. But there will be dozens of metal verses out there. And that’s why we are creating the standard here sci fi 606 to create interoperability between those standards. There won’t be one metaverse. But we want you to have one item that can be used across those metals is as simple as that.

Chris Bruno 24:15
The effects point. Garang thank you so much for your time today. It’s been absolutely fantastic to talk about this. And again, we’re going to leave some links down below to the ERC 5606 So people can find out more. And again, if you are working on a project or anything else and you want to look at how you can use multiverse and FTS to help your project. Simply have a look in the show notes. You’ll find a way to get in contact with Gaurang directly and be able to talk to him in more detail. Greg, thank you so much, Alexis, thank you again for joining us and thank you. Thank you,

Alexis 24:43
Chris. See you guys. Bye now.

Gaurang 24:46
Thank you guys.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post Multiverse NFTs: Interoperable Digital Assets with Gaurang Torvekar appeared first on All About The Metaverse.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about what’s happening with the metaverse. From low visitor numbers, a lack of communications and a clear focus on AI for investment capital, it’s clear that the Metaverse is having a rough time.  

That said, this show isn’t about bashing any projects that are trying. We’ll also talk about: 

• We discuss the current Metaverse visitor numbers and land sales

• How we’re still to see the Killer App for NFT technology 

• What would make a top metaverse experience in our opinion 

The All About The Metaverse podcast is brought to you by Social INK, the Digital Marketing consultancy for Web3 projects. 

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Episode Full Transcript

Alexis 0:01
You have to be engaging and you people need to be there. Now, how’d you get people? They’re not doesn’t need to know that question, right? Well, as a matter of fact, the $36 billion question.

Chris Bruno 0:12
Welcome to all about the metaverse podcast, the show that keeps you up to date with the latest technology, trends and news about our future digital world. Alexis, thanks for joining me again. We’re here for episode two already. I’m very excited. How you doing today?

Alexis 0:28
Hi, Chris. Thank you for having me again. Very excited, actually. As I was saying just before, if the state of the metaverse keeps going as it’s going now, maybe we’re only going to be down to two very skinny episodes because not much is happening in Metaverse, and we are the one who was making stuff. So let’s make up some stuff and make up one more episode. Also, let’s try not to bash on, you know, whoever is there to try to do something of the lights of metta decentraland sandbox, to name a few will definitely to mention as well, two good ones, right, because there’s a lot of video games out there that are seemingly like Metaverse, which, which we’re also going to mention, but yeah, I think I think you’ll back up a piece or two with quite a few topics. Yeah, well,

Chris Bruno 1:17
no, I think what you said there, right? The Metaverse has definitely been getting a bit of a kicking in the last week, two weeks. There’s a lot of negative sides to the story. And some of it is understandable. I still think we are early. I still think the technology hasn’t caught up with the dreams. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. But there’s definitely been a huge negative kind of spin on the majority of the news. So I think we’ll jump in with the first topic today. What is going on at meta? It’s a crazy landscape at the moment. You know, Zuckerberg has been mocked tirelessly for how bad horizons look the first time when there was like a small Eiffel Tower in the background. The fact that basically everyone is legless for no reason we don’t understand why. And, and the fact that obviously he spent I think $36 billion to date on this idea of metaverse.

Alexis 2:09
Yeah. So I sort of need here. Yeah. So no, I was saying I think he’s getting bashed just because the number is so big, right? I mean, $36 billion. There probably quite a fair bit of money to spend in, in schools, infrastructure and health care, other than, you know, building like a leg less Metaverse that nobody wants, even though I think he was capitalising on the fact that, you know, working from home was going to be a thing. And eventually it is not as much thing as as well. We all hoped. Lucky for me, I am working from home from today. His his his home. And yeah, I think I think whatever, whatever he would do. Zuckerberg, he will be bashed, anyway. Right? So now my question is, though, the real question I have Chris, now you, let’s have a debate about this. You go on and spent $40 billion, okay? to rebrand a very successful company that has, you know, already, you know, basically cornered the whole entire web space, let’s say alright, websites and social social web space. Okay, you go on to the exercise with a vision, and you’re like, Okay, you know what’s all in metaverse? You must have a plan B, and a plan C? Okay. $4 billion. It’s a large chunk of money. This guy as ruthless as he is, as he was depicted on the on the social network or movie, whatever he is, I don’t know, but I don’t think he’s a dummy. Okay. So something must come about. Alright. He must have a plan. Something Sunday is going to happen at some point. So why where’s the black swan event? What do you think you think he’s banking on? You know, the metaverse is going to be like a fun loving the universe for people to play, and socialise? Or is it going to be like a workspace as is intended to be?

Chris Bruno 4:03
I think there’s a couple of things here. So one, Facebook has become so big, and it already was before they did the rebranding as a company, it then owned Instagram, it then owned WhatsApp, it was then building a hardware division with the quest and Oculus that they then took over. They do a lot of things. And they’re not just the Facebook platform anymore. So I think there was always this idea of kind of creating that parent branding that could then encompass everything, I think as well. What’s important, yes, they hit the meta thing. I think it works really well around the idea of metaverse. But meta is just like a prefix, right? It’s something that we throw in front of other words as well. So a meta verse then becomes what we talk about these amazing worlds that are a bit like ours, but better and in the digital realm. But I think as well, you know, if you look at it from a point of view is just a word. I think it could be more encompassing than that. It’s a great way for them to sort of have that top level could end up being meta versus could end up being met or plexes could end up being met or whatever they decide they want to do next, right.

Alexis 5:07
Yeah. Good boy. And so I don’t think I don’t think it’s quite quite as fair as everybody is thinking it is to bash them so hard. I think we should give them a bit of time as well, as you mentioned before, yes, it’s a bit early, yesterday, 6 billion, it’s quite a lot. But you know, what I’d like to give them benefit of the doubt. So far they, they’ve known for, you know, creating some very exciting products that people want, right? It’s not because I just say that tomorrow, Zuckerberg is gonna call me like, Oh, thank you very much. I’m gonna pursue the venture. Right. But um, but I think it’s, it’s easy to, to give them grief. Again, I believe that $6 million in large numbers should have been deployed for all the nice ESG initiatives. But that’s my thought they want to build something that is, you know, the next iteration of the internet, so let’s give him some credit there. You’ve got to remember

Chris Bruno 6:00
as well, love them, hate them. Anything else? That doesn’t matter. There’s two things, I think that are really important. One meta represents like 3 billion monthly active users across all platforms. This is crazy, right? It’s nearly half of the world. And in fact, if you take away really young children, and really old people that don’t use technology, they probably do have more than half of all right. So that’s the first thing to remember. I think the second thing is, well, whether they’ve got this play, right yet, the technology is still advancing, if Oculus wasn’t pushing hard to get out things like the quest to the, you know, I bought one it was $300. It’s a standalone unit, it, it works without having to be connected to anything other than Wi Fi doesn’t need cables, they didn’t need an expensive PC. So it’s huge. Yeah, it’s very cool. But you imagine if you would talk to me as a kid, 10 years ago, or so 10 years ago, that’s a lie 30 years ago, and told me I was going to one day own one of them, right, I would have been like that, oh my god, that would be mind blowing. So the fact that we’re getting there, if companies like this, and there’s lots of others, there’s hive, there’s valve, there’s a few others that are doing that a crowd trying to create kit like this. So I think that’s the key thing. And then the last piece is as well. Facebook is a very, very, very big, or meta now, very, very big company that is publicly traded. Every time somebody creates this Fudd as we call it in the web three industry. But as soon as they start putting out this fear and uncertainty and doubt around the brand, the share prices collapse. Now, if you look back over the last year for Facebook, this massive thing of oh my god, Zuckerberg lost his mind. Oh, my God, like, you know, he spent so much money. Oh, my God, they’re gonna have to cut staff. Every big tech company has cut staff. Yeah, every big company has cut staff. But if you look at where the share price was, and I can tell you this almost like not to the date, but at least in terms of values, the share price has more than doubled since it hit its lowest lows last year. Yeah. And I know this because when I saw that people that suddenly valued Facebook as a group meta as a company as a group, at less than $350 million. You think sorry, $350 billion. You think to yourself, This is insanity? You have more than half of the world using their platforms every single month. How are you going to tell me that that is not worth more than that?

