The hype around the Metaverse may have died down, but immersive virtual experiences are still in their infancy for consumers. As opportunities expand for brands and sellers in these new economies, the Metaverse platform is worth following.
This is a guide to the promising virtual worlds retailers and brands can explore in the year ahead. Some can be accessed through virtual reality headsets. Other companies offer social and gaming platforms with virtual lands. digital currency. All are immersive and draw consumers into new realms.
roblox
roblox is an immersive platform for creating, playing, and connecting through experiences built by a community of creators. It claims to have nearly 80 million daily users. Recent platform improvements include an expanded marketplace with dynamic pricing, in-experience subscriptions, a rights manager, video ads, and an enhanced ads manager.
Roblox has also made the most progress in developing e-commerce initiatives with brands and merchants. recently, ikea We created The Co-Worker Game to help you find employees to open a store on Roblox, promote it, and staff it. walmart launched an e-commerce experience within the Discovered world, allowing users to try out virtual items with their avatars and visit Walmart.com to make purchases through a virtual laptop. Shopify is integrating its Checkout solution into Roblox, with a large-scale release planned for early 2025. Developers, creators, and brands on Shopify can sell physical items directly within their Roblox games without leaving the platform.
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Meta Horizon World
Meta Horizon World is an immersive social experience for exploring, playing, and creating. Horizon Worlds, a meta product that allows users to log in with their Facebook account, can be accessed via the Meta Quest VR headset on all devices. 23 countries These headsets are sold and supported by Meta.
Meta continues to develop the platform. Last year, the company released a series of high-quality products VR game. This summer, Horizon Worlds hosted the following concerts: sabrina carpenter. Meta has tested mixed reality in Horizon Worlds (with plans to make it more widely available).
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microsoft mesh
microsoft mesh is an immersive three-dimensional environment for people to collaborate using Microsoft Teams, a PC, or a Meta headset. Mesh allows users to make virtual meetings and events feel similar to in-person connections, with or without a headset. The 3D environment is also customizable and includes games like bean bag toss and ice-breaker questions.
Earlier this year, Mesh launched 3D meetings within Teams. Mesh event organizers can now see participant hands-up and reactions in all rooms of a multi-room event (that is, an event with more than 16 participants).
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sandbox
sandbox, Launched in 2012 as a 2D pixel art game, it is now a 3D environment for world-building games where world-class artists, storytellers, and designers create, publish, and own unique content via blockchain technology. , so that you can monetize it. Attend virtual concerts, art exhibits, and conferences from anywhere with artists like Snoop Dogg, DeadMau5, Blondish, Elvis in The Sandbox, and more. Brands like Gucci and Adidas are hosting immersive shopping experiences at The Sandbox, which features virtual fashion shows, showrooms, and stores. Sandbox says it has partnered with more than 200 brands and helped them develop their own worlds.
Sandbox has recently alpha season 4. 10 weeks In-platform events It features over 100 unique experiences, 50 hours of new gameplay, and collaborations with 40 brands along with user-generated content. Additionally, The Sandbox offers a total reward pool of over $2.5 million, paid in Sand, the platform’s native token.
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Decentraland
Decentraland A virtual 3D world where users use the virtual currency Mana to purchase virtual land as non-fungible tokens. ethereum blockchain. Users can also create and sell wearables. Digital fashion shows, contests and themed events are important social activities. Big-name brands and fashion labels like Samsung, Adidas, Miller Lite, Dolce & Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger, and Perry Ellis have purchased or participated in real estate.
Decentraland’s Upgraded desktop client launched a public beta on October 22nd, with enhanced graphics and performance, faster frame rates, and faster virtual world loading times. This upgrade increases avatar density, allowing over 200 avatars to exist in the same location, enhancing the social aspect of the world. The platform will also introduce features such as quests and badges to track player progress and encourage social engagement. The platform will hold a three-day music festival in November to test its new features.
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fortnite
fortniteis a Metaverse platform launched in 2017 and developed by. epic games. It supports six game modes: Battle Royale, Save the World, LEGO Fortnite, Fortnite Creative, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival. All modes are cross-platform compatible and require an Epic Games account to save across platforms. Additionally, this mode utilizes the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, which allows players to edit the world using Fortnite assets.
Fortnite has had a series of successful collaborations with brands and artists including LEGO, Marvel, the NFL, Eminem, and Travis Scott. At the beginning of this year, disney announced a multi-year project with Epic Games to build a gaming and entertainment world of Disney stories and experiences, and a $1.5 billion investment by Disney to acquire an equity stake in the developer. The new universe offers many opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and more. Players, gamers, and fans can create their own stories and experiences, express their fandom, and share content.
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somnium space
somnium space is an open source virtual reality world that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can find and purchase land parcels in the main world or parallel worlds, build and create offices, art galleries, event halls, social spaces, virtual portfolios to display their work, and more. Accessible through VR, PC, and the web, Somnium Space is an alternate reality for connecting with friends, customers, and even fans.
Somnium Space recently opened orders for its next-generation VR headset, the Somnium VR1. It claims the widest undistorted field view of any consumer headset. Somnium Space also mode of living forever Immortalize individuals through AI-powered avatars that recreate their voice, mannerisms, and movements in just 30 minutes of observation. This mode is intended to allow interaction with mirrored avatars of deceased loved ones.
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ladybirth
ladybirth is an interactive digital world on hold This brings the Ready Player One movie and fiction series franchise into the Metaverse. web 3 (i.e. the decentralized web). This project is focused on the Metaverse ladybirth studio In partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery. Additional brands and franchises joining The Readyverse are expected to launch in late 2024.
Readyverse Studio recently released prompt peerwhich combines multiplayer gameplay with real-time AI asset generation. Users can build, share, and play worlds shaped by their own ideas built within the Readyverse.
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Nvidia Omniverse
Nvidia Omniverse is a platform of APIs, SDKs, and services that enables developers to integrate Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) and RTX rendering technology (variable shading and textures) to power 3D product configurators and improve customer shopping experiences. improve. Earlier this year, Nvidia apple vision prodisplays Nvidia’s RTX cloud rendering in real time, blending 3D photorealistic environments with the physical world.
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My Happy Place: Bandwagon and McDonald’s Singapore
bandwagon labhas partnered with the technology arm of Asia-based media company Bandwagon. mcdonalds singapore launch my happy place. This in-app experience uses Bw.land, Bandwagon’s lightweight metaverse with Web3 capabilities. McDonald’s World combines virtual entertainment and tangible rewards through Build-A-Burger and Wheel Of Deals, allowing users to redeem real-life deals and prizes. This partnership will give McDonald’s complete control over the virtual environment. Users can access the McDonald’s app without signing in with a digital wallet. This launch follows last year’s collaboration, with 2,000 Grimace NFTs being released as limited edition collectibles.