How Are Plans For The Metaverse Shaping Up?

The metaverse made a big splash in 2021 following Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement of the Facebook-turned-Meta push to realize an “embodied internet” that would become a significant focus of the company’s future plans. Today, in 2022, the term has cooled somewhat, but efforts for a metaverse continue. In our 2021 IKIN Blog article on the metaverse, we addressed the project’s meteoric popularity, ambiguous nature, and apt name. In this article, we’re looking at what leading tech companies and publications are saying about the metaverse’s development now that everyone has had a little time, breathing room, and perspective to consider the real-world applications and hurdles facing such a grand endeavor as the metaverse.

Meta’s Continued Metaverse Efforts

At the start of 2022, much of the talk about the metaverse centered on Meta’s dipping financials. Specifically, Meta’s Reality Labs, a division that specializes in VR, AR, and emerging XR technology, lost more than $10 billion in 2021, according to the company’s Q4 earnings report. On the one hand, this looks like a red flag of financial instability. On the other, however, this may signal Meta’s continued investment in developing the metaverse. That chunky loss–after all–comes in the form of invested funds in Reality Labs, the subsidiary most effectively positioned to shape the metaverse. As The New York Times notes, Meta’s $10 billion investment  in the metaverse “is more than five times the amount of money Facebook paid to purchase the Oculus VR business in 2014 and 10 times what it paid to buy Instagram in 2012.”

The Meta Store

More recent news addressed Meta’s opening of its first storefront. The Meta Store opened on May 9 in Burlingame, California, and sells VR and AR technology that will ultimately serve as access points to the metaverse. So, as populous interest in the metaverse has waned, it appears that Meta’s interest in it remains.

How Are Other Companies Addressing The Metaverse?

Walmart

Various companies are similarly undeterred by the public’s cooling on the metaverse. For instance, CNBC reported in Jan 2022 that Walmart was quietly making moves to capitalize on the metaverse. Specifically, the company announced that it intends to offer users its own virtual currency (i.e., a Walmart cryptocurrency) and sell virtual products, Including electronics, home decorations, toys, sporting goods, and personal care products, in the form of NFTs.

Epic Games, Sony, And Lego

In April 2022 Epic Games announced that they have secured $2 billion “to advance the company’s vision to build the metaverse and support its continued growth.” Epic is the American video game and software developer behind the uber-successful game Fortnite and the leading game engine Unreal Engine (addressed in our previous Unity vs. Unreal Engine blog). The funds come from Sony and the Kirk Kristiansen family’s investment group KIRKBI. The Kirk Kristiansen family is most famous for founding the Lego Group in 1932, which makes sense given Epic’s previous announcement that they are partnering with Lego to build a family-friendly metaverse.

Niantic

Niantic is the company behind the Pokémon Go mobile game, the most successful mobile game of all time. In 2021, Niantic revealed its plans to develop a platform to design AR-based “real-world metaverse” apps.”  This platform goes by the name Niantic Lightship, and recent announcements indicate that Niantic has not let up on its plans. Niantic recently launched two new technologies that will be foundational to Lightship’s architecture: Visual Positioning System (VPS) and Campfire. VPS is Niantic’s location mapping software for AR that allows AR experiences to be grounded to a physical location. Campfire is a location-based social network that integrates with Niantic’s games and future apps that use Lightship. Campfire allows users to share their locations and organize real-world meetups for AR experiences.

IKIN And The Metaverse

IKIN is currently developing its plans for how to best maximize the influence of its dimensional technology in this emerging space. However, with the commercial release of the IKIN ARC holographic desktop terminal and the upcoming consumer launch of the RYZ holographic device for mobile, IKIN is positioning its technology to be a foundational XR tech for a multiverse based on immersive dimensional digital experiences.

What’s Needed Moving Forward?

For now, it seems that many of the big names in technology and commerce are continuing to lay groundwork that will ensure that once the metaverse becomes viable that they won’t be left out in the cold. However, much of the popular discourse of late remains skeptical about whether the metaverse will deliver on the lofty promises many–Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, most prominently–are making in its name and the ethical issues that need to be addressed in the current internet even as the metaverse declares itself the internet’s next phase.

Turning The Tides On Metaverse Discourse

At the SXSW event “Into the Metaverse: Creators, Commerce, and Connection,” Zuckerberg continued to push Meta’s metaverse agenda with ambitious, yet ambiguous, language. Failing to provide specifics about the metaverse, the Meta CEO opted instead to address the feeling of the metaverse, calling it a “kind of very magical sensation,” “extremely human,” and “the Holy Grail of the types of social experiences that a lot of people at Meta have wanted to build for a long time.”

Disambiguation

The first step that needs to be taken to turn the tides on current negative discourse about the metaverse is to disambiguate the technology. Companies need to start getting specific about how they will contribute to the metaverse and how this next-gen digital experience will differ from the current internet’s offerings. That way, companies and consumers can start to understand what the metaverse is in concrete terms and begin the process of augmenting understanding where needed to properly conceive the novel interactions and technologies that will define this new digital space.

Ethical Address

The current internet is plagued by ethical issues, many of which are current major talking points in various corners of society–technological, political, commercial, cultural, etc. These same issues, while they are being addressed in the internet’s current state, should be built into the foundational design of the metaverse. At the top of the list of ethical issues are concerns over user data privacy, microtransactions and metaverse commerce, and addressing diversity, inclusion, and safety issues.

Distance & Diversification

Lastly, it’s important to put some distance between the conceptualization of the metaverse and the problematic poster children for it: Meta and Zuckerberg. That Zuckerberg announced the name change of parent company Facebook to Meta and their intentions to develop the metaverse on the heels of damning whistleblower accusations about Facebook was not lost on the public and publications. Obviously, this separation is not an easy task as Meta continues to be the loudest voice championing the metaverse. However, one way to start distinguishing the metaverse from Meta is for companies to highlight their involvement and approach to the metaverse. Thus, the previous step necessary to disambiguate the metaverse can work double-time to highlight the diversification of control of the metaverse. Because right now, the metaverse sounds a lot like Meta’s exclusive pet project.

Keep Up To Date On All Things Technological

To learn more about IKIN’s ongoing developments in holographic technology and hologram applications, please visit the IKIN Blog. And, remember to follow IKIN on social media.