Product Potential in the Metaverse

A metaverse is a virtual 3D environment that people can interact with using avatars. The idea has existed to some degree since the creation of 2nd Life, an online social platform in the same vein as the Sims.

Metaverses have recently taken a resurgence in popularity due to a few factors, one being blockchain technology and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) providing a means of monetisation that has been sorely missing from the space.?

The second major event has been the coronavirus pandemic, which encouraged social distancing measures and created an incentive to invest in metaverse technology.

The final, and likely most impactful reason, was the company formerly known as Facebook’s announcement that it was going to change its name to Meta, signifying a massive paradigm shift from a social media platform to a metaverse company.

While metaverses are highly anticipated, they are not an entirely new concept. In fact the gaming industry can be said to have already created several metaverses. Online games like Roblox, Fortnite, and World of Warcraft already meet the definition of a metaverse.?

There are other, more recent examples of metaverses, such as Nvidia’s Omniverse, which has ambitious goals to use metaverses to revolutionise the way we do business.

In fact, any massive corporation has made moves to embrace metaverses, whether its Nike’s NFT project or the Hyundai Mobility Adventure, a metaverse where customers can preview new products.

Recently Fortnite hosted an Ariana Grande concert and this could be the first of many metaverse entertainment events.

Metaverses are able to overcome many of the issues that live events struggle with. Overcrowding, parking and ticket scalping would immediately vanish in a metaverse entertainment experience.

One industry that could be altered significantly is the training industry. Instead of training happening on location, it could be simulated in the metaverse.?

This could solve significant issues like access to training facilities or just size constraints. Beyond that logistical issues for education and training would be a thing of the past. Metaverses could be a democratising force in the education industry.

Nvidia’s Omniverse might be the realistic future of metaverses. Nvidia is looking to simulate entire factory layouts within their Omniverse. This has the potential to save businesses billions in optimisation and significantly limit waste.?

The way it works is that a factory is constructed within a metaverse simulation, and so any issues within the production can be ironed out before the concrete for the factory’s foundation is even poured.

With the idea of factory simulations already being explored, there are a multitude of business to business services that might be able to benefit from a switch to the metaverse. Product previews are a good one, and as mentioned before, are already being explored by Hyundai.

Another possibility would be architectural and interior design. Buildings could be viewed in the metaverse before they are even built. Colour schemes can be assessed before a brush is dipped in paint.

Explorations in science could be advanced through the metaverse. Molecular structures could be simulated and theoretical scientific experiments could be held, assessing ideas that budgets or logistics have thus far limited. This may not be a perfect fit since we cannot recreate our physical world perfectly but the scope of potential for metaverses is massive.