Category: Metaverse

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Industry Giants Announce Big Moves into Blockchain Gaming

gamer with hands in the air

The world of blockchain gaming continues to boom, with prominent gaming industry figures, including Sega, Epic Games and PUBG creator Brian Greene, all announcing new blockchain-based projects within the past fortnight.

Blockchain games have generally been poorly received by seasoned gamers, as they’re often brimming with micro-transactions, gambling and/or NFT collectibles. Despite this, blockchain gaming has expanded rapidly over the past few years, growing over 2000% in 2021 alone.

The enthusiasm shown for blockchain projects from reputable industry figures in the past few weeks perhaps marks the start of a transition to higher quality and more positively received games. 

PUBG Jumps Into The Metaverse

The first big announcement came from PUBG creator, Brian Greene on September 28, when he announced his next project, known as Artemis, will be a blockchain-based metaverse game featuring NFTs. According to Greene, Artemis will be an open-world game that will allow players to make anything they can imagine.

In an interview with the HitPoints Substack, Greene was keen to point out the game will not be a cash grab, an accusation levelled at some other blockchain-based games:

“The only way this exists is if it’s made for everyone, and it’s not made for money.” 

Brian Green, PUBG Creator

However, Greene also says players will be able to make money in the game by selling their creations to other players. 

Greene is aware of the pushback against blockchain from the gaming community, but insists he’s committed to using the technology in Artemis, saying “I’m just going to do what I’m going to do…but it doesn’t matter if it’s called the metaverse. I don’t care what people want to call it.”

Epic Games Launches Playable Demo Of Solana-based Star Atlas

The next piece of news came from Epic Games, who released a playable demo of the Solana-based game Star Atlas. The demo, which is a pre-alpha release built using Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, allows players to explore a virtual 3D showroom and inspect ships and other vehicles which they’ve purchased as NFTs. 

Access to the Star Atlas demo is currently limited to holders of Star Atlas NFTs, although access codes will eventually be given to some select non-NFT owners. 

The developer of Star Atlas, ATMTA, says they’ll gradually add more features to the playable demo over the coming months, including the ability for players to take their ships out for a test flight. The date for the full release of Star Atlas hasn’t been specified, but it’s expected to still be several years away.

In addition to releasing the demo, ATMTA also released a developer toolkit designed to ease the development process for others looking to create Unreal Engine 5-powered games leveraging Solana.

Sega Announces Plans To Launch First Blockchain Game

Finally, gaming icon Sega, has announced it’ll be launching its first blockchain-based game in collaboration with developer Double Jump Tokyo. 

The game will be based on Sega’s Sangokushi Taisen arcade franchise and will leverage the Japanese Oasys network, which is designed specifically for blockchain gaming and integrates with Ethereum, Astar Network, and potentially other blockchains.

Sega and Double Jump Tokyo haven’t clarified exactly how blockchain will be incorporated into the game and haven’t specified a release date.

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Crypto News Metaverse

MTV Launches ‘Best Metaverse Performance’ Video Award Category

In deference to growing awareness of Web3, this year’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) will feature an exciting new category, ‘Best Metaverse Performance’, with K-pop sensations BTS, Canadian pop star Justin Bieber and American chanteuse Ariana Grande among the six nominees for their recent metaverse music projects:

Metaverse MTV Awards: Full List

Tune in to the VMAs on August 28 to find out who will take out the first ever ‘Best Metaverse Performance’ award. Voting closed on August 8 for the six acts in contention: Justin Bieber and Wave’s ‘An Interactive Virtual Experience’; Fortnite’s ‘the Rift Tour’ featuring Ariana Grande; YouTube and BTS collaboration PUBG Mobile and Blackpink’s ‘The Virtual’; and both Carli XCX’s and Twenty One Pilot’s collabs with Roblox.

MTV’s decision to broaden its categories was based on what it describes as the desire to recognise artists’ efforts to connect with their global fans via virtual metaverse experiences.

https://www.wallpapersin4k.org/images/7074

We saw the opportunity to highlight and honour some of the best, most impactful executions of this – and celebrate artists who have found creative ways to use these spaces – which led to the addition of a ‘Best Metaverse Performance’ category this year.

MTV spokesperson

The awards show also announced its maiden metaverse foray on August 12, with Paramount Game Studios releasing The VMA Experience to Roblox’s metaverse. The collaboration will be live until early September 2022.

What Else is Happening in the Metaverse?

Just this month, the metaverse real estate ‘bubble’ popped. As happens when the actual real estate bubble bursts, metaverse prices crashed by 85 percent. Beyond waning interest, the downfall of the sector was linked to a wider drop in the value of crypto and NFTs, alongside harsh macroeconomic conditions.

