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The Metaverse is Changing the World. Only 20 years ago, if you wanted to have a meeting with somebody on the other side of the world, you would have to pay for a flight, hotel, and spend several days just to travel for that one meeting. Now you can set up a zoom meeting for free and have a fifteen-minute meeting with anyone, anywhere in the world.
That kind of revolution is rare. It is not often the world changes overnight. I believe that in the next few decades, the world is going to operate completely differently, and the metaverse will be the reason for this change.
What is the Metaverse?
Imagine a reality that felt exactly the same as our own, yet you could communicate with anybody, anywhere in the world, and do anything you wanted, from the comfort of your couch. That is the basic premise of the metaverse.
Companies are using virtual reality technology to create digital worlds that feel completely real. VR (Virtual Reality) video games like Super Hot can already make you feel completely immersed within the digital world. Put on the goggles, and you’ll react to the digital environment as if it were real.
If you have never been able to experience VR, picture this scenario: You are standing in a hallway with a bedroom on the other side of the wall, and it’s time to hit the hay. How do you get in the bedroom? You walk through the door, Duh.
But what makes this scenario so interesting in VR, is that none of these walls are real. You could actually just walk straight through them. Yet you will still choose to take the door. The digital environment is so lifelike, your brain will interpret the environment as if it were made out of matter.
As the scale of VR expands to reach beyond the world of video games, the metaverse will come to simulate every aspect of our lives, until the metaverse itself is no longer a simulation. That is what the metaverse is. A digital environment so lifelike, it could come to be the primary reality in which humans experience life.
Video Games and the Metaverse
The novel Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline and Steven Spielberg’s CGI thriller of the same name, gave a clear outline of how video games will lead to the creation of the metaverse. If you haven’t seen the movie, go watch it.
The main character Wade lives in a dystopian future, where overpopulation, climate change, and a host of other problems have severely damaged the world. The metaverse is his escape. Video Games in this metaverse allow the main character to enjoy his life, make great friends, and forget about the difficulties of his reality for a while.
When people think of video games, they think of entertainment, but the potential is far greater. Video games and digital worlds have the power to simulate real-world environments and even exceed the limits of reality to improve lives in many ways.
The game publishers of today are already looking to make this jump. Fortnite publisher – Epic Games is one of the companies working incredibly hard to turn their video game universe into the metaverse.
Fortnite, at its core, is a battle royale video game. In recent years and months, they have expanded to host concerts in the game with some of the biggest musicians in the world, like Travis Scott and Ariana Grande. As recently as August 26, Epic Games partnered with Time Magazine, to bring Martin Luther King Jr’s I have a dream speech to life, within Fortnite.
Roblox is another company working to create the metaverse. Their game has been around for more than a decade and allows kids to build digital worlds and interact with their friends online. Recently Roblox decided to IPO, and largely due to their intentions of pursuing the metaverse, the company achieved an evaluation of more than $39 Billion.
If anybody is going to create the metaverse, they will need to begin with the gaming field.
The Battle of the Titans
Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple are all betting their futures on the metaverse. During a meeting with employees in June 2021, Mark Zuckerberg himself stated that “Our overarching goal across all of these initiatives is to help bring the metaverse to life.”
Whoever controls the metaverse – controls reality itself. That is why industry giants are positioning themselves to take over it.
Schools, meetings, jobs, vacations, entertainment, all of these things will eventually take place in the metaverse. If one company is able to control what they can access, publish, advertise, and create within the metaverse, they will have the most outrageous profits of any company the world has ever seen.
Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple are all betting their futures on the Metaverse
Selling hardware to use within the metaverse. Selling access codes, custom maps, outfits, digital resources, advertisements. This is just scratching the surface of how these companies will be able to profit off of controlling the metaverse.
All of these companies were born or revitalized out of the internet boom. They are well aware of how quickly new technologies can create massive companies, and leave those who can not adapt in the dust.
To avoid becoming the next Blockbuster, all of these industry giants will need to position themselves to play a major role in the metaverse and how it comes to life, and as I mentioned earlier, when they will build the metaverse, they will begin with gaming.
Or Briga is a contributor, a veteran gamer, Forbes 30U30 alum, and the CEO & Co-founder of NOVOS.gg, an online training platform for gamers who wish to take their gaming skills to the next level.
Forbes Israel Contributors are independent writers that were individually picked by Forbes staff. The writers are experts in their field and they provide professional commentary and analysis of current events. The Contributor’s content isn’t sponsored.
