If you want to talk about the hottest concept in the Internet industry in the past year, the metacosm is called second, and I believe that no one should call it the first.
Entering 2022, the metaverse concept product form seems to have gradually become clear from the initial confusion to the present, but if you want to talk about the future development direction and form of the metacosm, it may still be a hundred schools of thought.
When will the metaverse arrive? What kind of metaverse do we really need? Perhaps all this does not yet have a definite answer, and like the metaverse concept itself, it is swayed by various opinions and statements.
Even so, the meta-universe outlet is still continuing, and there are not a few industry explorers, but in the second year, the "meta-universe" seems to have more "maturity" and more real materials.
Another VR hardware entry into the meta-universe, HTC Vive announced a new brand Viverse
On February 28, HTC Vive officially announced the meta-universe brand Viverse, and announced the first Viverse product demonstration at the 2022 MWC (Mobile World Congress).
According to the official, Viverse is the next chapter in VIVE's virtual reality vision, Viverse will provide a seamless experience, users can use tablets, PCs, smartphones and other hardware devices at any time and any place to access Viverse through a browser. Viverse as a whole is enabled by virtual reality, augmented reality, high-speed connectivity, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, which HTC has invested in for years.
Judging from the promotional video, Viverse form is very similar to the previous META's "Horizon Worlds", Baidu's "Hill", etc., in which users have a customizable virtual character, and Viverse provides many scenes, users can chat together, or watch programs, participate in concerts and so on.
It should be pointed out that Viverse has been aiming to become an open ecosystem since its birth, so it not only supports HTC's virtual reality devices, but also can be used directly by PC and mobile users.
Meanwhile, the biggest highlight in Viverse is HTC VIVE's latest immersive glasses VIVE Flow. It is reported that VIVE Flow is the first VR device to support crypto wallets, where users can store and manage NFTs and other digital assets through "WalletConnect", while also accessing their own assets on other platforms such as mobile phones.
It is worth mentioning that Viverse also has a unique function called "Vive Guardian" exclusive to Vive Flow, which can be used for parents, guardians, teachers and other content that restricts teenagers' access to VR, which is equivalent to "anti-addiction" in the metaverse.
Game companies have come forward to say that the wait-and-see faction is emerging in an endless stream
Viverse is not the first metaverse product, and after last year's metaverse boom, the next year or even a few years may have meta-universe products available.
Of course, along with many products, there is also a "hundred contending" between major technology companies and industry tycoons. For example, last year, there were supporters such as META company Zuckerberg, and there were also concernists like Niantic CEO John Hanke, but after microsoft CEOs threw out the view that the essence of the metaverse is a game, the second round of metaversic "hundred controversies" seems to be dominated by game companies.
For example, just recently, in order to create momentum for his own game host Steam Deck, the owner of V Society, G Fat, is very active, from time to time will introduce interviews with various media, or personally deliver to the first batch of users who subscribe to Steam Deck.
In the interview, it is natural to avoid talking about the metaverse, and when asked how to view the metaverse, G Fat admitted that most people who talk about the metacosm themselves do not know what they are talking about, and they have obviously never played MMO. Having a customizable avatar, which is actually like the La Nosia of FF14, is nothing new.
With a similar view is also R Star parent company Take Two CEO Zelnick, previously, he said that the metaverse is not so popular, in his view, many of the so-called metaverse is just a change of fashion, if the metacosm just refers to in a virtual world through the virtual image to communicate with others, do things together, then T2's "GTA Online", "Red Dead Redemption Online", "NBA 2K" and so on can already be regarded as the industry's largest, The best metaverse out.
At the same time, Zelnick also contradicted Zuckerberg's vision of a metaverse, in which consumers may want entertainment and fun, rather than virtual extensions of real life.
The most well-known to players is Nintendo, which is out of the circle because it "does not understand" the metaverse.
Even to be "taught"
At the February 4 earnings meeting, when asked what he thought of metacosmology, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said: "Metacosm has attracted the attention of many companies around the world, and it has great potential. But there's no easy way to define the metaverse or clarify what surprises and feelings it can bring to our consumers. This field could only be considered if one could find an easy-to-understand "Nintendo-style" expression, but at this stage the situation does not fit that. ”
This statement was subsequently interpreted by many parties as "Nintendo does not understand the metaverse", of course, from the words of Toshitaro Furukawa, it can also be seen that Nintendo has a cautious wait-and-see attitude towards the metacosm.
In addition to their own opinions, it is quite coincidental that these three "contrarian" companies have products that are widely considered to be very close to the metacosm.
For example, Nintendo's "Collection! Animal Friends is regarded as one of Nintendo's closest products to the metaverse, and its expression is often considered to be similar to the future form of the metaverse. Similarly, T2's "GTA Online", "Red Dead Redemption Online" and other products are often considered to have "metaverse elements".
For the V Society, it may be closer to the metaverse, such as the gun skin in CS:GO is often used to explain the principles of NFTs. Not only that, V Society has a lot of achievements in the VR field, both as a referee and as an athlete, not only has VR hardware equipment, but also has the SteamVR platform and quality content such as "Half-Life Alyx".
In addition, G Fat has also publicly talked about a series of sci-fi cutting-edge technologies such as brain-computer interfaces, so in the eyes of many people, G Fat's view of the metaverse is very loud.
Metacosm cooling? Not bad
Strictly speaking, whether it is V Society, T2 or Nintendo, its view of the metaverse is not completely against the metacosm, but more that the current product and technical power seems to be difficult to support the metacosm.
In fact, since the beginning of the year, the metaverse concept seems to have cooled down from the wall. For example, ROBLOX and META, which have made a splash overseas in the past year, have seen a sharp decline in stock prices.
At the product level, META's hugely expensive product Horizon Worlds has a mediocre performance, just breaking through the 300,000 monthly active mark, while other metaverse-related products do not seem to be prominent.
In other words, the metacosmonic vision is certainly worth imagining, but how to land and how to achieve it? After the outlet and freshness, what long-term retention of meta-universe products that have appeared in the market? What is the ultimate direction? And so on, all deserve more in-depth thought.
On the other hand, in January this year alone, more than a dozen AR/VR or some meta-universe-related companies disclosed that they had obtained financing, and from the perspective of investment and financing, although the meta-universe was not like last year, the enthusiasm of capital has not completely dissipated.
In the final analysis, as more and more enterprises enter the game, the metacosm is gradually developing in the direction of industrialization from the level of people's beautiful vision of science and technology, the future, and the concept, but the special feature of the metacosm concept is that it is a top-down concept, and how to provide users with a satisfactory experience has naturally become a problem.
At the same time, from the development of the metaverse to the final formation, it is actually inseparable from the matching supervision and guidance, and reconstructing the Internet industry and even people's lives should be within a reasonable scope.
For example, in February this year, the "Meta-universe Industry Self-Discipline Convention" issued by the Meta-Universe Industry Committee of the China Mobile Communications Federation pointed out that it is necessary to resolutely resist the use of the meta-universe hotspot concept for capital speculation and avoid the formation of a market bubble.
Rome was not built in a day, and the day when the ultimate vision of the metacosm will arrive may take some time, and it is not a good thing to recognize that reality is on the development track.
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