Alexis 8:20
Well, of course, I agreed. I agreed that was definitely a buy. I agree with you. That definitely. Now, what’s quite interesting here is to look at a little bit of okay, meta has that many users every day. But not I mean, I’m I’m admit the user Okay. I’ve never I’ve never peered into their met others. I didn’t even try. There’s an

Chris Bruno 8:45
there’s an issue. So yeah, it was an issue. I think why

Alexis 8:49
exactly. So what happened there you see it, he should have ended, they should have appealed to me, they should appeal to me so very well, that this transition as soon as I log in Facebook, Instagram and whatnot, I should have you know, I’m sure I’m gonna Hey, would you like to go in? You know, would you do what I do want to dive in? And at no moment that was addressed? Okay. And I and nothing, that was the point of failure. Now. That’s a good segue. I believe in what we wanted to discuss next as well. There’s this lack of communication from all these metal verses. I mean, you building cool shirts. Well speak about it. Let people know about this. I mean, meta is a perfect example where they already have a fan base available ready? I mean, they’re already into the metaverse like they’re they click that bloody button and bring me there. Right. And that didn’t happen.

Chris Bruno 9:39
I think there’s two things that there’s two things here are two really interesting that you’ve brought up. And again, this is where you’re right meta has really focused their play on the hardware element of the metaverse. So if you don’t have one of their headsets, you’re not going into it. And I think there’s something that they they see as a long term play when they get that right And when it’s a seamless transition that when you put that on, it feels like you’re in the real world, but you’re not, that’s going to be a game changer that is just going to be off the charts. You know, that’s when we start thinking ready, player one, etc. But the key problem is the reason I think they haven’t let anybody access it with their mobile phone or through a browser is because then you get to the same position and the problem that we’re currently having with things like decentraland, where you can access it very quickly. But what’s actually happening is, a lot of people aren’t accessing it. And again, our view for this show is all about not bashing people. So how do you get more people to actually come into it? No, not real bashing people, but they don’t communicate? Yeah. And these things don’t become big enough of a story. Yeah.

Alexis 10:43
Talk about talk about that the Fashion Week that happened in in Central Hall again, this is something we should have seen year to load on left, right and centre. I mean, brands that I like, okay, there are some brands that are like that participated. But I haven’t heard I haven’t seen a message nothing. And I am in the metaverse and sort of, sort of, of industry, let’s say, and I didn’t care so much about it. So there was definitely a lack of communication. I believe the numbers that came out of the attendance of this Fashion Week, and not great to be honest. Yeah, fashion

Chris Bruno 11:16
week shows, I think, I think was the block that reported. I’m checking the numbers as well, to make sure I don’t get this wrong. I think they reported around 26,000 people attending the various events online. And that’s down like 76% from last year. Yeah. Now, the hype as as part of this as well, which I think is a big piece of the problem as well. The hype has died down. There’s less people talking about this in general. And the conversations now are more, like we talked about at the beginning of the episode. They’re very much more focused on the negatives. That’s the Oh, but there’s not a lot of people. Oh, well, there’s not a lot of this. There’s not a lot of that. And I think that’s one of the key problems where we’re not talking about Well hang on a second, there are people trying to do cool shit. And this is a really important issue. How do we get more people talking about the fact that yeah, okay, fine. It might be down 76%. But actually, how many of those brands really pushed to make that kind of announcement? How many people talked about it, but what happened? What was happening? And how much of that stays away from the web three Metaverse focus press and actually getting into the real line where right now everybody’s talking about chat GPT AI and Elon Musk’s latest call for everyone to hope progress on AI until we understand how it works better. It’s that’s what the world is talking about. That’s where money is flowing currently. And that means that the metaverse has been kind of left high and dry. Yeah, we put loads of money and we believed in it for a short while. And then now the attention span has gone. We’re not talking about it in the same way. And what happens as a result of that is less happening. I don’t know it seems that way a little bit.

Alexis 12:53
Yeah, there’s something there’s something very, very true what you say and I think I’ve stopped before and if you think if you think I’m maybe you know diverging in a bit or, or going to separate of a way, but I think the fact that Metaverse is connected so much to NF Ts and crypto that was Shinran. Back to the city. So for example, I think NFT is a phenomenal technology. Again, there’s a cornerstone building block of metal versus Okay, look at doing NFT NFT activity. So start to nothing again, but the and you know brands they want to play the game of let’s go and Metaverse but why don’t you play the game of NF TS or because that’s attached to you know, some shady, you know, sort of blockchain crypto narrative that they don’t want to partake? And that’s so wrong. Because it seems that blockchain is exactly built, you know, to transact assets on the metaverse, it couldn’t be any better, as much as the credit card would never been built to, you know, purchase stuff on the web, and as a reason why there’s so much fraud. Now you have finally a system that it’s perfectly suited, you know, to transact goods and acids on that digital realm. But they don’t want to connect. And on top of that, you know, this judge BTi distraction, but

Chris Bruno 14:25
I think it’s really correct. Like you’re completely right, right now we’ve got NF TS as a technology. You and I have spoken about this at length offline, but we know how we feel about this. And I think we’ve got blockchain, crypto MFTs web three, everything is thrown into the same pot and it’s very much not the case. But I think even more importantly, right now, Blockchain NFCs, etc. represent to me that shift of like in 2007 when Steve Jobs pulled the iPhone out of his pocket, and everyone went wow, that’s super cool, but no one had a clue how to use it properly. And it took years before we started to see the advent of companies and the killer apps that came on it afterwards, that really changed the way we do everything. Without that technological advancement without having that ease and access. And without giving people those frameworks, we wouldn’t have stuff like Uber, Airbnb, etc. Because Apple weren’t the first people to create a touchscreen phone. They were the first person first company, sorry, to give you an environment where it was worth investing and worth getting involved in. So I think the blockchain and the NFT once that’s used for a specific particular use case, rather than just making money, or rather than people trying to get funds for a project before it’s even started, etc. Like the rest of the real world works, right? We don’t, you know, you talk to people and say, Can I have a load of money? I’m thinking of doing something cool later on in two years time. But once you can actually look at it as a technology and you say, well hang on a second. Why do I own my car? Do I own my car? Because it’s parked outside my house? Do I own my car? Because I have the keys to the car? Or do I own the car? Because actually, I have a registration document that’s issued by government that tells me that I own and now what we’re talking about is your ownership that digital ownership representation. And what that can be used for in NF TS is mind boggling in the future, including the metaverse, I agree with you, but I think we have to caution that away from people talking about it as a thing, NF TS because Oh, NF T’s are dead, and actually going Oh, yes. Cool. Actually, I bought this really cool thing in this Metaverse platform like they do spend millions and millions of dollars every month on skins for fortnight. There’s a whole thing going on at the moment in CSGO, where people are trying to get rare loot, and they’re selling it on for hundreds of dollars. It’s a digital asset. That means nothing. But there has no provenance and has no tracking record or anything else. We’re just happy to let somebody else deal with it. So I think that’s a huge game changer as well, when we get that right. And when we can differentiate away from the bad news and the bad press.

