What did metaverses achieve in 2022?
Bogdan Lashchenko2022 was a pretty disturbing and crazy year for the whole crypto industry. The whole market was experiencing a downtrend. Some particular tokens were showing short-term growth that was opposite to the general trend, however, all of them returned to the overall flow and began declining together with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other coins.
The metaverse versus the downtrend. Investments keep growing
However, it seems that the metaverse, despite the general negative mood, demonstrated interesting results and showed that virtual worlds can be interesting for the audience, considering that the crypto industry was losing its credibility among investors at some points.
The international consulting company McKinsey & Company reveals that about $120,000,000 was invested in the metaverse sector in the first 6 months of 2022 and this branch will be gaining momentum. The remarkable thing is that the most important deals signed in the metaverse sector were signed in 2022. Besides, there were some unexpected events. For example, the JP Morgan company decided to accept the Web3-technology revolution despite it being famous for its negative attitude towards decentralization. Such important deals include the partnership agreements between The Sandbox and the banks HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank.
The leaders of the virtual worlds
The platforms The Sandbox and Decentraland made a big impact on the development of the metaverse industry and the enhancement of decentralization. They can be confidently called one of the most dominant companies in the markets based on blockchain.
At the moment, we see only the dawn of the metaverse even if someone thinks that this technology is pretty developed and can create serious competition with other sectors of the crypto industry. The consulting company Gartner did research, on the outcome of which it found out that the world of virtual universes will not be massively implemented and have decent technological maturity.
Passing the milestone of the next decade, metaverse users will notice that the technology might reach a new level in virtual worlds. However, the companies working on metaverses now have big plans and organize strategies, according to which they will be developing virtual world technologies and insist on their mass implementation.
Mark Zuckerberg — a fan of the metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, deserves the title of the main fan and promoter of the metaverse. He wants to develop the industry of the virtual worlds so badly that he even renamed Facebook to Meta. Amid the rebranding that happened in October last year, the investors were perplexed about his behavior and began fixing the profits, selling the company’s shares.
This led to the fact that the value of Meta securities fell by 3 times in 2022. In the beginning, it was equal to $338 per share but 1 share costs $120 at the moment writing. The remarkable thing is that this number even fell to the mark of $90 on November 2.
All of this hit the investors' purses very hard and they want to convince Zuckerberg to change both the vector of development of the company and the founder of Facebook. After Mark Zuckerberg founded the Reality Labs division that works on the development of the metaverse Horizon Worlds and its own device that can bring you into the virtual worlds, Zuckerberg’s fortune dropped from $142,000,000,000 to $37,000,000,000. The reason for such a decline is obviously the fortune of the Facebook founder, most of which consists of the shares of his company.
The fanaticism of the head of Meta hurt the people who lost their job in the company. There were about 11,000 of them. Despite such colossal losses and sacrifices, Zuckerberg says that he is still positive about the future of the metaverse and states that someone has to finance this sector.
Microsoft
Microsoft was another company that wanted to help the development of the metaverse. The last one decided to buy the gaming giant Activision Blizzard for $69,000,000,000. The sides have already agreed on the acquisition, however, the Federal Trade Commission is against such an act. According to them, Microsoft will fortify its monopoly and it might hurt the video game world. They want the competition between Microsoft, Sony, and other companies to be fairer.
NVIDIA was also a big player in entering the metaverse world. They released the beta version of their platform for developers that allows them to create applications using 3D instruments, Artificial Intelligence, and others. The remarkable thing is that AI is trained to work in the virtual environment and various companies can repeat the feat of Renault and create digital copies of their manufacturing processes due to these technologies.
Large organizations
Disney, which is famous for the creation of cartoons, has also decided to enter the metaverse world. Its new head Mike White with the CEO Bob Chapek revealed that they have chosen a technology development course for virtual worlds. In such a way, they want to expand and improve the narrative experience.
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Other interesting cases of the acceptance of the metaverse include the foundation of the Norwegian state agency The Brønnøysund Register Center. The last one signed a partnership agreement with Ernst & Young and opened the virtual office in the Decentraland metaverse. In such a way, Norway wants to fight the financial illiteracy of young people in the country and will help them to get an education in virtual worlds.
It is worth mentioning the International police that also opened its virtual office in the metaverse. Within the framework of the 90th Assembly, which was held in India, INTERPOL presented the space, which is based on the office of the International Police in Lyon, France. At the Assembly, the head of the police demonstrated how policemen can work together and found lots of pros in virtual worlds. According to the International police, the process of gathering employees will now become much easier and eliminates a number of unnecessary processes. Besides, they warn all users of the upcoming development of fraud. Now, cybercriminals can use new instruments to extort money and INTERPOL will have to get used to the metaverse to fight the new type of crime.
Credit: INTERPOL
The companies that set the fashion rules have also arrived in the world of virtual worlds. Now, you can find such brands as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, and others in the virtual environment. In such a way, the management of the above-mentioned companies wants to attract attention to their brands with the help of virtual worlds.
The car industry in the world of a metaverse
Fiat opened its office in the metaverse world. Users can go to the virtual department, in which they can have a look at Fiat 500 and chat with a consultant who will provide them with all the necessary information about the car. Employees will be able to speak about how much fuel the car consumes, its driving features, and other details, which can be interesting for a customer.
Another car manufacturer also managed to surprise all people who are related to the crypto world and blockchain technologies. The French car manufacturer Renault created the very first industrial metaverse in the world, to which it transferred real models of its existing factories. This method of digitizing their factories will allow them to save a lot of resources, automate some processes and thus earn a lot of money. According to experts, Renault will save more than $330,000,000 in a few years. Perhaps, other car makers will follow Renault’s example and do the same things, bringing the metaverses to a new level and erasing the line between the real and virtual worlds.
Perhaps, the metaverse Decentraland was the first place where virtual lands were traded. It is confirmed by the creative director of Decentraland:
When we first sold the land, it was all sold for $20 each, and we sold it all. Now I think the cheapest you can buy is $3500. So, you can see that the speculators have already made a lot of money.
Virtual concerts
Concerts of famous artists took place in the metaverse many times. Ozzy Osbourne, Justin Bieber, and other singers could appear in virtual places to please their fans who were even able to interact with their idols.
The return of The Notorious B.I.G who died 25 years ago can also be called interesting. Advanced technologies have allowed users to attend the concert of the famous rapper, and such events might be hosted more frequently in the future with the development of technology.
Conclusion
Despite the metaverses being in the state of early development at the moment, we can state confidently that they provide the opportunities no one ever dreamed of. Do you want to transfer a car factory and optimize the processes? Easy! Do you want to attend the concert of a dead artist? Enjoy it! Do you want to have a look at a car in a virtual environment and be consulted by a seller? Why not?
All of this and many more will be waiting for us in the future and have incredible development. Many people dream that we will have cyberpunk in the future, however, it might arrive in the virtual worlds in the nearest years, and staying in the metaverse will change not just our perception of the metaverse but the real world once and for all.
Gartner thinks that more than a quarter of the whole population will spend, at least, 1 hour a day in the metaverse by 2026.
Bogdan Lashchenko – content manager at EgamersWorld.Bogdan has been working at EGamersWorld since 2023. Joining the company, he began fillin the site with information, news and events.