By Sodeinde Temidayo David
If you are conversant on the latest Tech news updates, you must have come across the term 'Metaverse' which the Facebook boss always talks about; if you are still wondering how your little knowledge about it Metaverse correlates with Facebook, this publication will give you a Closure.
⃣ Table of Content
- Intro
- What is Metaverse?
- Still don't get it?
- Exciting! isn't it?
- Why does Facebook want to transition into a Metaverse?
- Updates?
- What else can the Metaverse do?
- When will the Metaverse be available?
- Why do companies want to invest a lot in Metaverse?
- What are the chances of Metaverse failing?
Intro
Mark Zuckerberg wants to expand Facebook into the metaverse, even if nobody knows what that is. As sourced from tech experts who shared their knowledge with me, I am here to enlighten you on the little you know and what you don't know about the Metaverse.
You might have been reading different headlines about the Metaverse and still keep asking yourself, who is this Metaverse? What is a Metaverse? How does the Metaverse work? Why is Mark Zuckerberg hyping it?...... There is no need to be too curious again, your questions are about to be answered. Stay calm, relax, keep reading and enjoy.
What is Metaverse?
A Metaverse is a vast digital space that combines virtual and augmented reality. For the consumer tech and entertainment industries, the metaverse has been deputized as the next big thing, hybrid virtual/physical worlds that provide environments for people to socialize, live, and work.
Still don't get it?
A metaverse is a virtual universe where people would use digital avatars and Virtual Reality (VR) to interact.
The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations -- or avatars -- of themselves.
The idea of a Metaverse has existed in the gaming and science fiction realms for a while. But its introduction to the mainstream means the masses could probably use a rundown.
Exciting! isn't it?
Mr. Zuckerberg wants to transition to a metaverse company. Its virtual reality arm Oculus and the VR network Facebook Horizons could aid in that mission. Though the metaverse wouldn't belong to just one company. it would be a collaborative space with multiple players, like how the internet already operates.
Not familiar with Oculus and Horizons?
Why does Facebook want to transition into a Metaverse?
For Facebook, the metaverse also serves another crucial purpose: allowing the company to distract from its proliferating legal, regulatory, and reputational problems.
Even as antitrust regulators circle, Facebook is attempting to sell itself as hugely ambitious and transformative, rather than a surveillance-capitalist juggernaut deserving of being broken up.
Every article about Facebook’s metaverse initiative including this one perhaps is an article that doesn’t focus on the company’s deleterious impact on democracy and public life. At the same time, it’s important to understand where the metaverse propaganda fits into the company’s plans not least its plans for all of us—and why billions will be spent to try to convince us to take it seriously.
So far, Facebook’s flagship metaverse product is a virtual office space that works with the company’s Oculus goggles. Called Horizon Workrooms—a successor to the morbidly named Infinite Office—it’s part of a growing suite of tools that will combine various screen experiences into one seamless digital world. Zuckerberg himself has been on a vigorous media tour, demonstrating the technology in virtual tête-à-têtes with people like CBS’s Gayle King.
It basically gives you the opportunity to, you know, sit around a table with people and work and brainstorm and whiteboard ideas, never one to refuse a platitude. “It’s this pretty amazing experience where, you know, you feel like you’re really right there with your colleagues.
Updates?
Facebook moved closer to this vision in recent weeks, revealing a virtual reality workspace for remote workers. The company is also working on a smart wristband and VR goggles that project the wearer’s eyes. The company is investing billions of dollars into the effort.
What else can the Metaverse do?
There is potentially nothing that can’t happen in the metaverse, from buying a virtual house to playing games with friends to having a meeting with your fellow remote colleagues.
If that sounds like a recipe for banality, some major companies are hoping you’ll think otherwise and be willing to spend hours each day in their boutique digital worlds, while spending some cash as you go. Sure, you could have a regular Zoom meeting with a colleague, but imagine sitting next to them at a virtual table, in an embodied avatar with movable arms.
It also has associations with blockchain. The decentralized, digital asset could theoretically be used to pay for goods and services in the virtual universe.
When will the Metaverse be available?
The metaverse doesn’t exist today, and there’s no clear date for its arrival. Augmented reality and virtual reality have yet to woo the masses and remain a niche interest, despite Zuckerberg’s pledge in 2017 to bring a billion people onto Oculus headsets.
Is there any other company investing in Metaverse?
Facebook isn’t the only company betting heavily on the metaverse.
In May, Microsoft said it is “uniquely positioned” with a stack of artificial intelligence and mixed reality tools to help companies start developing “metaverse apps today.” A number of gaming companies, including Fortnite’s owner Epic Games, have released simulation software and VR services for a metaverse.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company working to build an “enterprise metaverse.”
Also, a month earlier, Epic Games said it raised $1 billion to spend on its metaverse plans.
The computing giant Nvidia and gaming platform Roblox are also working in this realm.
Last year too, Spatial released a free AR app allowing avatars to appear within a user’s real-world environment.
Meanwhile, Snapchat has been moving in this direction for years, introducing custom avatars and filters that overlay the world with digital content. Apple also has longtime AR ambitions.
Why do companies want to invest a lot in Metaverse?
In a more sinister interpretation, a widely used VR device would allow Facebook to call the shots, enabling the social media company to bypass privacy agreements and app store fees charged by Apple and Google.
It would also give Facebook and other companies a new revenue stream. “If you can create a universal pair of AR glasses, you own the platform under which everyone has to buy assets,” said Mike Cadoux, general manager at QReal, a start-up creating 3-D models for VR.
Other firms are likely investing in the metaverse vision because they don’t want to risk getting left behind, while some are experimenting to see what the possibilities are.
What are the chances of Metaverse failing?
There are many reasons why all of this might simply collapse in a heap of overblown marketing and wasted R&D budgets.
There is the initial problem with the headsets—their cost, especially, and the discomfort some people feel wearing them, which can include dizziness or other motion sicknesses. (VR sickness has a gender divide, typically affecting women more than men.)
There are other practicalities, including that not everyone wants to strap one of these devices onto their faces, and that many people lack the quiet space and computer power to have a full VR experience.
Putting on a VR headset to take part in a meeting also implies an almost bodily devotion to work at a time when many are preaching new forms of flexibility. For a work-from-home parent, for example, life in the metaverse may interfere with parenting and the many other duties they juggle.