Alexis 16:57
Yeah, we’ll be quite interesting to engage as well, our audience to see if they come up with the awesome killer apps that you’d like to see happening on the on the on the metaverse as well. Because I mean, I cannot think of any myself right now. Because I’m so engrossed into, you know, Blockchain tokens, you know, token sale and stuff like that, because I think that technology is so awesome in that in that in that regard, right, but it will be quite interesting to hear it from our audience to see what is it they think would be that killer app of the metaverse right. Then let’s see, let’s see will be quite interesting.

Chris Bruno 17:34
What to jump on from that. So what are those killer apps and everything else? So let’s have a chat about done again, I’m interested in tearing this from your point of view. How should we consider a top Metaverse and I mean, what makes a top Metaverse a top metaverse? What makes a Metaverse even significant or important or successful? Like what for you makes a good digital environment that we can call a metaverse.

Alexis 17:56
Okay. It’s a bit of a philosophical question here. Okay. So I’m going to I’m going to answer it with with what I know of the British language, okay? Now, again, when you when you speak about Metaverse just speak about you know, an augmented, you know, experience that, okay, for in that particular case is like a digital augmented experience. Okay. If I want to augment that digital experience, I would like to experience something that it’s nothing like the real world. I mean, nothing is better than the real world, right? I mean, like, sex or paragliding, or scuba diving or I mean, whatever. This is awesome experiences. Okay. But if I ought to then jump into a Metaverse and consider this as what makes it like the best experience, I want it to be fun to me. If it’s no fun, what’s my incentive? What is it and I need, I don’t need to earn anything from it. I need to have, you know, my, my adrenaline kick, I need to have, you know, my serotonin being tickled I need to it needs to be fun. You need to be engaging in so something has to happen, right? And even more. So what I would consider being an outstanding Metaverse, we had chat about this. Imagine if tomorrow I go like, Okay, I want to create an instantaneous Metaverse, that’s going to last just you know, for an hour or so. Like, while we have this conversation, you know, I prologue in my my NFT is my AI my stuff and then like shake your shake, shake and move for one hour. We are in these like super fun. You know feagan loading Las Vegas type of metaverse. Like for one hour, we having a blast. Like that would be a fun experience. So I would like it to be fun. Okay, that’s what I think would be fun for me. Now, what would make it successful? Again, successful I think success from from comes from mass adoption, right? You need to have people need to have people that partake that socialise that you know, that that can get something out of out of that experience, right? I’m making a new friend, you know, getting a piece of him formation. But if you want to do something for business, you know, you could go attend an event or a token sale of a project that’s going to be launched in two years, as you mentioned before, it has to it has to be engaging, and people need to be there. Now, how do you get people there? Nods does the billion dollar question right? Or, as a matter of fact, the 40 $36 billion question

Chris Bruno 20:21
as definitely a $36 billion question that Mark Zuckerberg and his team have been trying to figure out?

Alexis 20:26
Well, you you, are you You asked me and to me, what would make me successful is, I think if we were to aim to make it fun, and as you see, the meta verses that are fun, are those that again, to those of those games,

Chris Bruno 20:39
I agree with you, I think it’s there’s a huge problem at the moment as well of trying to make this be all and end all of everything. And I don’t think it works. I think this ends up being built niche, small communities, and you build that slowly but surely. But I also think that’s the same case for gaming in general, gaming used to have this kind of almost negative inclination to it, where if you spoke to someone who was a professional, they wouldn’t tell you oh, I’m also a gamer like at the weekends, I love to boot up the Xbox and play whatever it is. And I think that’s changing. Now more and more you can see it, I’m having conversations with people that are successful running SAS businesses working in finance, in the city, whatever it might be. And these people will say to you like, yeah, actually, I love like playing Xbox, I love playing this, I play that. And I think that’s a really big key piece to this puzzle that, whether we like to admit it or not, it’s going to start with those gaming communities. If you can go somewhere, do something. And it’s fun, enjoyable. And like you say, there’s a whole sort of philosophical side of this about psychological ways of hitting gamers. So like you mentioned your serotonin and everything else. But you know, getting making sure people get hooked on those experiences, you need

Alexis 21:46
to have a bit of escapism. Okay, that’s, that’s I think the bottom line to escapism needs to be read. There.

Chris Bruno 21:53
Okay. And in fact, if you’ve ever read, like, ready, player me, I rarely play one sorry, or if you’ve watched the film, the books much better, by the way. But yeah, if you’ve ever read it, and you’ve watched the film, you see it as well. It’s straight away. That’s what the kid says, like, the real world is just not nice anymore. It’s filled with war, famine, poverty.

Alexis 22:10
Sounds about sounds about right, about the world we live in.

Chris Bruno 22:14
So you can imagine why then everyone wants to put on this headset and be in an environment that, like I said, right, it’s an augmented side of things. It’s fun, it’s nice. It’s where you socialise, it’s where you meet your friends is where you meet people as well. So all of these things, I think, make a big difference. And I think again, that’s going to be part of it. But one of the key things I did look at and I did bring together some numbers for this as well, because I was trying to figure out how do we mark at success. So right now, if you do a Google search for Metaverse, you look at news, it basically is all negative. It’s very sad place to be reading. I try not to spend too much time when I read

Alexis 22:49
the third world. The same goes for the world. If you like Google, any news of the world is like quite a sad place to live.

Chris Bruno 22:56
It used to be more fun like a couple of years ago when it came to NF T’s and Metaverse is but so one of the key things I did look at here, so I was looking at like eight coin mana sands. So decentraland and sandboxes tokens as well. And I’m realising that these guys still have a market cap of like a coin I think is at 1.5 billion plus the Mana is at like 1.1 billion for decentraland. And sandbox, the same token I think is at about 950 million in terms of market cap. And these numbers are huge. Like let’s be completely clear here for tiny projects that you know, all you’re reading about is there’s no users, there’s not enough people. Metaverse Fashion Week was down, like these companies and these token projects have not gone completely under. And I thought I would have a look as well at the land prices. So obviously, each of these projects have the ability to buy land and and I realise again, like these haven’t completely lost their value, right? This isn’t like a rug pool where, you know, there’s no point in buying, therefore they’re not worth anything. But I was looking at it other deed, I think the floor price was about $2,000 When I looked just before we started recording decentraland was about $1,300 for a piece of land for the cheapest sandbox about $900. So these are still values, I think that are representative of quite premium product at this stage still like you and I wouldn’t pay $900 for a video game. But people are obviously still paying these sorts of numbers and there is still a tiny bit of volume. Not a huge amount like before, but what do you what do you think of that?

