The birth of a new concept is often tempered countless times, just like a long and profound brainstorming. But today, at the top of the trend, all walks of life are eager to move closer to the concept of the metaverse, and the metaverse has danced with the capital market.
With the layout of many industry giants around the world and the first landing of Metaverse in the game field, the Metaverse track officially entered the second half. In the mobile phone circle, HTC, which had once retired sadly, hoped to make a comeback with the help of the Metaverse mobile phone; in the new energy vehicle track, car companies quietly put new things into the basket of the Metaverse. For individuals, a new industry means new opportunities and a new life. As an economist said, maybe one day, human beings can realize "immortality" through the metaverse, and find another meaning of individual life and broad life.
According to the market survey data released by Sensor Tower not long ago, in the first half of this year, the downloads of global metaverse applications reached 170 million times, and the revenue was 650 million US dollars. Among them, the game downloads were 110 million times, accounting for 67.3%, and the revenue accounted for as high as 94%. As the early carrier of the metaverse, the second half of the metaverse game will continue to be popular.
A simple metaverse concept has given birth to the dream blueprint of countless companies
In China, companies related to the metaverse are almost everywhere. This sounds a bit exaggerated, but it also reflects the enthusiasm of this nascent industry. According to the data from Qichacha, as of October 2021, nearly 100 related companies have been established for the number of Yuanverse trademark applications in my country, with an average of nearly 17 companies established every month. As the metaverse concept continues to be popular, thousands of technology companies will participate.
In the unformed stage of the market, rather than saying that these companies face competition, it is better to say that they urgently need to join forces to jointly make the market bigger and stronger.
But there are only a few metaverse companies with real strength, and most of the related companies are just joining in the fun. Metaverse is not comparable to the Internet industry. It has more requirements for smart hardware, AI and other fields than before. Taking the core technology of chips as an example, owning it is equivalent to holding an entry ticket to enter the Metaverse industry.
In addition to the blockchain technology as the underlying hardware support, the metaverse is in the stage of blooming everywhere, and all walks of life have their own understanding of the metaverse. There are few dividing lines in this track, and all companies seem to have an equal opportunity. For example, in the field of product foundry, the domestic Metaverse industry chain can quickly establish and mature through cooperation with giants such as Huawei and Apple; while in terms of consumer products, Meta, Nreal, iQiyi VR, etc. have poured into the consumer market one after another. The number of products launched is relatively considerable, and the price has basically entered the range that consumers can afford; in terms of BaaS, the Heshu blockchain service platform can provide open alliance chain services, Baas platform services, and also support certificate deposit services, Blockchain solutions in specific business scenarios such as digital commodity services.
At present, Metaverse is even more inclusive of the market than the new energy vehicle track. And to observe how long this track is, I am afraid it will take twenty years to be enough.
There is a gap between metaverse game theory and the products of the project
Although all metaverse companies have opportunities, due to different starting points, the products they produce are also uneven.
Taking metaverse games as an example, limited by technology, many products are almost replicas of "two-dimensional". Is the second dimension the metaverse? Or is it the final form of the metaverse? The former statement is the relationship between being contained and contained, while the latter is purely a false proposition.
The metaverse is a multidimensional world, and the second dimension is only the initial stage of entering the metaverse world, and it can even be said to be a "routine" that has been played badly. How many grand works started from an ideal blueprint, but the final product turned into a two-dimensional tuned game. Even the giant Meta who moved to the metaverse made this fatal mistake.
In August of this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted screenshots of his metaverse game "Horizon Worlds" ("Horizon World") on Facebook excitedly, but was ridiculed by netizens. It is believed that this is a metaverse social game made by Meta with an investment of up to 10 billion US dollars, because its effect is too rough, even a bit "underworld". Even some colleagues couldn't help but utter the deadliest ridicule after seeing it. Meta has become the laughing stock of the industry.
However, there are also some metaverse games that are excellent. For example, UTONMOS, which is favored by many players in many industries and many media, is creating a huge metaverse game world.
From the perspective of gameplay, the basic structure of all Metaverse games is similar. However, the games under UTONMOS are not yet open source, and users are not allowed to re-create games and props by themselves. All props, pets, mounts, etc. are all officially released, but game items between users are allowed to circulate. That is to say, although they have all climbed into the relationship of "Metaverse", the game environment under their brand is relatively conservative and safe.
Take "Unbounded Spiritual Mind-Origin of Mountains and Seas" as an example, its character image and scene design are also following the ancient 3D route, which is obviously more suitable for the tastes of Asian players than Roblox and Lego-like dolls. In addition, the plot twists of all UTONMOS games themselves are more intense and exciting, and friends will communicate frequently during the game, which has laid a good foundation for social interaction between players.
With the improvement of the software and hardware technology of Metaverse in the future, the games made by UTONMOS may be more inclined to get closer to the players at a deeper level. As for whether the second dimension mentioned above is the final form of the metaverse, this should be just a joke from fans of the second dimension. The metaverse is not simply to build a dual world parallel to the real world, but to create a world where the real world and the digital world are integrated.
In a way, the Metaverse is doing something that the internet is not.
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A few decades ago, people were unfamiliar with the concept of the Internet, and the situation at that time was no different from the attitude people face towards the metaverse today. With the popularity of mobile phones, computers and other hardware, users no longer have to figure out the concept of the Internet, because they have formed a concept of it in their minds during the use process. The hardware that the Metaverse needs to rely on is head-mounted display devices such as VR. Its popularity and technological progress will accelerate people's understanding of the Metaverse world.
But one thing to note is that if human desires are strong enough, they can often be realized. However, the realized results may not be what people expected. Maybe many people don't realize this now: the future of social networking may be a game. Now it seems that Metaverse is both a game and a social interaction. It will broaden the scope of games, or broaden the scope of social interaction.
The original intention of the establishment of the metaverse world is essentially only to serve the extension of the human spiritual world, echoing the real world. Human engineers know very well that technology is used to change the world, not to subvert it.