The metaverse was on everyone's lips in 2021 but the concept remains elusive to many. To mature to its next stage of evolution, the metaverse will need to tackle three frontiers in the new year: skilled talent, smart investments and innovative experiences.
Gaming companies have recently hit the headlines with another metaverse-induced trend: moves for consolidation. A few days ago Microsoft announced plans to acquiremaker Activision Blizzard in its largest all-cash acquisition ever at $69 billion, hoping that bestseller games will help attract skeptics to the metaverse. These news are coming shortly aftercreator Zynga for $13 billion the week prior, and after 2021 saw a record $117 billion worth of gaming acquisitions.
The chipmakers, too, need to make the requisite investments if they are to realize their potential of powering the metaverse. Intel announced a few days ago that it would spend $20 billion on two plants in Ohio, though this investment could balloon up to $100 billion for eight manufacturing plants if things go well.
Institutional and retail investors are gearing up for the metaverse as well. SoftBank announced in late November 2021 that it was investing $150 million in a South Korean metaverse platform. Shares of companies leading the space have surged. A selection of metaverse-focused exchange traded funds have appeared on the scene, with some showing potential. As the vision for the metaverse continues to mature, so will investors’ appetite.
On the more creative side of investments lies the metaverse real estate market. “Imagine if you came to New York when it was farmland, and you had the option to get a block of SoHo,” told the cofounder of digital real estate company Metaverse Group, Michael Gord, the. Gord and other investors are speculating on plots of land in the immersive online world. Digital worlds like Decentraland and Sandbox allow virtual developers to build and rent out digital malls. One such developer has spent $4.
The future of work will be redefined by new metaverse experiences. Besides Nvidia’s Omniverse Enterprise, Meta’s Horizon Workrooms and Microsoft’s Mesh are also designed to empower work in a virtual world, both enabling remote collaboration across devices through mixed reality applications. Virtual meetings will move to the metaverse – as quickly as– and workers will increasingly rely on using VR headsets and avatars at work.
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