Alexis 24:29
Well, exactly. I think here we are. We’re piggybacking on that old notion of ownership. Okay, because obviously, you know, meta versus land land rights, but rather than charging money for a piece of land, what if you were to be charging money for an experience? Right? For for fulfilling, right for them? That could be quite interesting actually. Because again, Owning a piece of land on the meta verse, okay? Very well, but that’s quite an old notion of ownership. Okay, because we we know that owning upon then then it’s valuable because it will appreciate in time and I can do stuff in there. I can make a commercial whatsoever, but as an old mentality, can we really apply the exact same mentality to the metaverse? I think the metaverse should actually be a place where you get experiences. If I would be able to have a mind blowing experience by I don’t know taking mushrooms smoking a joint ticket taking opium or whatever. And what I what are you asking? Let’s talk about ayahuasca imagine a decalcify my pineal gland and all of a sudden I’m like, you know, go connect it to the you know, like 11 dimension. Bloody hell, I’ll be $100,000 for that. Every time.

Chris Bruno 25:52
People do pay that kind of money to go and have that kind of an experience in real life. It’s for

Alexis 25:57
sure for sure. Yep. No. And as I’ve had this experience, way better than anything that they offered metaverse. So the metaverse is really begins you really piggybacking on a very old idea of ownership that we are familiar with in this real world. They should maybe focus on you know, like, why don’t we charge people you know, for outstanding experience? You know, that I think that would be that would be my, my quiche. I would spend money for nothing. Everybody would spend money for experiences. And as my vote I don’t own any land on any Metaverse because I I want the metaverse to not be what the real world is. I want it to be different. I want to be something else. I don’t want the metaverse to be governed by the same, you know, ancient ideas and purpose as this real world. Otherwise, I keep living here. I’m fine here, you know, but if I want to go to the metaverse, I want it to be fun. I want to be exciting. And I want to be outstanding experiences. And not just good. I get all you know flex around that I bought a piece of land on the metaverse. I don’t know, call me a hater, but I don’t think anybody would give a fuck really,

Chris Bruno 27:02
I think they did at the beginning. If you got into some of those projects at the very beginning, you were very happy. And I know there’s lots of people that have made a lot of money flipping pieces of land, etc.

Alexis 27:11
Because they made a lot of money that they want to go do Ayahuasca right

Chris Bruno 27:18
now start with a shaman somewhere in Navajo County. listen to lectures, this has been great. I think we’ve covered a couple of things that were really good and good conversations and a lot to think about. And I think what you’ve said there, if you’ve listened to this episode, and if you’ve got any thoughts on what you think a killer use case or a killer app would be for the metaverse and for that idea of a digital world. Yeah, let us know. Please let us know because we’re Russia interested in this. We want to see how many people have got different plans and ideas and thoughts, and also to see whether or not this tracks right. Like Alexa said at the beginning. This will either be our last ever episode. Or the story for the metaverse is only just beginning and I’m hoping it’s only just beginning.

Alexis 27:57
Excellent. All right, Chris. Well, thank you very much for having me again. Let’s well let’s continue. i It’s a lot of fun. And I’m loving this. I can’t wait for next week. We should have we should we should have someone on the on the podcast.

Chris Bruno 28:11
I’ve got someone I’m not going to say who yet but I’ve got someone who I’m hoping they’re going to come on board and we’ll have a guest for our third episode. But anyway for now. Thank you so much for listening everybody. If you have enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button down below. Listening to this on your favourite podcast episode again. Thank you so much for listening. We’ll see you again next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post What’s Happening With The Metaverse Right Now appeared first on All About The Metaverse.

What a few weeks we’ve had in the Metaverse world. So much happening, and so much to dig into. Let’s not waste any time.

In today’s episode we’re covering three stories in particular: 

• Otherside’s Second Trip happened very recently 

• Decentraland hosted the second annual Metaverse Fashion Week 

• and Fortnite released their Unreal Editor to their community 

The All About The Metaverse podcast is brought to you by Social INK, the Digital Marketing consultancy for Web3 projects. 

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Episode 1 Transcript

Alexis 0:01
blockchain Metaverse AI, all these points are going to converge. They’re going to come and help society tremendously. And those should be technology that enhance our daily lives.

Chris Bruno 0:12
Welcome to all about the metaverse podcast, the show that keeps you up to date with the latest technology, trends, and news about our future digital world. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the very first episode of the all about the metaverse podcast. And we’re really excited about this. I’m Chris Bruno, I am your co host, and today I am joined by my co host, Alexis Alexis Jonna. Say hello to everyone.

Alexis 0:34
Everybody. Nice. Nice to be here. And nice to be with you, Chris. We already had the chance to do something together. So this is obviously very exciting. And it’s been a couple of weeks that we’re discussing what we wanted to do where we want to bring this podcast. So of course, this is the very first episode. So there’s going to be quite a lot to cover. We’re not going to cover everything today. But a couple of interesting things have happened in the last two weeks, I would say. So. I think it’s a good time for us to start that podcast and discuss those topics. Chris, maybe you want to give us a bit of a heads up of what’s gonna be on topic today. Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Bruno 1:11
So obviously, I think there’s probably three big things that have happened in the last two weeks. And for me, it’s the other side, they took their second trip, which was a huge thing. A lot of a lot of movement around that on Twitter, for example. But we also had Metaverse Fashion Week. So that’s the second year now that they’ve done that. And again, I think it’s one of the key moments. Metaverse wise that’s actually recurring now, so we have to pay attention to that. And then the final thing I think we’ll discuss today will be fortnight’s announcement. And I’m gonna I’ve got to say this. I think fortnight’s recent announcement is absolutely huge. Yeah, it’s going to be something that we’re going to have to look into. But again, so what are your thoughts about the other side’s second trip? Have you had a chance to see any of their footage and stuff from that? Yeah,

Alexis 1:56
so I saw it was a little bit of a cacophony was was quite interesting. And everybody was seem to be so happy to be a busy body jumping through portals and like, avoiding the alien toads and stuff like that. But the takeaway from this is that you see that finally, you have a community that’s so happy to be involved and doing stuff. And, and I think also, the graphic was, were quite nice. I mean, it’s not that, you know, Playstation or, or, you know, big, big gaming companies. So AAA games sort of graphics, but it was nice, because I would have liked to be part of it just for the sake of saying, Hey, I was there. But wherever, whoever took the footage, kudos for that. I think they’re going places at least. Okay, it was nice to see so many people participate at the same time. Now, let’s see if they managed to get that momentum. This is a good name is a good brand. Okay, they have a lot of followers. So I wish them kind of success if they continue doing stuff like that, um, I actually consider, you know, being part of that. Because definitely, he felt good to, even as a watcher, even as our own luchar was, he felt good to look at all these people. You know, I go like, yeah, we’re part of something. And something was going on was nice.

