The metaverse constitutes the modern Internet and with it a lot of new space for technologies and game development. According to the latest projections by the US financial news agency Bloomberg, the metaverse has market potential of over 800 billion US dollars. But which industries will benefit the most from the metaverse?

The metaverse creates new worlds for entertainment, art, co-working, collaboration and productivity, powered by technological inventions such as blockchain, cloud-based applications and 5G.

The agency FOR REAL?!, which specializes in AR/VR technologies and Web 3.0 applications, knows the possibilities and opportunities that lie in the metaverse, as well as the industries that benefit significantly from the development of Web 3.0.

Gaming in the metaverse

Hardly any other industry is as characterized by its versatility as the video game industry. In line with Darwin's Law, the industry adapts its needs to current trends and technologies, and thus survives minor faux pas, such as Second Life, which appeared too early for its time. Immersive games such as Sim City and Minecraft established what successful titles such as League of Legends, Fortnite and Roblox have developed over the years and the Zepeto platform, popular in Asia, is now continuing, gaining new members every day. Not to mention that clever brand partnerships with Balenciaga, Ralph Lauren, Nike, Hilfiger, or Timberland are expanding the dominance of such metaverse games and applications.

Fashion labels like Balenciaga invest already a lot into the gaming industry. Afterworld, for instance, has been created in 2020, a walking simulator that combined gamification and fashion, and Louis Vuitton followed this trend with a similar approach by bringing Louis the Game in August 2021 to mobile devices.

In terms of market size, not even the film or sports industries can beat the gaming industry. Numerous virtual goods, brand deals and jobs beckon and attract new developers and creators to the industry. The potential seems endless!

In fact, many consumers already use such quasi-metaverses offers on a daily basis as I already mentioned in last week’s article. With Web 3.0, new attractive retail options are now emerging, as the Nike x RTFKT example clearly shows.

We can assume that in the future reality and computer-generated illusion will be mixed up and be probably almost indistinguishable from each other. We will make things happen through eye movements or through brain waves. If we talk to someone on the phone or play an online game, we will see that person in the same room with us. We will be able to touch and feel them through haptic technology.

Robert Scoble and Shel Israel described all of these scenarios already back in 2016 in their book The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything, and since then we have come much closer to their vision: hardware and software for augmented and virtual reality have developed enormously in recent years; headsets for AR and VR have become more powerful and self-sufficient; current smartphones and tablets support AR applications now; volumetric videos are currently being standardized in MPEG and aim to create virtual elements in photorealistic quality; and the new 5G generation of mobile communications also ensures that the vision can become reality to some extent.

On the one hand, 5G (or 6G in the future) makes it possible to transmit very large amounts of data very quickly, as required for many AR and VR applications. On the other hand, the necessary processing is shifted from the end devices to powerful processing units that are provided at the edges of the mobile phone networks. As a result, the end devices can become smaller, their battery capacity can be reduced, and their runtime can still be significantly extended.

Clearly, virtual reality is more than gaming, with which it is often exclusively associated and augmented reality goes far beyond the funny ears in camera filters or the tape measure app that many people use without even knowing it's AR. Be it in construction or planning, maintenance or repairs, training or further education, product presentations or in retail, orientation in unfamiliar places or in tourism: AR and VR are already proving themselves everywhere today by making many things faster, easier, more collaborative. Both are already mature technologies that can do great things in the here and now.

By Daniela La Marca