State of the Metaverse (updated August 2022)
Contents
- Introduction
- Metaverse Reviews (Rec Room, Upland, Sandbox, Fortnite, Roblox, Horizon Worlds, VRChat, Voxels, Decentraland)
- How are we ranking the worlds
Introduction
There is incredible excitement, funding, and expectations for the emerging metaverse industry. In the first five months of 2022, $120B have been invested in metaverse-related companies, more than double the $57 billion invested in all of 2021, McKinsey states. Time Magazine draws a picture that the Magic School Bus becomes possible and real in the metaverse, a nod to how it can impact education to be more immersive and engaging. KPMG predicts that people will have jobs, earn a living, shop, meet friends and even get married in the metaverse.
Let’s be clear, even though a lot is riding on it, the metaverse is still in the early stages of the adoption curve. There is constant speculation on the metaverse’s value for consumers and brands alike, both in its current state and what it may be soon. As is seemingly the case with all bleeding-edge technologies, the metaverse is yet to be fully understood and thus, is often ill-defined.
Within our team at The Lab, we have deliberated a few questions to establish a broader understanding of the metaverse, how it may impact stakeholders and what opportunities lie ahead. How do we define the metaverse? How do centralization and ownership relate? Does it have to be in VR? What is interoperability? What are activities that you can do there? Finally, why would I or anybody want to go there?
We believe that as the industry matures, the definition of the metaverse will evolve. Right now, we’ve come to describe it simply as a shared social virtual world that mimics elements of reality.
The Lab has been exploring different metaverses, and we’ve chosen to share our insights to help expand your understanding of it. We hope it may also help you explore opportunities for your business.
Our team will review ten different worlds interpreted as metaverses in the following weeks. We’ve broken down our analysis into seven criteria to help you find your footing when establishing a metaverse strategy. These are defined below:
- Engagement — Elements that motivate users to interact with the platform continuously. This may include a user’s ability to explore worlds, interact with the environment, play games, follow story arcs, etc.
- Immersiveness — The perception of one’s presence in an artificial world.
- Social Interactivity — The elements which enhance a user’s ability to interact and socialize with other players.
- Centralization — The concentration of administrative power within a platform. This may include governance of the platform, ownership, and control over experiences and assets.
- User Generated Content (UGC) Creation — The richness of the ability of users to create experiences within the platform.
- Economics — The ability to monetize and perform transactions on the platform.
- Partnerability — The platform’s openness to partnering with third-party entities such as brands and companies.
Interoperability, or the ability of users to use assets from another platform with the one they are in, is another aspect worth considering. However, it isn’t yet a widely adopted feature within the worlds that we’ve looked at. But it’s one that the market expects as technologies mature. We’ve decided not to include it as a core criterion.
Metaverse Reviews
Click through each title for an in-depth review of each metaverse.
Stay tuned or follow for more upcoming reviews. We’ll be looking at 2 worlds every week.
How are we ranking each world?
Engagement
Definition: Elements that motivate users to continuously interact with the platform
1 = Users can’t move, explore or do anything on the platform.
2 = Users can move around and explore, but there’s no progression, purpose, or interaction with their environment.
3 = Users can play simple games and fundamental interactions with their environment.
4 = Users have a real sense of progression through quests and daily tasks while playing unique games and experiences requiring intermediate-level interactions with their environment.
5 = Users are playing various complex games that involve skill and knowledge as they explore different experiences within the platform while demonstrating creative and proficient mastery of environment interactions.
Immersiveness
Definition: The perception of one’s presence in an artificial world. Immersion is supported by images, sounds, and other stimuli that provide an engaging environment.
1 = No sense of presence in a virtual environment.
2 = Interesting virtual graphics, but lacks engagement of other senses to provide total immersion
3 = There’s a simple user presence in the virtual world through sounds, controls, images, and storylines. Is virtual reality or augmented reality compatible.
4 = Rich user experience in the virtual world appeals to all human senses and interacts with the virtual environment. Is virtual reality or augmented reality compatible.
5 = Realistic presence in virtual or augmented reality with high plausibility, high audio/video quality, and realistic control (agency/engagement)
Social Interactivity
Definition: The elements that enhance a user’s ability to interact and socialize with other players.
1 = No interactions with any players. Purely solo experience
2 = Invite-only, private spaces.
3 = Already-created public and private spaces that users can join. Has essential chat functions, movements, and emojis. Simple social network.
4 = You can create and discover public and private spaces that others have made. You can share videos and content with each other. You can update their statuses in their profile. Users can speak with and mute others.
5 = Open world where you can speak and interact with anyone. You can share your screen, turn your camera on and create things with other players. You can see and teleport to any virtual space and see how many players are in a given spot. You can also restrict levels of access to the public to gate your virtual space.
Centralization
Definition: The concentration of administrative power within a platform. This may include governance of the platform, ownership, and control over deployment.
1 = Fully centralized: ownership, control, and governance are central to the company.
2 = Users can own assets, content, and experiences they’ve created, bought, or traded. Technology is NOT powered by blockchain.
3 = Users can own assets, content, and experiences they’ve created, bought, or traded. Technology is powered by blockchain.
4 = Users can own digital assets, content, and experiences they’ve created, bought or traded. Platform deployment is done through decentralized servers, OR users manage platform governance through a DAO. Technology is powered by blockchain.
5 = Users can own digital assets, content, and experiences they’ve created, bought or traded. Platform deployment is done through decentralized servers, AND users manage platform governance through a DAO. Technology is powered by blockchain.
UGC Creation
Definition: The richness of the ability of users to create experiences within the platform.
1 = Can’t create experiences or assets on the platform.
2 = Can create basic experiences or assets but requires ownership of Land and platform approval.
3 = Can create basic experiences or assets that don’t require ownership of Land or platform approval.
4 = Can create rich experiences or assets that don’t require ownership of Land or platform approval but is not customizable from a data analytics and technical perspective
5 = Can create rich experiences or assets that don’t require ownership of Land or platform approval and can be customized with data analytics and programming
Economics
Definition: The ability to monetize and perform transactions on the platform.
1 = Can’t transact or monetize on the platform.
2 = Monetization available through off-platform third-party services. (OpenSea, etc)
3 = Has an in-game marketplace to sell assets and other in-game items with high transaction fees with integration with off-platform third-party services. (OpenSea, etc)
4 = Has an in-game marketplace to buy/sell assets (services, experiences, inventions, etc.) and other in-game items with moderate to low transaction fees and integrations with off-platform third-party services. (OpenSea, etc)
5 = Free-flowing economy that allows transactions to be made within the platform and off-platform and fully integrated with off-platform marketplaces (such as Open Sea) to buy/sell assets with low transaction fees. The platform also has integrations with external services, or it provides its own to create stores that allow users to customize products and services that are both on and off-platform.
Partnerability
Definition: The platform’s openness to partnering with third-party entities such as brands and companies.
1 = No partner programs or ability to partner with the platform.
2 = Brands can reach out to the platform to receive dedicated support, but no specific programs developed.
3 = Limited partnership scope, but available to partner with directly.
4 = Full platform support (with marketing, promotion, etc.), but limited to specific types (templated) experiences.
5 = Partner programs, brand incentives (marketing, promo), robust partner ecosystem. Can also work with the platform itself or agencies to create completely bespoke experiences and/or assets.
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