8 Leading Metaverse Players

Why’s everyone suddenly talking about the Metaverse? One reason could be what shook the world a couple weeks ago: Facebook officially changing their name to Meta. All this buzz has a lot of companies making mention of their metaverse plans.  Here we look at some of the big players and see how they stack up relative to the 12 requirements and each other.

Many different enterprises are already working on the metaverse in different forms. We’ve discussed what we see as essential to the creation of the Metaverse that the world imagines. As a review, Iterate believes the following to be the 12 requirements for the Metaverse:

1. High resolution VR or AR displays
2. Millions of polygons
3. Low lag time
4. Open interoperability
5. Worlds upon worlds
6. Believable avatars
7. Detail: Kipple/greebles
8. Haptic gloves
9. Momentum
10. Smart mirrors
11. Immerse audio
12. Ergonomics

 Let’s take a look at how 8 major companies around the world are creating the Metaverse, where they’re succeeding, and which of these requirements where they may still be falling short.

Facebook/Meta

FB/Meta plans on using the Oculus VR headset to enter the virtual world. Users and their avatars will be able to flit between virtual worlds created by different companies, appearing as 3D versions of themselves. In each world, businesses can create, sell, and invest in products using NFTs. It will be a synchronous environment, with everything happening in real-time.

• Advantages: Hardware with the Oculus gives Meta a big head start. The world’s largest user base is also a big plus.
• Limitations: Consider our 12th requirement, ergonomics. If people are entering businesses from anywhere, anytime, in an online environment, couldn’t there be wait lines and online staffing concerns? Not to mention, how do we know that people would even want to be a part of this when they could just go online shopping? And if we’re talking retail, one of the best parts of going to a store is trying things on to see if they fit before we buy – would we be able to do this on cartoonish, 3D avatars? Ergonomically speaking, Meta could face some difficulties with their current plan.

Roblox

This popular gaming platform is also working toward a Metaverse, and it looks a bit different from Facebook’s. Roblox plans to create an atmosphere where users can be connected in virtual online spaces and interact with others, building and maintaining relationships like in real life.

• Advantages: They are creating an immersive 3D experience, using capabilities such as Spatial Voice, where conversations can happen in a realistic way. In other words, players can yell, whisper, etc. One interesting aspect of Roblox’s Metaverse is that they are already doing collaborations with companies such as Nike and the NFL, selling virtual versions of their merchandise to the Roblox avatars.
• Limitations: One current limitation with Roblox’s Metaverse involves requirement #4, interoperability. Avatars can be created, but jumping from one world to another is another story. After all, a private platform is a private platform. However, this is not how the imagined Metaverse should function. In that, everything needs to be interconnected, and a person needs to be able to jump between worlds by different organizations. Roblox’s Metaverse, as it stands, is missing that important component.

Microsoft

Microsoft has recently started using mixed reality to create a virtual space and meet with others in these spaces. They use Holoportation to project a photorealistic self or avatars, allowing users to connect using VR headsets, HoloLens 2, and mobile phones/tablets/PCs. Microsoft Mesh was created for organizational teams to meet up, and AltspaceVR is where someone can host meetings, town halls, and work gatherings.

• Advantages: VR headsets with HoloLens2 is a head start with some of the hardware requirements. It’s great for teams, allowing for meetings similar to Zoom but with extra, 3D capabilities. For a team member, it may feel more similar to in-person meetings than remote work.
• Limitations: The main limitation of Microsoft’s Metaverse, as it stands, are ergonomic concerns. At the moment, their creation seems to be a more complicated version of Zoom. For teams that would rather feel like their meetings are in-person than remote, this is great, but it’s overall simply a meeting space. It is also just limited in terms of scope, missing out on many aspects of the Metaverse.There is no open interoperability, and the worlds are limited.

Sony/Epic Games

Epic’s Metaverse is an expansive, digitized communal space where users mingle with brands and one another. It may be described as an online playground. Users can play multiplayer games, go watch movies together, test drive a car, and so on and so forth. They will be attempting to make literally everything interconnected – Facebook, Twitter, Google, Fortnite, Call of Duty, etc. 

• Advantages: Sony Epic games has years of experience creating large worlds and multitudes of characters.  The data infrastructure is strong. The mindset of allowing other players in (instead of a walled garden) is the correct answer.
• Limitations: Epic seems to be creating brilliant ideas, but we are unsure about the execution. They received $1 billion in funding, but what will they do with it? We at Iterate are curious about the logistics, and how Epic plans to create this Metaverse.Believable avatars, creation of interoperability, haptic gloves, lag time – at this point in time, we simply don’t know the “how.” When that information comes out, we’ll know much more about the specific limitations Epic’s Metaverse may face.

Unity

Unity has the best 3D rendering engine that has been widely used in games for years, and is recently making in-roads into engineering, architecture, urban planning, and other ‘real world’ use cases.

• Advantages: Acquires Weta Digital (Peter Jackson’s CGI) for incredibly high-end rendering skills, avatar and world creation. Unity has the preeminent 3D rendering engine and strong brand recognition for VR spaces.
• Limitations: With no world of their own to start with, what’s the approach? The user base is strong with developers, but not well known with the end consumer.

Autodesk

Autodesk is bound to be a major building block of the Metaverse. Generally, it’s for architects to use. In the Metaverse, Autodesk can be utilized to create digital twins of buildings and build architecture that may look realistic in the Metaverse. 

• Advantages: It’s a strong industrial digital twin brand, and 3D renderings are at the center of their business. Without a company like this, the Metaverse would struggle to build virtual worlds that can mimic, or even go beyond, our own. 
• Limitations: From our research, it doesn’t seem like they’re working to build the Metaverse on their own, mainly seeming like they will help others with the digital twins in forms of architecture or test-driving unbuilt buildings. Their Metaverse, if only used to design architecture, could apply to a very specific audience. If they end up collaborating with others on the Metaverse, the other companies’ limitations may become their own.

NVidia

Nvidia’s Omniverse plans to simulate all factories, plants, and power grids in hopes of decreasing waste. 

• Advantages: Nvidia is the largest maker of graphics cards and AI chips in the world. Similar to Autodesk, they may be a major building block in running the Metaverse. Nvidia’s Omniverse is a platform for connecting 3D worlds into a shared virtual universe. Many realistic buildings and cities have been built in it already. It can simulate particles, fluids, materials, and machines. 
• Limitations: We’re still waiting on interactivity and the ability to collaborate, interoperability. Nvidia may be going based off of what others will create rather than relying on their own “Metaverse.”

Honnverse (China)

Honnverse, or Rainbow Universe in English, is a 3D virtual live community. Users create virtual identities and interact with others in the virtual community. 

• Advantages: Honnverse is already seeing users wanting to buy the virtual properties that are on sale, with the incentive being hopefully selling them later for a profit. The virtual world looks realistic, and the technology seems to be in place for this online community. 
• Limitations: There aren’t worlds upon worlds, there’s no open interoperability, and we are uncertain how lag time will be once this is open to a mass amount of users. Though Honnverse may be successful for what it is, it may not be what we envision as a Metaverse, with great amounts of interconnectivity.

What’s Next?

The Metaverse is on its way, and these 8 major companies are working at it. Though we pointed out some limitations in the current ideas, as we see them, we’re interested in seeing how these companies may join together to meet each of our 12 requirements for the Metaverse. Or else, we may begin to see different and unique ideas of what a “Metaverse” actually is in our world.