Prior to this, Animoca Brands, the company behind The Sandbox, launched a new decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) called OMA3, with hopes of developing the metaverse’s interoperability standards. Animoca has reportedly established an alliance with other prominent Web3 companies and plans to prioritise users’ asset ownership capabilities in its upcoming changes.

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Crypto News Crypto Wallets Metaverse NFTs Sports

Real Madrid and Barcelona FC Team Up for Metaverse Activities

Despite their innate differences and fierce rivalry on the pitch, Spanish football superclubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid have filed a joint metaverse trademark application encompassing virtual reality gaming/clothing and crypto transaction management software:

Both Clubs to Offer Crypto Wallets

FC Barcelona and Real Madrid filed the application over a week ago but the news has only just been confirmed by trademarks lawyer Mike Kondoudis. The filing indicates that both clubs may be interested in offering their own cryptocurrency wallets.

The alliance has raised eyebrows in that each team represents totally different values. FC Barcelona symbolises the separatist Catalan region, while Real Madrid is linked to the royal family and represents traditional Spanish culture and nationalism.

The derby between the clubs is known as “El Clasico” and is one of football’s premier events. Both clubs have a global fanbase and are the world’s two most followed sports teams on social media.

Back on the Crypto Bandwagon

News of the joint venture has also created interest in light of the fact that FC Barcelona, along with English Premier League champions Manchester City, discarded its crypto sponsors last year in controversial circumstances.

In the case of FC Barcelona, the club announced it had cancelled a deal with NFT marketplace Ownix after the arrest of one of its consultants, Moshe Hogeg, owner of Israeli football team Beitar Jerusalem, for suspected crypto fraud.

Also in November 2021, the Catalan club announced it would be auctioning non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of memorable moments from the club’s 122 years in the game. It was whispered at the time that the auction would serve to offset a debt crisis afflicting the club.

Fan Tokens Part of Metaverse Strategy

Earlier this year, FT Barcelona confirmed music streaming giant Spotify as its jersey sponsor. It also issued its own fan token and has since been linked with fan engagement token company Socios.com in a US$100 million deal to reshape the strategies of the club in the Web3 and metaverse space.

In 2020, Real Madrid partnered with NFT collectible company Sorare and the following year announced it would issue Smart Tickets in the form of NFTs for its audience in partnership with LAVA.

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Crypto News Metaverse NFTs

Pudgy Penguin NFTs Pump After Announcing Physical Toys

Pudgy Penguins, one of the cutest of NFT collections, has announced on Twitter that it will be turning select penguins into physical collectibles to be known as Pudgy Toys:

Following the announcement, the collection registered a sales spike of 370 percent, representing a threefold increase over the previous day.

Pudgy Penguin Plushies?

Described by the PP creators as “the first of many instances where the Pudgy Penguins IP will allow Web2 to meet Web3”, this latest news seems to have renewed community interest.

According to OpenSea, the collection saw a transaction volume of 256 ETH post-announcement. Pudgy Penguins’ floor price rose to 2.73 ETH, up 18 percent on the previous day. Though the exact form these collectibles will take has yet to be revealed, it has been stated that the new line of Pudgy Toys will be directly licensed from the community:

This update coincides with the ongoing debate regarding licensing rights for NFT holders. It’s an issue recently highlighted by the Moonbirds collection, whose floor price tanked following the switch to a CC0 (creative commons) licence.

Netz Spreads the Pudgy Love

In April, the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection sold for a whopping 750 ETH (US$2.6 million), separating the 8,888 penguins from their allegedly controversial roots. Luca Netz, the LA-based entrepreneur of Netz Capital, now leads the project and intends to use it to “spread love across the meta”.

Netz’s complete project ownership means Pudgy Penguins now has its own token, $PENGU.

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Metaverse NFTs Real Estate

Metaverse Real Estate Bubble Pops, Prices Crash 85% Amid Waning Interest

Not even the metaverse is exempt from housing bubbles as virtual property sales have plunged 85 percent in 2022, according to recent analytics from digital land gateway platform WeMeta.

In just six months, the metaverse real estate industry has seen a massive decline in volume. The bubble reflects waning interest and a wider retreat in cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), combined with harsh macroeconomic conditions:

The WeMeta analytics were based on the six largest Ethereum metaverse projects, including Decentraland and The Sandbox. Overall, land sales volume across these platforms has dropped considerably, from a peak of US$1 billion in November 2021 to barely US$150 million in August 2022:

Source: WeMeta

Metaverse ETFs (exchange-traded funds) have also lost value, with the Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF (METV) plunging along with blockchain-based metaverse projects. The METV offers investors exposure to companies exploring the metaverse, such as Facebook’s parent company, META. Accordingly, the ETF has tanked by nearly 50 percent from its all-time high of US$17.11 in November 2021.

