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Metaverse February 12, 2023

Weekly Metaverse Review: Paris, The Sandbox & Copyright Wars

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Weekly Metaverse Review: Paris, The Sandbox & Copyright Wars

This week the metaverse swung wildly between love and hate, fight and flight.

Mark Zuckerberg showed his grit as the Meta CEO literally donned boxing gloves and faced off against UFT champion Alex Volkanovski. 

By contrast, Microsoft meekly surrendered another metaverse division that nobody knew existed, while Paris Hilton announced her intention to bring real love into the virtual plane.

Mark Zuckerberg’s big metaverse fight

It’s no secret that Mark Zuckerberg has had a fight on his hands to convince the mainstream media – and some Meta investors – that his metaverse strategy is the right one to take the company forward.

It’s one battle the Meta CEO seems to be winning as stricter cost controls, and a $40 billion share buyback scheme, have helped to push the value of Meta’s stock from $153 at the start of the month to $178 at the time of publication. 

In recent weeks Zuckerberg has been keen to talk up the role of artificial intelligence at Meta moving forwards. Given the populist hype wave that artificial intelligence is currently enjoying, it is a shrewd move from Zuckerberg to talk up Meta’s AI credentials. 

Mainstream (and some tech) outlets have used this slight shift in rhetoric to suggest that ‘the Zuck’ is somehow abandoning his metaverse vision. In reality, the long-term strategy of the company remains completely unchanged.

As if to underscore that point Zuckerberg met with Alex Volkanovski this week to don boxing gloves and spar with the UFC featherweight champion in the metaverse.

As far as metaphors go this one is not incredibly subtle. If you don’t get it already, Zuckerberg passionately believes in his metaverse project, and he’s more than prepared to fight for it.

Paris in the metaverse

Paris Hilton has announced her latest foray into the metaverse, this time teaming up with Sandbox to create Parisland – a pixelated love island where users are invited to hook up, and eventually even marry. Maybe.

The event seems well-timed in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, but faithful MetaNews readers might remember that Taco Bell previously announced its own plans to wed a couple in the metaverse. Unsurprisingly, nothing ever came of that particular marketing ploy. 

This time, of course, the metaverse wedding is surely bound to really happen. These honest marketing types wouldn’t try to mislead us again, would they?

In any case, if putting the virtual into ‘reality TV’ sounds appealing to you, the Parisland event begins on February 13 and runs to March 13.

Microsoft taps out again

Microsoft causally scrapped its hundred-strong industrial metaverse team this week, just four months after creating it. The ‘industrial metaverse core’ is the latest casualty of wider redundancies at the firm. 

Last month Microsoft announced it would lay off 10,000 workers or around 5% of its total workforce. With the software giant laser-focused on artificial intelligence, it’s unsurprising that the metaverse side of the business is taking all the hits. 

The company also recently killed off AltspaceVR and the Mixed Reality Tool Kit, two other Microsoft metaverse projects that absolutely nobody cared about. The question now is how many more dead-weight metaverse divisions Microsoft will have to dump as the company follows its artificial intelligence dreams.

Copyright wars

This week the fashion label Hermes won a legal case that may have repercussions for the future shape of the metaverse. According to Hermes’ legal case, Mason Rothschild ripped off their Birkin bags with his own “MetaBirkins” NFT project.

On Wednesday a jury in Manhatten agreed that the digital replication of the bags infringed on Hermes’ copyright and awarded the firm $133,000 in compensation.

The Sandbox and Saudi Arabia

This week Sandbox signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Saudia Arabia. In an announcement on Tuesday, Sandbox COO Sebastien Borget said “we look forward to exploring, advising and supporting mutually each other in activations of the Metaverse.”

What does that mean? 

All we can say for certain is that the announcement triggered a Sandbox token pump, as SAND jumped 30% midweek, before falling below previous levels by Friday.

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Image credits: Shutterstock, CC images, Midjourney, Unsplash.

Business

Metaverse Gaming Market Expected to Reach $119.2 Billion by 2028

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Metaverse Gaming Market Expected to Reach $119.2 Billion by 2028

The metaverse gaming market is estimated to encompass $22.7 billion in 2023 and projected to reach $119.2 billion by 2028, according to a recent report from ReportLinker.

The metaverse has been a hot cake in the tech industry in recent years and was boosted by Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to change Facebook’s name to Meta. However, the market has been limping towards AI, which stole the spotlight from virtual reality.