Chris Bruno 3:14
There was a huge amount of positive energy around that event. And you’re right, it’s not, we are so far away still from the metaverse as has been pictured, whether it be the novel Snow Crash, whether it be the film Ready Player One, like it doesn’t matter, we are so far away from that, you know, you can go in and do everything you want, in anything you want. And those initial experiences do need to be very specific, it needs to be look, you can come in here and do X, whatever X may be. And even though x isn’t great, like you said, it’s that first step and seeing that energy, I think is incredible. I also think it was a huge thing. So I I’ve actually done a bit of work and looked into this, but the company behind it are building some technology stacks that are very, very interesting. Because basically what they’re allowing is the first time that you can put 456 7000 people and connections in the same portal. And this is something that usually doesn’t happen, right? When you look at. It’s huge. It’s huge. Like if you think about a game like fortnight, it’s 100 people Battle Royale, whatever it might be, but you’re never taking on board 1000s of people. So I think that there’s a, like the progression graph will be incredible as to how they can actually scale that and keep scaling. But I think right now it’s one of the only people that are trying to find that next step of how do you bring 1000 10,000 100,000 people into one location? Yeah, and I think that’s huge.

Alexis 4:36
1000 words a month, a comedian, what’s done is gonna be a lot of people.

Chris Bruno 4:40
Absolutely. But how do you get those people interacting together? Well,

Alexis 4:43
you know, something that was fairly dressed as a comparison, you think about this, like, how was it the experience of the of web one, I mean, the internet when we really started today, so we would have been this was this is where they are at, right? I mean, the metaverse today is at the stage of disease. Add a verse point, zero 0.1. So we don’t even like better verse 1.0 is 0.1. So I think I think what he’s done was very cool. Watch this space, I would say they’re doing quite well, they are very well funded as well. So he would be quite a disappointment if they were to do some, you know, very boring stuff moving forward. So definitely to, to look forward the next trip. And there’s going to be a lot of new features and new adds on. Let’s see, let’s see, I’m definitely going to be a struggle my seat and looking what we should be doing. I

Chris Bruno 5:35
couldn’t agree with you more.

Alexis 5:37
Yeah, on that very note, what seems to be quite interesting is like, while we see so many big brands, sort of, you know, giving up on their Metaverse ambitions. You have the guys that really fervent believers that this is going to places and and you have a public which is which also you also wants it right. So they do want this. And I think whoever takes the first steps, those are the ones are going to be reaping the rewards. And I think it’s such a pity that all these big brands, they just sort of dropped the whole Metaverse tutor drain.

Chris Bruno 6:14
Well, there was a very quick shifts in the last sort of six months, nine months, I’d say there was a real focus and a real investment frenzy in Metaverse, companies, right? Anyone that said that we were building a Metaverse, there was just money coming into them. And people were very excited. That shifted very quickly. And I think the AI route took over. And suddenly with chat, GBT coming out, etc. Any startup that said, we’re building something with AI, they got the money thrown at them. And I think even that’s now kind of getting reiterated on again. So once, as always, I guess the money flows where the hype is to a certain extent. But I do think this is a huge thing. Like you said, we’re super early stages. There’s loads of companies that have literally just gone well, you know what this doesn’t look like it’s going to take off anytime soon. And I think that’s probably annoyed by things like meta, having spent billions but actually, no one’s sitting there working in VR all day every day, are they? So I think this is going to be one of those things where we’re going to have to wait and see how it goes. I do agree with you. Neither away No, absolutely not. And we like this stuff.

Alexis 7:13
So things something I do wonder, though, do you recommend that word of Metaverse as being used in abuse and now falling out of grace and love because of that, you know, I mean, meta, it’s dumping the metaverse. I mean, are we going to use the word metaverse? And are there better? Better definition? There are words that can come and replace that. That domek culture. Okay, I think the metaverse

Chris Bruno 7:41
became this really cool keyword phrase term. And I think everyone jumped on that bandwagon. The reality is we are so far away from having technology, even the infrastructure, right, like our internet connections, I’m still waiting to have access to fibre broadband, I still don’t have it, like they have to come and rip up my street to give me so we’re just we’re not there yet to this idea of having hundreds of millions of people all living in this virtual world, etc. But it’s clearly to me anyway, it’s clearly obvious that there is a demand for this. And the reason I say that is if you look at gaming communities, people that are together, if you look at the economies that have been created around things like Roblox, again, we’re going to talk a little bit now, later on about fortnight, all of these different platforms have created huge amassed groups of people. And I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s a subclass, or it’s a smaller group of people, because they’re just the gamers. I think, as that technology, and as those that access to that technology becomes easier. People will do more like watching live concerts where they will go into VR, if it means that they can do something that they’re interested in. I just think we’re not there yet. Right. So it might take a while for there to be a fishing environment as well as a knitting environment as well as a fashion environment as well as a gaming environment as well as a Call of Duty kill each other with guns whilst running around like crazy people environment, you need all of these different environments to bring all of these groups, but we’re just so far away from that, I think right now, and whether people like to admit it as well, gaming technology also cost money. Not everybody has 550 quid to spend on a PlayStation five. Not everybody has another 70 pounds or whatever it is to buy yet another game for their new console that they’ve just bought. So all of these things also have a knock on effect, but I think it takes a long time before everybody is accessing everything everywhere. Like it’s just it’s a long way down the line.

Alexis 9:37
There’s a very good point that you’re making is actually that might actually be the one thing that will make people come into the metaverse because it will become more affordable. Going into the metaverse and to participate into you know, like a, like a altered reality sort of gamey sort of world without the heavy cost attached to it.

Chris Bruno 9:58
100% Never forget, right when you talked about it earlier joining the internet or going back to the early days of the internet, the internet cost of flipping fortune, like you had a dial up modem that not only blocked your mobile, your phone number, we don’t

Alexis 10:13
have a computer. The lucky ones that are computer. Now we were what was the mobile phone? Right? I mean, I mean, literally everybody has a mobile phone. But

Chris Bruno 10:24
think back to the days when you had that computer and you had that modem, you also paid for access to the internet per minute. It was literally like a phone call being created. So you were just generating these costs nowadays, you know, we have mobile phones that come with unlimited minutes, unlimited data, unlimited text, unlimited, like none of that existed. So all of these things again, like that technology, the access to technology and the cost of that technology as it comes down. Right now, nobody wants to spend 1000 bucks on a VR headset, unless they’re a gamer who loves VR, and that’s okay. But again, the same thing happened all those years ago, we’re gonna come

Alexis 11:01
to that where as the hardware is gonna become more and more affordable, more and more, you know, friendly to wear and use, because of course right now, I mean, it’s it’s unbelievably bulky. And as you say, not everybody wants to be spending hours into, you know, VR headsets. Okay, so Well, now, I don’t know how the decentraland Fashion Week took place on the set, because I didn’t I didn’t Well, I don’t have one. But I’m sure that would have been quite swanky. I mean, like, like that would feel very immersed, right? Being that Fashion Week. I mean, I’ve been I’ve been to a fashion week before you know, in in in Paris, where, you know, you are really into that incredible world where you arrive at that fashion show, you have that runway, the decoration is so amazing. You feel like you are so immersed into something very unique, very special. Now, how is this fashion week without the VR said how did the experience feel through you know, having just like a, like a computer screen? would have been fun? Not fun? I don’t know. I think I think from that particular case, I would have rather have you don’t like that via said and feel like whoa, I’m so immersed. I’m so into it.