Source: TradingView

Buying Digital Land is ‘the Dumbest Sh*t Ever’, Says Cuban

Billionaire crypto advocate Mark Cuban has some harsh words for everyone who jumped in on digital real estate. “It’s the dumbest shit ever,” he said in an interview this week with YouTube channel Altcoin Daily.

The metaverse and NFTs have been waning in demand for months, and only a handful of projects have seen millionaire investments from fundraising rounds. Such was the case with Ethereum-based NFT game Illuvium, which raised more than US$72 million following the sale of nearly 20,000 digital land plots.

At the height of the NFT craze last year, a single Axie Infinity land plot sold for a record US$2.5 million. Considering the market bubble, best not ask about the current price of other lands in the metaverse.

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Crypto News Metaverse

Tinder Nervous About Making Moves in the Metaverse … For Now

Online dating app Tinder has gone cold on its plans to hook up with the metaverse – at least temporarily – after parent company Match Group recorded “disappointing” second quarter earnings.

In-App Currency Also Shelved

Match Group is also shelving its plans to offer in-app Tinder Coins currency, while in another corporate blow, Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg has announced she will be leaving the company after less than 12 months in the job.

With Tinder’s Q2 share price down 22 percent, Match Group’s 2021 acquisition of artificial intelligence and augmented reality firm Hyperconnect has resulted in an operating loss of US$10 million.

Although year-on-year growth in total revenue increased by 12 percent, earnings failed to meet analysts’ expectations. Nyborg had unveiled the firm’s ambitious ‘Tinderverse’ project after acquiring Hyperconnect, but Match Group CEO Bernard Kim said the dating app would be treading carefully in light of uncertainty in the space.

“I believe a metaverse dating experience is important to capture the next generation of users and Hyperconnect has been innovating in this area,” Kim said.

However, given a more challenging operating environment, I’ve instructed the Hyperconnect team to iterate but not invest heavily in [the] metaverse at this time.

Bernard Kim, CEO, Match Group

As for the Tinder Coins initiative, first floated in October last year, the idea was to encourage users to spend more time swiping, scrolling and subsequently spending real money on Tinder, at least initially in the US.

The in-app currency was part of Tinder’s efforts to create an experience beyond its traditional “swipe left or right” signature interactive method. The feature was soft-launched in February this year but its future is now uncertain.

We’ll continue to evaluate this space carefully, and we will consider moving forward at the appropriate time when we have more clarity on the overall opportunity and feel we have a service that is well-positioned to succeed.

Bernard Kim, CEO, Match Group

Another Romantic Entanglement

Last year, Tinder and other dating apps Bumble and Grindr were targeted by a crypto-related trading scam known as CryptoRom. A Bitcoin wallet belonging to the attackers, as detected by cybersecurity firm Sophos with the aid of one victim, revealed that nearly US$1.4 million in cryptos had been harvested by the scam as at October 2021.

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Crypto News Japan Metaverse

Japan’s Ministry of Economy Launches Web3 Policy Office

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has established a Web3 policy office within the Minister’s Secretariat in a bid to boost the importance of digital assets in the country.

According to an official announcement, the new Web3 office will help create better frameworks for Web3-related businesses by gathering information from key players in the industry and working with relevant parties toward developing a proper environment for Web3:

As metaverses become new personal interfaces, especially among younger generations such as Generation Z, digital spaces and assets could become much more important, and their business value could also increase dramatically.

METI blog post

Moreover, the Web3 office will bring together several departments responsible for industrial finance, taxation and corporate systems, as well as those responsible for media, digital content, sports, fashion and other industries.

Companies Betting Big on the Metaverse

Japan is one of the latest countries to enter the metaverse with its push to expand Web3 businesses and technology. Not so long ago, one of North America’s ‘Big Four’ accounting firms, KPMG, opened its first metaverse collaboration hub to examine potential use cases in several industries.

Despite a current bearish scenario for digital assets in general, companies and firms across different industries are still betting big on Web3. A week ago, Crypto News Australia reported that auction house Christie’s had established Christie’s Ventures, an investment fund for fintech companies looking to tap into the digital art market.

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Crypto News Facebook Metaverse

US Regulator Sues Meta to Prevent it from Owning the Entire Metaverse

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shared a media release indicating its intentions to sue Meta and block its acquisition of Within, a VR fitness app maker.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, comes off the back of rising concerns over Meta’s plans for metaverse expansion:

Meta Marches Toward a Monopoly

The purchase of Within may not be so significant on its own; however, the FTC has concerns it could be Meta’s first step towards holding a monopoly over the metaverse:

In its media release, the FTC stated that it sought to block the purchase and alleges that Meta is attempting to stifle VR fitness competition from independent studios. The commission’s final vote was 3-2 in favour of blocking the deal.

