The metaverse will supposedly play a central role in the South Korean economy.It’s hard to ignore the growing rise of South Korean media and culture in Western countries. Ever since Psy graced our ears with his now-iconic song ‘Gangnam Style’ in 2012, the popularity of South Korean music, film, and television has skyrocketed in places like the United States. But that’s nothing compared to the popularity of this media in its home country.Superstars acts like BTS alone have generated billions for the South Korean economy. The K-pop industry is so massive, the country actually relies upon it as one of its primary sources of gross national income next to Samsung. This blend of culture and technology is leading the country down interesting new avenues; the most important of which being the metaverse.In September 2021, the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT announced plans to invest a whopping $7.5 billion
By now, we’ve probably all at least heard of NFTs and virtual goods. But, what is the actual market like right now? How should interested companies get involved? Where is the market likely heading and what could drive these changes? Scalefast sifted through survey data from YouGov to come up with some answers and shared an early version of the report, titled “Revealing the Metaverse”, with ARPost. .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799 { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#FFFFFF; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #E74C3C!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799:active, .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799 { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1.05; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799 .ctaText
As always in January I like to play the speculation game and make my personal predictions for augmented and virtual reality for the new year (2022, in this case). The difference between the two is becoming always more blurred, but for this year I prefer keeping them separate because they still have different markets. I can’t guarantee that these predictions will come out to be true (I always joke about the fact that I miss many of the predictions about Meta/Oculus), but I think they will be worth reading anyway to understand what can be the trends to look for in this new year. So… let’s start! This is still the situation in this first part of 2022We all know the Gartner hype cycle of emergent technologies: they are initially overhyped, then undervalued, and finally, they fulfill their potential and become popular and useful. The M-verse will follow the same
One of the biggest global big-box retailers wants a chunk of that $800 billion metaverse business.It appears that Walmart, one of the largest global big-box retailers, is joining the growing metaverse community with the launch of their own cryptocurrency. The company is also releasing a collection of NFTs that include virtual items such as electronics, home decorations, games, toys, sporting goods, and various other products you can typically find at a physical Walmart store.During a CNBC interview,trademark attorney Josh Gerben said that the company has filed seven “super intense” trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office detailing how Walmart envisions their presence in the metaverse and what a Walmart cryptocurrency would potentially look like. The details of the trademarks are currently under wraps.Earlier this month, a humorous clip of a conceptual Walmart VR shopping experience developed back in 2017 went viral on Twitter and TikTok with over 11 million
The international situation scares me a bit, but I’m trying to focus on the good things that happened to me this week. The Oxymore musical VR experience we of VRrOOm have organized with Jean-Michel Jarre went great; someone posted a tweet where he shows he finished our game HitMotion: Reloaded; and one of my readers made an amazing meme about my tutorials. I can say it was a great week for me, professionally speaking… and I hope that the next one will even be better. What about yours? Let me know how things are going for you! Top news of the week (Image by Google)Project Iris is the codename of Google’s AR glasses According to a report on The Verge, Google is working on AR glasses. This shouldn’t surprise us given the recent acquisitions performed by the Big G, but now we have more details about what is happening at Mountain View. The AR
Today I feel like writing a post that is less on the tech side, and more on the entrepreneurial side of VR, something that talks about my experience working as an entrepreneur/freelancer in this field. In particular, I want to talk about the attitude that I’m starting to have in my work and that is helping me to cope with this period of uncertainty. Since I know that many other professionals are reading my blog, I hope that it can help also many other people in handling some complicated periods of their working life. This is still a blog, after all, so sometimes I feel the need to vent and share my thoughts with you, hoping that they can help someone or that they can foster an interesting debate. I’ve always been a person that tries to plan things ahead, and tries to evaluate every decision very carefully: what can
The future of the metaverse continues to be a hot topic of conversation amongst tech developers, virtual reality users, and an increasingly digital native population. As we move further towards engaging with a completely virtual online world, tech giants such as Meta and Microsoft continue to lead the way. The question is, what exactly can we expect from the metaverse. And could it become the new normal? What Is the Metaverse? In his 1992 Science Fiction Novel, ‘Snow Crash’, author Neal Stephenson first used the term ‘metaverse’ to explain his version of a virtual reality environment. Defining a 3D realistic world in which he could virtually be a part of, the term ‘metaverse’ was born, and hasn’t been forgotten since. The modern-day metaverse could be described as the fight to achieve a real-life online virtual world that incorporates virtual reality, augmented reality, and holographic forms of communication such as 3D
A source claims the company’s highly-anticipated mixed reality headset will prioritize shorter experiences. Last year rumors began circulating that Apple is in development of its own combination VR/AR headset. As for when we can expect to get our hands on this long-rumored mixed reality device, some sources are reporting a potential 2022 release date, though the company has yet to comment.That said, whileApple CEO Tim Cook has stated that AR technology is “critically important” for the company’s future, it appears as though they have little to no interest in the “metaverse,” aka the future of everything.Image Credit: The InformationIn Mark Gurman’s latest “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, the Apple and consumer tech expert claims that Apple has little to no interest in bringing the metaverse to its mixed reality hardware and will instead be focusing its efforts on delivering shorter experiences best enjoyed in small “bursts.” These experiences could include
Wolf3D, the Estonian startup behind web-based avatar creator Ready Player Me, has closed a $13 million funding round. The company says it will use the funds to further build out its avatar creation tools and eventually allow developers to earn money through the sale of in-game assets and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Ready Player Me studio Wolf3D has secured a $13 million Series A funding round, which was led by Wise and Teleport co-founders Taavet+Sten, and features participation from GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-Werner, Samsung Next, NordicNinja, Konvoy Ventures, and others. The news was first reported by Venture Beat.
Read Player Me allows anyone to create and customize their own avatar, which can then be imported into social VR platforms such as VRChat, Spatial, LIV, MeetinVR, and more.
Working on both desktop and mobile devices, Ready Player Me presents an easy way of doing so, letting you use the same skin across multiple platforms—some 900+ apps and games now, the company says.
Image courtesy Wolf3D
With the fresh funding, Wolf3D says in a blog post that it will build out its custom content creation tools, invest in avatar art through additional styles and body types, and improve avatar performance.
In addition to building APIs and SDKs to improve the developer experience, the studio says it will also be focusing on making Ready Player Me a “revenue generator for developers” by allowing third-party devs to sell in-game assets and NFTs—cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and can be easily bought, sold and traded.
The company hasn’t said when it will roll out its monetization strategy, however it lists it as “coming soon.”
In the meantime, Wolf3D says its scaling up from 30 people today to over 70, with multiple roles offered across Europe and the US. The latest funding round brings the company’s lifetime outside investment to $16.5 million, following a $2.1 million seed round in July 2020.
This article was originally published on roadtovr.com
The tech world is abuzz with news of the metaverse and how it can open up a world of opportunities. It promises a more immersive digital experience for users, and it’s poised to become the internet’s successor. This vast network of virtual worlds is the stuff of science fiction brought to life with today’s technology. If you’ve seen Ready Player One or The Matrix, engaged in crypto or non-fungible tokens (NFT), or played games like Roblox or Fortnite, then you already have a glimpse of things to come. What Is the Metaverse? The term was first coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In the novel, the metaverse is a shared digital place that people visit to escape their dystopian reality. They use avatars to interact with other users and explore an online world where they can be who they want to be and do