“The global metaverse in gaming market size is estimated at USD 22.7 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 119.2 billion by 2028 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 39.3%,” stated the report.

The growth of the metaverse in the gaming market is expected to be fuelled by several significant factors, including the dynamic and evolving landscape of adjacent technology markets “such as extended reality (XR),” which encompasses “virtual reality (VR),” augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR).

Expectation of rapid growth

In 2021, the gaming industry experienced rapid growth, with billions of people playing video games globally and generating over $193 billion in revenue.

Gaming companies quickly became early adopters in exploring the potential of the metaverse. Looking ahead to 2023, it was projected that the metaverse will continue to reshape the gaming landscape.

A survey from last year shows that about 52% of U.S. gamers believe the metaverse will change the game industry.

“According to the survey, just over half (52%) of gamers believe the metaverse will change the video game industry and a plurality (41%) think that the metaverse will have a positive impact on the industry (vs. 25% who disagree),” reads the survey report of Globant and polling firm YouGov.

Moreover, 40% say the buzz around “metaverse gaming is warranted,” though nearly “one-third (30%) were undecided” on that subject.

Who are the big players?

The metaverse is not just a single platform, virtual experience, or game; it is an entire world recreated to provide an immersive experience. Gaming is one of the many experiences in the metaverse that is powered by AI, VR, and AR.

Whenever it comes to gaming, some of the giant games like Fornite, Unreal, and Roblox come to mind.

Read Also: Meta Seeks to Boost Its Metaverse Gaming Credentials

And those are expected to be significant players in the metaverse due to their existing influence and capabilities in the gaming industry, as a report from 2022 states.

“As gaming platforms like Fortnight gain functionality and evolve into technologically advanced social meeting places, it becomes more likely that a functioning Metaverse, with an independent economy, systems, and processes is in our future,” reads the report.

Fortnite has transformed into a social meeting place, offering interactive events and branded experiences.

Unreal’s powerful engine enables immersive media experiences, while Roblox’s user-generated content and virtual currency have attracted millions of users. These factors position them to thrive in the evolving metaverse landscape.

Europe expecting significant growth

Europe is expected to witness significant growth in the gaming metaverse market, with the second-highest CAGR during the calculation period.

The UK, Germany, and France lead the way in technology investment, while Russia and Spain are also adopting new display technologies.

“The substantial growth of the virtual world immersive interactive gaming industry in Europe is a crucial driver for the gaming metaverse market in this region,” stated the report.

The immersive interactive gaming industry in Europe, along with the demand for AR, VR, and MR technologies in the entertainment sector, serves as a driving force, indicated ReportLinker.

Initiatives such as the European Association for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (EuroVR) and projects like Augmented Heritage and International Augmented Med (I AM) contribute to market growth.

With increasing startups in extended reality, particularly in Sweden, Europe is poised for increased growth in the gaming metaverse markets.

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Cryptocurrencies

Floki Inu (FLOKI) Volumes Surge 300% on China Metaverse Game Plans

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Floki Inu (FLOKI) Volumes Surge 300% on China Metaverse Game Plans

The price of Floki Inu (FLOKI), a memecoin inspired by Elon Musk’s pet dog, jumped 15% on Sunday and trading volumes soared over 300% on Monday. The rally came as traders and investors bet on the project, which is pushing to attract more users for its Valhalla metaverse game in China.

FLOKI surged from $0.00003120 to $0.00003587 over the weekend, according to CoinGecko data. Trading volume for the token climbed to $99 million on May 29, up nearly 300% from the previous week’s average of $25 million.

As of writing, however, the price of FLOKI fell 2% on the day to $0.00003291 and average 24-hour trading volume dropped to $17.12 million. The token is down more than 90% since its all time high of $0.00033651 on Nov. 4, 2021.

Floki Inu (FLOKI) Volumes Surge 300% on China Metaverse Game Plans

FLOKI 7-day price ($)

Chinese flock to FLOKI

Floki is a cryptocurrency that began life as a memecoin but has evolved to become a fully fledged web3 project. Created in Sept. 2021 by an anonymous team of developers, the Floki ecosystem now includes a decentralized exchange, an NFT marketplace, and Valhalla.

In February, the team announced it would be targeting China in its latest push to attract more players for Valhalla, a play-to-earn (P2P) metaverse game that allows players to earn FLOKI tokens by completing quests and battling other players.

