VR is NOT the Metaverse - AR and Desktop will dominate, VR will be a (fun) sideshow..

VR is not the Metaverse

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VR is not the Metaverse 〰️

Not quite sure how else to say this… the media still seem to confuse the two.

As a result we have lots of clients asking us all the time to do ‘Metaverse’ and VR.

The vast majority of time spent in the MV is on desktops. The majority of the big worlds such as Decentraland and Sandbox are entered through desktops. There are some notable exceptions such as Somnium space (which is incredible) but putting on a headset is just not something humans will want to do 8 hours a day, Having second desktop open to Decentraland for 8 hours a day while working. Well thats completely different Putting on see through eyewear with AR overlays - that’s also the future..

The way the MV is consumed isn’t as an all out immersive experience, its more like the radio, you listen and watch on a second screen and then ‘turn it up’ when something your interested in comes on and that when you focus and engage.

You might take a little time to go into VR, but that’s the exception, not the rule.

Im not sure if Zuckerberg understands this as his whole pitch is VR VR VR - and I think that’s why the Media conflagrate the two.

The platforms that will win and dominate and those that won’t..

So here’s my view:

1) Niantic: They will be the new Facebook. Their AR ‘Lightship’ SDK enables users to make overlay worlds that are epic, the version of ‘Mixed reality’ where you can wear see through glasss that overlay digital assets onto it will win. But we are years off of the tech being good enough to use daily, but Niantic are getting there.

2) Nvidia - they make the chips and ‘mirror worlds’ these will be used daily as well - so they are in pole position.

3) Web 3.0 worlds like Decentraland that you access mainly though desktops and ‘dip into’ in VR: Decentraland is my favourite as it it run so very well and is for creators and communities. its like and advanced social media gaming engine, easy to build worlds in, loads of functionality.

We are years away from truly scaling Web 3.0 worlds.

We won’t have true scale until 5G is ubiquitous, so if you want to determine the speed of Web 3.0 world growth, just look at 5G growth. this is because hi fidelity is needed to enable millions of users to enable better graphics, which are still not the best.

You will see smaller, lower volume hi res worlds like ‘Wilderworld’ (which is awesome) coming through, but scale is years away.

Its like we are in 2010 (maybe 2012) and instagram has been around for two years. But get in on the ground floor now and start to understand how these worlds work, and how as a brand you can have an incredible one on one consumer / brand relation and you will be superbly placed for a profitable future.