The metaverse has been in the headlines in recent months after Facebook’s rebrand to Meta and Mark Zuckerberg’s announcements about the company’s future plans.
Zuckerberg may not have been the original creator of the actual concept, but he and his co-executives are determined to be the ones to bring it to life.
Up until now, virtual reality technology has been somewhat hit and miss, with VR headsets never really taking off as hoped. It’s believed that the metaverse will change everything irrevocably, creating an immersive digital world with enormous potential.
Although Facebook, or rather Meta, were the first to really push the agenda publicly, they weren’t the only ones working on the idea. A number of other businesses have been developing advanced VR tech, and this is all coming together to create a metaverse that could be quite simply mind-blowing.
What is the Metaverse?
By now, you’ve probably heard the phrase tossed around somewhat regularly, but are you clear on what this is – exactly?
Neal Stephenson dreamt up the concept in 1992 for his novel, Snow Crash. His idea of the metaverse was a digital world where augmented reality, virtual reality and the internet all fuse together.
And that’s essentially what companies are aiming to produce, give or take a few tweaks. While everyone who’s working on the race for the metaverse may have a slightly different take, the end result is essentially a bigger, better and more interactive version of the internet that can be accessed through augmented and virtual reality.
Rather than clicking on an address via a browser, you’ll move through a virtual world that will provide a far richer and more immersive experience.
How Does the Metaverse Differ from Virtual Reality?
There are plenty of VR systems out there at the moment, such as the Oculus Rift, Vive and Valve, but none of them come close to what the metaverse aims to achieve.
The most challenging part is that no one owns the specific space, so it’s currently a hotly contested race between big-name developers such as Meta, Microsoft and more.
Meta itself has admitted that it won’t own the whole metaverse, but instead will be contributing to creating the world. Microsoft has already announced the creation of Microsoft Mesh, a mixed-reality platform that bears a striking resemblance to the metaverse that Zuckerberg described.
So far no one has been able to distinctly and accurately describe what the metaverse will look like, and that’s because the tech isn’t quite there.
But what they can say is that it won’t work in the same way as virtual reality. For example, you won’t have to wear a VR headset to enter the metaverse. Users will interact via avatars in a virtual space, but rather than being confined; this space will cover the whole of the internet.
The Metaverse and Gaming
The use of augmented reality to access the metaverse holds incredible potential for gaming, so it’s little surprise that big gaming businesses are keen to jump on board early.
Online casino brand, PartyCasino, part of the Entain group, has revealed that it was already planning on developing products for the metaverse, and had committed up to £100 million in a new centre for innovation.
Entain owns several reputable betting and gaming brands, with players from all over the world, across a variety of platforms. In the United Kingdom, Entain also offers their gaming services via physical locations on the high street. The group firmly believes that the metaverse holds incredible potential for the world of gaming. Their innovation hub will be known as Ennovate, and £40 million has been set aside for investment in the UK.
Jette Nygaard-Andersen, the CEO of Entain, said that the company hoped to “pioneer innovations in sport, gaming and interactive entertainment for the metaverse” and would deliver immersive experiences and richer content, along with social interaction.
BT and Verizon will be partnering with Ennovate to provide 5G support, with Theta Labs launching a non-fungible token platform that will be available to poker players.
The plan is for the first Ennovate lab to open in London in Spring 2022, with visitors able to try out the new interactive experiences for themselves.
No further details have yet been provided about how Ennovate will work and how close it will come to the concept of a woven metaverse where players can navigate through different gaming applications in the same area. But what is clear is that Entain, via their Ennovate hub, believes that the metaverse is key to gaming of the future – and that huge and exciting changes are on the way…