Also read: BBC’s Doctor Who and Top Gear Coming to the Sandbox Metaverse

Since the announcement, Floki now has a Chinese website and its technical documents, including the whitepaper, are available in the language. Floki is working with Btok, a popular web3 social network in China, to “introduce FLOKI to 10 million Chinese crypto users.”

Floki has also been running ads for Valhalla during some of the biggest sporting events in China such as the Chinese Super League and the Chinese Basketball Association. It also sponsored the just-ended World Table Tennis Championships Finals in South Africa.

The ads have helped to raise awareness of the metaverse game among Chinese gamers.

“We’ve gotten an influx of Chinese traffic today due to the CCTV-5 [the main sports channel in China] feature, and we want to remind you that FLOKI is strategically positioned for Hong Kong and China opening up to crypto,” said the Floki team in a tweet.

Hong Kong eases crypto regulations

The focus on China is a major development for Floki. The Chinese market is one of the largest and most lucrative in the world, and if FLOKI can successfully tap into this market, it could see significant growth in the coming years, observers say.

Floki’s China push comes at a time when the Hong Kong government is expected to legalize crypto trading starting June 1, allowing citizens to invest in assets such as bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) on regulated crypto exchanges.

“While FLOKI is a global cryptocurrency our goal is to be the most known/used crypto. That won’t be possible without China and Hong Kong,” the team wrote on Twitter.

The Chinese version of Floki’s play-to-earn metaverse game Valhalla will be released in the second half of 2023 and will feature a variety of gaming experiences like racing, fighting, and role-playing, it added.

On mainnet, users would have to hold a certain amount of FLOKI in their wallet to make a character playable. The game is still in development, but it has already generated a lot of excitement among the Floki Inu community

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Business

Chinese City Pledges $1.42bn to Boost Metaverse Industry Growth

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Chinese City Pledges $1.42bn to Boost Metaverse Industry Growth

Chinese city Zhengzhou has announced a plan to boost the metaverse industry by providing a significant 10 billion yuan ($1.42 billion) fund for local companies’ growth and development.

Although the People’s Bank of China banned digital assets in September 2021, the Asian power centre seems liberal towards the metaverse.

Under the new government’s draft, metaverse companies relocating their headquarters to Zhengzhou will have the opportunity to grab a start-up capital investment of up to 200 million yuan ($28.34 million).

In addition, the municipal government will provide a promising opportunity for companies operating in the metaverse sector within the city.

For each project that receives certification as viable by the government, companies will have the chance to secure a substantial grant of 5 million yuan ($710,000), regardless of their headquarters location.

Moreover, the government is offering other benefits such as rent subsidies for the metaverse company within Zhengzhou.

Open for public to review

The draft is now available on the municipal government’s website for feedback and review by the public.

“The public is now open to solicit opinions, and all sectors of society are welcome to put forward their opinions and suggestions,” reads the translation.

Hence, the purposed plan is only a draft to date, and the government has not mentioned the specific date of the fund allocation.

The metaverse-related sectors in Zhengzhou are expected to generate annual revenues exceeding 200 billion yuan ($28.34 billion) by the end of 2025, according to the municipal government.

Amid speculation about China lifting an absolute ban on crypto, the public is taking this draft as positive news for the industry.

“More positive news for crypto from China, that’s great,” wrote a Redditor in reaction to the news.

“One positive thing after the other,” another agreed, hopeful of China’s liberal step towards the crypto industry.

Will China overtake the West?

Western industry leaders like Meta wanted to be the leaders in the metaverse, but are now pivoting towards AI. Whereas China appears to be positioning itself as a potential metaverse hub.

As part of its commitment to spearheading China’s digital advancement, Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, has also launched the China Metaverse Technology and Application Innovation Platform.

“The Metaverse is a vague concept and every [company] is interpreting it in its own way. In China, it’s very much a government-led concept,” said Brady Wang, an associate director at tech market research firm Counterpoint.

The Chinese government is clearly keen on the technology.

“The key difference [in the metaverse] between China and the rest of the world is it’d be heavily regulated in a centralized manner,” said Zhengyuan Bo, a partner at China-focused research firm Plenum.

Bo emphasised that the monetization of digital assets within the metaverse is constrained due to limited space for growth.

“I think in a decade or two, China will play a bigger role in everything than the US,” speculated one Redditor.

“America hates China because China doesn’t do what America wants it to. They hate it because it exists. I’m happy China is dedollarizing,” another Redditor expressed.

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