Written By: Colin Ward

A relatively recent development in technology has been taking the world by storm. The Metaverse, conveniently made popular by Facebook’s name change to Meta, is something that could have some serious potential in the future of the internet. Some are even going so far as to say that it may serve as a “next evolution of the internet.” It seems as though not only the optimists are on board, with industry dominating companies like Microsoft, and aforementioned Facebook already taking steps to stake their claim in the rising platform.

What Actually is the Metaverse?

The Metaverse is an attempt to virtually recreate our physical world. While this may not take a very realistic form, it will consist of the very real social structures and activities that we have and use in our daily lives: places to socialize and have fun, places to shop, and maybe some time in the future, places to work and make money while still inside of the Metaverse. The Metaverse would be a persistent, virtual world, meaning that everything happening in the Metaverse wouldn’t stop just because you left it, as it will be populated and run by actual people. To put it simply, the Metaverse is a copy of our world, but with the power of programming and without the limitations of our physical world. With these rules implemented, nearly anything can be found in the Metaverse, from flying cars to simple plants, whatever can be modeled and programmed can be created.

As of right now, the Metaverse is in its primitive stages, as the most realistic experiences in the virtual world are found in video games, most of which don’t have the massive multiplayer aspect that an ideal Metaverse would have. This severely limits the socialization that can occur within the metaverse, and despite the rapidly growing popularity of the virtual reality headsets that are used to enter the Metaverse, there isn’t much being done in terms of consolidating all of the different features of the fractured Metaverse that we have now, into one continuous social experience. 

Figure 1

Left, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Right, the Meta Quest 2 Virtual Reality Headset

Source: UploadVR.com

Where We Are In 2022

As of right now, the most commonly accepted form of Metaverse takes is virtual reality, which has gained a significant amount of popularity over the last several years. On Christmas day of 2021, the Oculus app topped the apple app store charts, indicating that a high volume of headsets was gifted over the holiday, as each headset requires the use of the app to set it up. While the popularity of these devices is high, there still isn’t a large enough user/player base for it to become truly mainstream. Companies are spending large amounts of money on virtual reality projects that would bring us closer to the Metaverse. 

While this is the case, some companies are trying to buy in early on the new concept, possibly indicating that they believe that it is going to take off. Among these companies is tech giant Microsoft, whose recent acquisition of triple-A studio Activision Blizzard is at least partially attributed to Microsoft’s interest in the Metaverse. This is one of the largest gaming studio acquisitions over the last several years, with Activision Blizzard being one of the most popular and well-established studios in the industry. While we still don’t know exactly how they play into the whole scene, the studio has decades of experience in creating multiplayer titles and managing large player bases, both skills that could help Microsoft get ahead.

Gaming is certainly the best example of the Metaverse that we have seen to date. With large multiplayer games appropriately titled MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) being extremely popular throughout the industry, certain elements of the Metaverse have already been created and implemented within these games, such as digital marketplaces that trade purely digital goods, and social areas with networking tools. Seeing as the gaming industry is already extremely experienced in this field, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of the other elements currently implemented in these multiplayer games inside of the developing Metaverse. 

Figure 2

A list of Microsoft owned Xbox’s acquired titles, after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and King

Source: Microsoft.com

Conclusion

Although it has seen quite a bit of press over the last couple of months, the Metaverse is still in its beginning stages. While we can speculate about the fantastical virtual reality that it may become one day, currently, it is more of an idea, with modern video games presenting more of a metaverse than many of the dedicated metaverses. As technology improves and virtual reality headsets become more mainstream, it is likely that additional large companies will begin to take notice, hopefully leading to a fully-fledged, virtual world that we can all enjoy.

References and Sources

Source 1: Canavesi, B. (2022, March 11). What is the metaverse: Where we are and where we’re headed. adt.com. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.td.org/atd-blog/what-is-the-metaverse-where-we-are-and-where-were-headed

Source 2: Chen, B. X. (2022, January 18). What’s all the hype about the metaverse? The New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/technology/personaltech/metaverse-gaming-definition.html

Source 3: Feltham, J. (2021, November 19). Meta Quest branding takes over Oculus website. UploadVR. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://uploadvr.com/meta-quest-branding-oculus-website/

Source 4: Kovach, S. (2021, December 27). How the metaverse won Christmas. CNBC. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/27/metas-oculus-virtual-reality-headsets-were-a-popular-holiday-gift.html

Source 5: Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device. Microsoft.com. (2022, January 21). Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://news.microsoft.com/2022/01/18/microsoft-to-acquire-activision-blizzard-to-bring-the-joy-and-community-of-gaming-to-everyone-across-every-device/

Source 6: Ravenscraft, E. (2021, November 25). What is the metaverse, exactly? Wired. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-the-metaverse/