“The Metaverse is a concept, not a product”
Rui Chen, Bilibili
There’s probably no better way to start this post. Because the awareness and the uproar it has arisen hide implications about the challenges that all involved actors face in the development of the Metaverse. At least as it has been presented so far.
In fact, the concept is polyhedric and multilayered. And, as we concluded our previous issue, different versions and iterations are likely to appear before we actually see it.
Facebook’s rebranding to META sounded promotional and mediatic. And yet, that wasn’t more than the announcement of a shift towards VR. That, and trying to position META as the Metaverse’s torchbearer. The battle for the Metaverse is just getting started.
The initial excitement is shifting to a second stage: positions and operations worth keeping an eye on.
What’s moving?
Last November, Business Insider explained how some big companies are seeing and positioning themselves in the race for the Metaverse.
More and more companies are paving their way into the Metaverse, finding new opportunities, and planning their strategies. Here are some examples:
Warner Music plans to distribute music and other content. Disney plans to capitalize its intellectual property on large-scale Metaverse platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite.
Online dating apps like Bumble are exploring ways to enrich their users’ experience through new forms of identity, engagement, and participation.
Dolby is also looking beyond audiovisual experiences and shifting towards the sensorial integration we once could only imagine in cinemas with 4DX. This is already happening, yet not widespread.
Take the Vocktail as an example: a glass with scented cartridges and electrodes that softly stimulate the tongue and can be controlled from a mobile app via Bluetooth to create and simulate digital drinks merging color, smell, and taste.
Apple
Have you noticed Apple’s silence regarding the development of the Metaverse?
Well, according to Morgan Stanley, the Metaverse will only get real when Apple joins.
“Apple will be a catalyst for Augmented Reality when it decides to enter the market with consumer smart glasses”. And guess what: despite the silence, the first version of the Apple Glasses is closer than we all think. Rumors say a first presentation could come sometime between the spring of 2022 and 2023.
On the other hand, Apple is also developing a direct retinal projector for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, designed to skip displays. That could help to solve many of the problems the human brain faces when processing AR and VR environments. And the idea of projecting images directly onto the eyes of the users has already been patented.
On top of that, Apple’s privacy policy, and new regulations around the globe are a huge challenge for all of the others to own the Metaverse or develop it on their own.
Software needs hardware to grow
Apple’s advantage has a simple reason: unlike Google and Facebook – and to a lesser extent, Microsoft – Apple owns its hardware and software, and can develop more consistent environments, able to quickly take the lead, just like it did with the iPhone.
Samsung recently announced the release of a new RAM memory to improve their systems’ functionalities and step ahead towards new coming technologies. And NVIDIA’s GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are becoming an indispensable part of the development of AI, VR, and AR.
Keep an eye on Tencent
The advantage of the race to 3D universes belongs to Tencent. Not only does it have more developed instances that range from social media (WeChat and QQ) to digital payment platforms (like WeChat Pay, QQ Wallet, or TenPay) that Facebook still does not have. It also has a prominent role in the entertainment industry. From learning platforms to online streaming of music and video), news and information, AI labs, and cloud providers. All under the same umbrella.
And if that weren’t enough, Tencent also owns 46.6% of Spotify and 40% of Epic Games. Such an empire may count fewer daily active users but has a stronger infrastructure to lead the development of the Metaverse.
Game on
So the battle has just begun. And what started as an attempt to appropriate the Metaverse concept has become a fierce struggle for the resources that will make it feasible.
The recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is quite a victory that only seems to confirm that cloud gaming will be at the core of the Metaverse.
This happens amidst dubious cross accusations of monopolistic practices where few giants control the entire gaming industry, including hardware, content, and network resources. And whatever comes next, it helps to outline the role each actor will have in this long development process.
The dream is clear: creating a virtual space where everything happens. It is still hard to imagine a purely virtual space because we still need physical things from the physical world. But because there are different visions and versions of the Metaverse, collaboration is key to developing a mixed reality one.
We may have a glimpse on where all this is headed to. But the development of the Metaverse will take time, partnerships, and some commercial hostilities.