Chris Bruno 12:12
I think that’s one of the big challenges right nowadays. And it still is so Metaverse Fashion Week, this is the second year they’ve done it all took place at the end of March 2023. Look at they’re trying their best to make this. And I think it is the only event as far as I’m aware that brings such big names together. It’s now happening on a yearly basis. And it looks like people are continuing to turn up for this. But again, decentraland is browser based for the majority of the users or the people that are there, like you say it’s not necessarily that immersive kind of content. But again, I’m trying to look at this as being a positive still for the space. Because look, we’re so early, like you said, and even if you they gave you the option to access in VR, you don’t have the the equipment necessarily to be able to actually do it. And I think this is something that’s really interesting. So one of the CO hosts this year wasn’t just decentraland, there were events in other platforms with spatial and spatial, for example, do allow people with, for example, an Oculus to an Oculus two, which will cost you about 300 bucks, roughly, I think. And if you’ve got an Oculus, two, you can actually access spatial environments that have been built. And you can access those through VR. And that’s a huge piece, right? It’s already like that first kind of step towards it. But the key thing I think here, there’s always going to be an issue at this stage. You’re not able to just walk around different environments, you’ve got to pick and choose where you’re going, you need to log into that platform, you need to get authenticated for that platform. If you then want to go into VR, but jump out of decentraland and then go over to specialty

Alexis 13:48
as seamless. Yeah, there’s still a CMS. That’s right. But that’s coming as well. Did you enter you did you did you attended Did you? Did you look at it.

Chris Bruno 13:54
I went to a cup not whilst it was happening. I’m not gonna lie. It’s something that I’m less probably less interested in fashion night for me. And I think very similar for you. Black t shirt is fashionable. So I don’t necessarily

Alexis 14:08
know this is become trend. No longer that two days ago, we were sitting with my wife, just having like a nice fresh coconut. And all of a sudden, like these guys wear a black T shirt. These guys wear a black T shirt. Now everybody’s like the word black T shirt. I’m like, Okay, I need to I need to get you’re wearing a black T shirt. I need to get I need to get on another fashion sense here. And actually this is this is what I’m thinking. This is what I’m thinking without. You know, whilst brands should be saying hey, stop spending money every season to buy our new fashion. They are they’re banking on okay, we’re all wearing black T shirts or white t shirts and then with our you know, augmented reality glasses or goggles, you know we can we can over impose fashion you know for the other day Ball. I think this is what they’re banking on. Right? So I think all the money that is being poured into decentraland and having discipline Oh, Fashion Week is to try out that tech where you know, these NF T’s will be your wearables where you know, with my goggles, I will be able to change your T shirt i Okay, wonderful Hawaiian shirt in motion. So we’re having like actual waves inside, right? I mean, this is, this is what is. And I don’t see this as being a bad thing. Because of course, we always want to tell the fashion companies, hey, you know what? You’re really pushing in the time where I should be all ESG. And you know what, like, you know, nature conscious, why are you pushing people to spend more money on fashion that becomes unfashionable. Now, we could all very well do just like black T shirt, white t shirt, you know, just change your fashion. And I think that’s maybe the experiment that’s, that’s being played here. Really? What is one of the play?

Chris Bruno 15:59
I mean, the reality of it is none of us know where this plays out, right? If the metaverse becomes this thing that everyone is spending all day, every day, and if you’re working in there, and if you’re playing in there, and if you’re meeting your friends in there, whatever it might be, that digital wearables change a lot, right? And you’ve said it there as well. If you then go into sort of AR and things like that, can you influence how other people see you one thing another, maybe that’d be a great way of this happening as well. I think all of this, though, brings us back to the key point here, which is again, as long as we have companies that are willing to invest the money and to do things differently. And again, I’m not saying that we’re all going to, you know, live in nor Gucci T shirts instead of a normal t shirt or anything like that, in this decentralised and digital world. But the idea being that at least they’re trying to play with the technology that is available. They’re showing what is possible. And you can see it more and more with fortnight collaborations Roblox collaborations, companies, big brands doing things in digital worlds, because believe it or not, whether people like it or not, it doesn’t matter. And again, if you’re one of those people that doesn’t game, you automatically look at gamers and think, right as a tiny subset. And one thing that you’re talking about hundreds of millions of people, hundreds of millions of people basically that are happy to jump on is where they meet their friends, it’s where they socialise is where they want to escape from reality. And that’s a huge part of what this actually is. And I think that’s something that’s going to keep growing. It’s something that more and more people are getting into the next generations, it’s natural for them. And I think those kinds of connections to your brands that you like, to being able to show who you are, who your personality is, if I’m interested in fashion, I want to show that and you’ve got to be able to show that right that personalised. This is who I am.

Alexis 17:43
Well, you know, what, what, what I like and what I hope as well, it starts all the stick will finally come in handy as an enhancer of our daily lives. Like Like literally this should be an answer is of course it’s going to be abused. Yes, of course. It’s going to be people that will be I mean, did you see this guy that he strapped on his is VR goggle and he’s living breathing in the metaverse and you see that this guy, this guy’s this really, really plugged into the matrix. And he hasn’t, I mean, the guy is going to the pooper with his VR glasses on some people go to two extremes. But again, this is I don’t think that technology is made for that, right? It’s made just to to enhance our daily lives. And since the since now, we’re going to have that incredible advent of singularity where AI is going to really, you know, come to think again, it’s good to have a you know, like blockchain, Metaverse, you know, AI, all these points are going to converge, they’re going to come and help society tremendously. And those should be technology that enhance our daily lives, really, and I shall really hope that you know, whether it’s like AR VR or mixed realities, yeah, this is this is you know, to to, for us to have, you know, more enjoyable, more enjoyable life. It’s my fault. I don’t like the colour of my walls here. I would like to change it doesn’t

Unknown Speaker 18:59
change. Now.

Chris Bruno 19:04
It’d be a lot quicker, cheaper, easier. It was the

Alexis 19:06
scene in that movie. From the virtual ski sisters. Now the name escapes Cloud Atlas, right so a cloud that has I don’t know if you watch a movie but basically this guy goes into Korea 2200 or something and then when he enters his apartment, he changes dramatically all the decoration on his flat and I think that the flood itself is is big and shitty, but when he puts on that, that little that that digital skin over it, so clearly that like minimalist Japanese superset super cool we’re gonna get there wanting to not we’re gonna get there. This is if he’s if it’s been imagine it means that we can project ourselves into doing stuff like that. Okay, so no doubt that we’re going to you know, try it first on our clothes and then eventually on our on our boats. So, so yeah, With effort on on the central to, you know, continuing, burning the flame of creativity and interest and rallying some brands, you know, even though it says for profit or whatever, it doesn’t matter, you know, he gets the attention, even on a very artistic way I like it. And I would like them to continue pursuing this because as they’re doing that they are equally creating interest in jobs because there are people behind it. Okay. There are industries that are being created on the side of it. Right. And this is this the truth? You know, new technologies are taking away old jobs, we’re creating new better ones. Right. New opportunities. Yes, I tried to try. So I mean, I’m all for it. I think, I think next year, I might, again, I might be late in the game, I might be late in the in the other side game, I will be late on the on the on the Fashion Week game, but never too late. At least I’m doing a podcast. It’s

Chris Bruno 20:55
still early, it’s still early. Remember Alexus. Everyone says it’s still early? Well, it’s talking about that and talking about these new opportunities in particular, I think that probably brings us on to the third topic that we wanted to discuss, which is fortnight’s huge announcement, that they have opened up their Unreal Engine to their community. And they have said community, go nuts, build whatever you want, create new experiences for other players. And best of all, if other people start paying you for that, also paying us for that we’ll share 40% of those revenues with the creators of the experiences. And to me this is, look, it’s not decentralisation by any means. However, it’s an amazing first step. And yeah, people are going to probably scream at us in the comments. If anyone’s watched and listen to this piece all the way through, they’re going to basically say you have a 40% of revenues, that means they keep 60% of revenue doesn’t matter. They currently keep 100% of revenues, it’s all their community. This is huge. So what are your thoughts on this?

