What is the metaverse?

If you've recently heard the word 'metavers' dropped, you're not alone. It's the latest buzzword in the technology industry, with some describing the concept as a post-Internet experience, ditching 2D displays for a more immersive, natural three-dimensional experience.

Facebook (not a social network, not a social network) has been rebranded to let you know how serious the company is about the idea and while other companies are involved, Facebook - sorry, Meta - is undoubtedly leading the charge to make Metavers a reality.

But what exactly is Metaverse, what will it look like and most importantly, when will it be released? We're still in the early days of creating Metaverse, but there's no single exact vision or explanation of what it would look like or how it would work, but here's how Metaverse is taking shape right now.

What is the Metaverse?

Metaverse is considered to be the successor to the Internet, which provides a similar experience to 'websites' but all are rendered in three dimensions.

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees, Metaverse is a virtual environment that fills space between apps, games, and websites, allowing for a more fluid browsing experience. It is a web of connected virtual communities where people can not only play together but socialize, shop, and even work together.

This is the early days for the concept so no one knows what it looks like now, but the concepts and ideas sound more like the oasis of a fully ready Player One with fully rendered virtual avatars.

Imagine being able to walk through a virtual mall, but instead of each storefront being a store, be it a virtual concert, an art studio, a digital storefront, or a multiplayer game - the possibilities are endless. You can hang out with friends, have fun and go out together, moving on to the next big thing.

"Being able to teleport from one experience to another is going to be a lot of metaverse experiences," Zuckerberg said.

We've already seen the launch of Metaverse with VR collaboration tools like Horizon Workroom, providing a more natural experience than a standard video call grid, and social-centric Horizon Worlds is now in active development.

The Quest platform also has a replacement for Oculus Home Horizon Home, which offers a small sized metavers with a virtual home area so friends can join in and easily hop between games on the Quest platform.

This is an exciting, if not a bit of an alien idea, one that Facebook (or Meta, as it is called now) and other big tech companies are trying.

Metaverse is not just VR?

While VR will be the best way to explore Metaverse, which provides the most immersive experience, there are also plans to make it available on 2D displays such as mobile and PC, just as gamers play three-dimensional games. Plane display.

It will ultimately depend on VR headsets, augmented reality glasses and other wearable technologies, but there will be a transition period before it happens. You have to give people some experience first to understand how important it is, don't you?

Will Metaverse be owned by Facebook?

While Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook / Meta team have been particularly vocal about Metavers, it's not the only technology company looking at the concept. In fact, Facebook is relying on others to get involved in keeping it as open as possible.

Major technology companies, including Epic, Nvidia and Microsoft, have confirmed that they are looking at the concept of Metavers. In fact, Fortnite Publishers has raised $ 1 billion from investors to support long-term metavers plans.

Richard Keris, VP of Nvidia's Omniverse Platform, believes that "there are going to be a lot of companies in the metavers to create virtual worlds and environments, as well as many companies working on the World Wide Web" and that Whether it's by one company or another, I move from one web page to another. "

Even game developers are having fun; Roblox Hall, another major player in the early stages of Metaverse, describes the post-Internet platform as a place where "people can learn, work, play, create and socialize into millions of 3D experiences."

Thus, companies within Metaverse will have control over their own 'world', the idea is not to be a Facebook-owned product as a whole, just like the World Wide Web we know it is not owned by a single person. Or company.

When will Metaverse be released?

This is a difficult question to answer correctly, but broadly speaking, we are still many years away from donating a VR headset and wandering through the metaverse.

Speaking before Facebook Connect 2021, Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth (VP of AR & VR on Facebook) suggested that it could be 10 or more years away from release.

This is the reason why companies are merging so quickly and so extensively that it can be achieved not only in terms of performance but also in other areas of legislation and post-Internet services.

So, when we see that the various elements of Metaverse will come to life in the next few years, we are still a little bit away from an integrated Metaverse network that connects everything in the virtual world.

Home / More Blog