With Meta already owning ‘Beat Saber’, which many deem a fitness app, there is concern that the purchase of Within could stifle competitive innovation. However, Nikhil Shanbhag, Meta’s vice president and associate general counsel, has challenged this notion.

https://theorg.com/org/meta/org-chart/nikhil-shanbhag

The idea that this acquisition would lead to anticompetitive outcomes in a dynamic space with as much entry and growth as online and connected fitness is simply not credible.

Nikhil Shanbhag, Meta vice president/associate general counsel

The FTC’s plans to prevent the purchase of Within are not the only new information to come to light this week. Meta’s latest earnings report for Q2 revealed that the tech giant’s Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) division recorded a loss of US$2.81 billion, only a slight improvement on its Q1 loss of US$2.96 billion.

Meta is seemingly not fazed by these figures. Instead, the company is focusing on establishing its metaverse sector for what it hopes will be a successful 2030s decade.

Other Metaverse Developments

Of late, there have been multiple developments regarding the metaverse and its adoption. In April, Meta announced plans to open a physical metaverse-themed store in the San Francisco Bay area. Plans for the store include wall-to-wall curved LED screens to display what users would see when using virtual reality (VR) headsets. Its overall purpose is to provide demos and show the public how VR and metaverse tech work.

This week also saw new initiatives from Sandbox creator Animoca Brands, which has announced an alliance with several prominent Web3 companies to develop a new decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). The DAO will prioritise users’ asset ownership capabilities and return autonomy to the owners of digital assets.

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Crypto News Education Metaverse

Renowned Ivy League Business School ‘Wharton’ Launches Metaverse Certification

In a first for a US Ivy League institution, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is launching a six-week online certificate course on business in the metaverse.

Entitled ‘Business in the Metaverse Economy’, the course seeks to educate students about the expanding metaverse and provide them with the tools to address issues within it:

Wharton, one of the world’s leading business schools, has teamed up with consulting firm Prysm Group to design the course, taking the form of more than 50 lectures by industry faculty representatives along with six case studies. The Aresty Institute of Executive Education course has already attracted guest speakers from Adobe, Animoca Brands, R/GA, RLY Network, The New York Times, Second Life and The Wall Street Journal, among other organisations.

According to the program’s academic director, Professor Kevin Werbach:

The metaverse is a significant and broad phenomenon that is still poorly understood. We hope to equip business leaders, consultants, and entrepreneurs with an understanding of the impending opportunities the metaverse brings, as well as the practical knowledge to build solutions of value.

Kevin Werbach, academic program director, Aresty Institute of Executive Education

Australia at Investment Forefront

Wharton claims that the metaverse will become a US$13 trillion market with five billion users by 2030. In fact, research from Analysis Group estimates that as the metaverse increases in popularity, it could make a US$3 trillion global GDP contribution in its first decade.

If growth estimations are realised, a lot more investment will be needed in terms of research and development. An investment of US$100 million was recently made into the launch of the Metaverse Research and Development Centre in Melbourne that will ensure Australia is ready for when the market truly takes off.

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Crypto News DAO Metaverse

Sandbox Creator ‘Animoca Brands’ Launches DAO to Develop Metaverse Interoperability Standards

Animoca Brands has established an alliance with other prominent Web3 companies this week to create a new decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) to prioritise users’ asset ownership capabilities.

The company behind smash hit metaverse game ‘The Sandbox’ has teamed up with a number of blockchain-based metaverse creators to establish the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3). The DAO so far consists of popular names including Alien Worlds, Splinterlands, Dapper Labs, Upland, Star Atlas and, most notably, Decentraland. However, Animoca intends to invite many other creators on board.

Finer Detail Yet to be Revealed

The fine print of how this new DAO will operate, such as governance rules and voting power allocation, is yet to be revealed. However, it has been stated that OMA3’s main goals are to solve key challenges of the metaverse, such as the preservation of freedom of information owned by users:

We believe in a metaverse without restraining walls, where individual platforms are interconnected and fully interoperable … Users will immutably own these assets and transfer them to any OMA3 virtual worlds freely, without needing the platform’s permission.

OMA3 statement

This alliance would seem to be competition for the ‘Metaverse Standards Forum’ (MSF), which was announced earlier this week. Founded by big names in tech, such as Microsoft, Meta, Sony and Alibaba, all the companies in MSF are known for restricting user information usage and creating barriers when it comes to transfers.

OMA3 will set out to develop its infrastructure to ensure the metaverse operates as a unified system where digital assets and data are controlled by users, not platforms. Users of this infrastructure will own their assets and should be able to transfer them freely across the OMA3 world without requiring platform permission.

Animoca’s Recent Movements

‘Be Media’, an Australian digital marketing agency, sold a large stake of its company to Animoca Brands in April 2022. Animoca’s purchase is believed to be part of its incursion into Australia, as it hopes to induct more companies into Web3.