Alexis 21:55
When you think about rewarding the content creators, this is something that is now a staple of the digital digital presence, let’s say Okay, so you are a content creator, you should be rewarded for your work. Okay. And I think when such a big company is doing it, they have a bunch of I mean, that hundreds of millions of followers on

Speaker 3 22:20
let’s not forget that will

Alexis 22:24
that will generate huge numbers. And I believe that basically, they’ve become better than what YouTube will ever be. Because tomorrow that becomes the you the the YouTube of the metaverse, right. And my, my thoughts, that’s, well, I’ve got to be mixed feeling about this. Because then you you need to regulate this in terms of our content, the days and who you address it to, you know, the dots. I’m sure there’s some, you know, technicalities that will come into the fall that I am actually no specialists on how you implement those. But to me, as long as you can keep people safe and protected from you know, child pornography, and you know, bullying, cyber bullying, and whatnot. I’m all for it. Man. Listen, people become millionaire having content on YouTube. Okay, now people can become millionaire below building content or meta versus Let’s go. Let’s go lead imagination.

Chris Bruno 23:26
You just said it there as well. You’re saying about becoming like a millionaire on YouTube. I think it’s actually Mr. Beast, who’s now become a billionaire, because of the Empire he’s built from YouTube. And again, just to go back to the numbers, by the way, so fortnight I’m just looking at some average monthly numbers for q4 Last year, because those are the ones that have come up quickly. You’re looking at about 250 million monthly players. 250 million people. This is the this is an economy, right? It’s not just a small game or anything else. So to give you an idea, if we look at this in perspective, it’s about what just under four times the population of the UK? Yeah. Right. So like when you start thinking about that in terms of numbers, people everything else and yeah, fine. They’re not living in it all day, every day. But this is a huge platform, a huge community. And it’s a community by the way, that love it. Right? They it’s not people that come in what there are people obviously that come in, try it don’t like it and leave but the community of players that are actually there, and what they can then build is going to be just most people don’t realise this, when you create something like this and you give people the power, no one takes into consideration where this might go, they think it’s going to go one way and in reality, what happens 99% of the time,

Alexis 24:41
it goes completely a different direction. When we realise this, we know this. Now we know because before we always want to, you know to control the masses and making sure that you know, they are being so regulated or now they’re giving a platform where they go okay, go just let it run wild. It’s just they you know, they are Then the the flood down, it’s go,

Chris Bruno 25:02
Yeah, 100%. But nobody knows where this might go next, which is what makes it more and more interesting, right? So very much like back in 2007, we got presented with an iPhone. They said there was an app store. And if you remember the first ever apps you could download, they were awful. They were terrible. And then you suddenly give people the tools and you go, right? Well, you can build anything you want. And people come up with the idea. Well, how about if we all share our houses and actually rent out the spare room? And you got Airbnb? And then well, how about if the taxi was easier, and you could press around and a taxi appeared and you ended up with Uber? These killer apps and stuff and I think that’s what’s gonna happen with this game. fortnight has been one thing for many years. Today, what today now it can become anything, it could turn into a story playing game, it could turn into a role playing game, it could turn into interactive experiences, it can turn into everything they’ve already done concerts, they’ve already done, runs in it, like charity runs. If you go in and you run a certain number of miles, they’ll donate X amount to a charity, again, getting people involved in very different ways than what the original game was meant to be. And I think that’s what makes this interesting for me, fortnight right now, like Roblox have built basically a perfect foundation to allow people to go and express themselves. And that, to me is where we’re still missing those numbers in the metaverse and for me, I still consider something like fortnight as being an example of a Metaverse platform

Alexis 26:24
it is it is what I would like to see. It’s something more educational, like, you know, like a fortnight Academy, something where where you could, you know, blend education and entertainment, where it all becomes sort of one we as as we know, people are more inclined to learn, you know, better when they have fun. A when they learn. Yeah, so imagine going to a class, let’s say, in the UK, you arrive there, and like, It’s seven o’clock, 730 o’clock in the morning, it’s still dark outside, it’s called, then everything is green, but then you have to stare at that Blackboard and like, damn, like, who wants to look and like that,

Chris Bruno 27:06
that basically sounds like my child, my child

Alexis 27:09
to say means right there. Don’t you think that when I’ve, whenever when I was done, like leaving my Caribbean trip, I arrived back in Europe. I’m like, what, that’s how people learn? Well, you learning like the way it was putting along face. But then of course, you don’t want to learn because you’re a kid or anything you want to you only want something that is fresh and wild. And you know, and fun. So I think I think the whole entertainment thing is awesome. But should we bring a layer of education as well? I think that that is paramount, especially that we don’t want to dumb down, you know, the youth, right? We don’t want you know, to have a Tiktok generation. Okay, as much as don’t want to have a quote my generation who like to have a fortnight generation.

Chris Bruno 27:52
Here’s a question for you, though, right? Instead of giving them educational experiences, what we have just done is given kids the tools to have to go figure out how to programme in Unreal Engine, which is one of the biggest gaming engines in the world, it’s going to get them involved in something that first and foremost, let’s be honest, in schools, we do not focus enough around technology. Full stop, we do not considering where the world is today. I mean, when I went to school, the job I now do, and the agency I started years later didn’t even exist, but the gap, imagined the gap. Yeah, but now imagine the gap of like being a child today in school. Realising the chat GPT has come out and chat GPT for is like in the 99th percentile for the passing the bar exam. Like this is no longer science fiction or anything. It’s just happening. Like it could go out there and it could pass the bar exam. So you’re all of a sudden looking at this going, okay, cool, like, Well, where does this lead to? What happens next, and I had this conversation on another podcast very recently, AI was supposed to come after collar white collar, sorry, blue collar jobs like the factory workers, the people like that the delivery drivers, we thought those guys were the ones that were gonna get screwed the first by AI and it hasn’t happened. Tesla struggled to get AI to build cars. It turns out, they’re not careful enough. They can’t quite make sure that it’s okay. They think it’s fitted, but actually it hasn’t. So all of these things play a part. And then actually the real people they’re going to get hit first are marketers, storytellers, videographers, photographers, artists. This is huge, right? And then you can start going to the point of saying, Well, is there a chance that a computer system like a chat GBD could learn and be a better lawyer? Could it become a better accountant? Of course it could, in theory, so all of these things are now like, so what do you want your kid to learn to do next? Well, realistically, you want them to learn to code to learn how to use the platforms that are online.

Alexis 29:53
Yeah, I agree that grid, but I guess what I would like to see you asking my opinion about what to think about this. for nothing, I’m all for it. I think it’s awesome. I like to see a fortnight Academy I didn’t I don’t know if they’ve done it or if someone is on the cusp of doing it. But we definitely need to wire our our youth into okay, you can go play, you can go have fun you can go interact. Don’t forget to learn something or to write so. So I think that will be I don’t know if that’s their the purpose, but I think we should always you know push forward like let’s make sure that education eighths is always put as well on the on the forefront and not backburner. Because I can tell you, we’re gonna have like a generation that’s all of a sudden, like, yeah, not interested about doing that no interest at all. That really got me dressed it. It’s about being a busybody on the metaverse and,

Unknown Speaker 30:46
and have fun. Yeah, but

Chris Bruno 30:49
yeah, I agree. When I sent Alexis, I’ve really enjoyed this first episode. I can’t wait for us to keep going. I know we’ve got already some plans in the works for the next episodes, but we’re going to try and get this out every week. So for everybody listening, you can find this on your favourite podcasting app. But you’ll also be able to find our episodes on YouTube where you can find the videos and see us in real life. Not in the metaverse yet, but we’ll try and get there eventually.

Alexis 31:15
To try to sell merch right away. I mean, like buy his blue black T shirt. Like go the link below

Chris Bruno 31:26
below to a generic black T shirt.

Alexis 31:29
Without forgetting anything, go up and buy the merch.

Chris Bruno 31:35
It’s also available as a digital collectible. Thanks for listening below. Alexis, thank you so much for your time today. I really enjoyed it again, and hopefully can’t wait to get next week’s episode recorded and out as well. For real.

Alexis 31:49
Okay, guys, bye. Thank you very much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post Otherside’s Second Trip, Metaverse Fashion Week & Fortnite’s Unreal Editor appeared first on All About The Metaverse.

"The future of collaboration is the metaverse" - Dave Waters

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Aiming to educate organizations about the metaverse, The World Economic Forum has partnered with Accenture and Microsoft to launch a new metaverse platform ‘Global Collaboration Village.’

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Linux Foundation has established the Open Metaverse Foundation to create the open source software and standards for an open metaverse. OMF aims foster a community of developers, engineers, academics and thought leaders to solve challenges of portability, interoperability and scalability for interactive and immersive experiences.

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KB Home announced that it launched its first metaverse community to inspire more "exploration and engagement" among its customers. To combat increasing new-home cancellation rates, the metaverse community can help alleviate some of these issues by allowing customers to design their new home online before KB Home begins building it in the real world.

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Seoul government launches world's first public services platform in the metaverse, offering its citizens administrative services. Launching on Metaverse Seoul, the platform purports to realize the new definitions of "freedom, companionship and connection."

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Decentraland (MANA) surged as metaverse tokens became the best-performing digital assets since the start of this year, going up 38% in the past week. Other major metaverse tokens have put up impressive gains in the past week, including Sandbox’s native SAND, jumping 31.3%, while Gala Games’ GALA more than doubled.

–

See you next week for your weekly digest of metaverse news. This newsletter is brought to you by Metalinq - Let us know what you think of this newsletter on Twitter.

If you find this email useful you can forward this to your friends using the link below!

"The metaverse is the future of human connection and creativity." - Roblox CEO David Baszucki”

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Is Apple jumping into the Metaverse? It is reported that the tech giant will soon unveil its first mixed-reality headset (a hybrid between VR & AR). The Apple Reality Pro is anticipated to be a standalone headset that does not require a computer or phone to function. The price of this new technology is expected at around $3000. 

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VR experiences that simulate the sense of smell and touch were recently demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).  OVR Technology showcased a VR headset with a compartment for eight scents to be released in 2023 and FireFlare Games announced plans to launch a VR dating app that incorporates touch sensations.

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Manchester City Football Club is partnering with Sony to enter the metaverse, offering fans around the world a chance to experience a virtual version of the team's stadium and participate in new digital experiences. For now, the experience consists only of a virtual visit to the Etihad Stadium, with more to come in the future, such as the ability for fans to teleport into the virtual stadium using their own avatars.

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In 2022, the Web3 industry received $7.1 billion in funding, with the Gaming, Metaverse, and Social Networks sectors being the most popular areas for investment, according to a report. Despite the bear market, the total funding in 2022 is $4.8 billion more than what was raised in 2021. Web3 gaming raised $4.49 billion in funding, while the Metaverse came second with $1.82 billion. 

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Justin Hochberg, CEO of Virtual Brand Group, claims that the metaverse offers big companies the chance to expand their commerce position. The company aims to use the digital ecosystem to help big brands expand their reach and revenue streams, it already has partnerships with Forever 21, "The Voice" program, and Barbie.

–

See you next week for your weekly digest of metaverse news. This newsletter is brought to you by Metalinq - Let us know what you think of this newsletter on Twitter.

If you find this email useful you can forward this to your friends using the link below!

“Metaverse isn’t a thing a company builds. It’s the next chapter of the internet overall.” - Mark Zuckerberg

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LG Electronics is bringing the metaverse to consumers, by collaborating with cloud-based technology platform Oorbit and Pixelynx. This partnership will allow LG smart TVs users to explore interconnected virtual worlds, concerts and artificial intelligence multiplayer games.

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Retail fashion brand H&M is launching ‘Loooptopia’ on Roblox. The immersive metaverse experience offers fans a chance to discover their digital fashion identities, whilst centring the experience around fun. 

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Canon is shifting its future towards the metaverse. During their CES press conference the Japanese corporation focused solely on metaverse geared products. Canon is notably working on a new virtual reality space ‘Komoko’ which allow users to communicate face-to-face.

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Consumers and businesses are getting more interested in the metaverse, according to a report by Accenture. 55% of the consumers surveyed see the metaverse as a business opportunity for creating and monetising content. Also, 89% of C-suite executives believe the metaverse will have an important role in their organisation’s future growth.

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Ixana unveiled at CES 2023 a new way to transmit information through the human body using the electromagnetic field surrounding it. Ixana’s technology, called Wi-R, makes use of the body’s natural ability as a conductor, which could power the future of the metaverse. The company believes that this technology is much more power efficient than today’s VR headsets.

–

See you next week for your weekly digest of metaverse news. This newsletter is brought to you by Metalinq - Let us know what you think of this newsletter on Twitter.

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“The metaverse is barely being born. The opportunities to capitalize in this area are immense.  Get involved and learn it quickly.” - Dave Waters

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Interest in Metaverse technology market is considerably growing in Asia. Companies located in Southeast Asia are starting to develop strategies to take advantage of the vast opportunities provided by the Web3 landscape, by investing significantly in the metaverse. 

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Harry Winston is making the jump to Web3. The famous American jeweller has filed trademark applications for various products and services related to the metaverse, including jewellery, clothing, accessories, bags, and more. 

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The Indian movie ‘Made in Bengaluru’ is launching in the metaverse. Fans of the movie can participate in a variety of interactive activities, such as taking selfies with the film's cast avatars, exploring famous locations in Bengaluru, playing games, and participating in a quiz. 

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Banking Giant HSBC Files Trademarks for a wide range of digital currency and metaverse Products. The applications indicate plans for digital media backed by NFTs, virtual currency exchange & transfers, virtual credit card processing, and more.

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Gumi, a Japanese mobile gaming company, is collaborating with Square Enix and SBI Holdings to explore potential business ventures in the metaverse. The partnership will provide the company with access to financial and content creation experience and will involve the issuance of new stock worth $52.7 million dollars.

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See you next week for your weekly digest of metaverse news. This newsletter is brought to you by Metalinq - Let us know what you think of this newsletter on Twitter.

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