This Week in the Metaverse (W12.2023)

Weekly news roundup + Spotlighting a previous episode on Into The Metaverse podcast: A conversation with Joost van Dreunen (Author & Entrepreneur) on Gaming’s Role in the Emerging Metaverse

Mar 26, 2023

Hey, Yon here! Welcome to Into The Metaverse. My mission is to help you understand what is the metaverse, how it will impact our lives, and what opportunities it unlocks. If you are a marketer, entrepreneur, investor or simply a curious professional, Into The Metaverse is for you. Subscribe to get access to every letter and podcast show that I publish.

I’m back from GDC! Had a lot of fun meeting incredible creators and partners and very much enjoyed contributing to the panel about unlocking creation on the Roblox platform.

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

Weekly News Roundup
Spotlighting a previous episode on Into The Metaverse podcast: A conversation with Joost van Dreunen (Author & Entrepreneur) on Gaming’s Role in the Emerging Metaverse

Let’s dig in!

(1) Weekly News Roundup

It’s an Epic World

Epic Games made major announcement with the introduction of Fortnite’s Creator Economy 2.0. Epic is also merging its digital asset stores into one huge marketplace called Fab, which will become available later this year. Epic’s CEO, Tim Sweeney, took the time to explain how the metaverse might actually work once it is realized.

As the news came out, I started hearing from some folks during GDC that "the new Fortnite Creative economy will kill Roblox". Well, that's just total nonsense.

Anyone who's thinking this has no idea what they are talking about. If anything, Fortnite Creative's evolution will only help to increase the market size of the category and as a consequence, increase Roblox's own visibility as a destination for the most creative creators.

As I wrote in multiple occasions, Roblox was an underestimated platform and continues to be underestimated. Simply put, you cannot easily copy a decade+ effort of building a thriving, passionate and dedicated developer community like the one Roblox has. Epic and Fortnite will likely establish a growing community of developers in the years to to come and creating compelling economic incentives are a great place to start, alongside the integration of the Unreal Engine editor as to enable ever more diverse and complex games and experiences to be built within Fortnite Creative.

The news about Fortnite Creative's evolution as well as the news from Roblox on how fast its platform is evolving only makes me ever more bullish about the category of virtual worlds and cementing further its potential as the next big shift in how people experience the Internet the years to come. Both ecosystems should thrive and ultimately pave the way to an interoperable network of virtual worlds. This is just the very beginning.

DM if you want to talk about any of this, whether if you're a creator, brand, IP owner or just a curious observer. At Supersocial we're incredibly bullish about the category which is why we've been focusing on virtual worlds 100% since starting the company in June 2020.

Relevant pieces to read:

From the Roblox Universe

Roblox launches generative AI materials & coding tools → includes a quote from your very own: “After testing AI Coding, it’s clear to me that this technology will not only make creation dramatically faster and easier, but also expand creators’ skillsets. For us, it will enable us to expand our worlds, making them even more expansive and detailed for users to explore time and time again,” said Yonatan Raz-Fridman, CEO and founder of SuperSocial. “If generative AI can accelerate the pace of development, that would revolutionize how — and how much — we build.”. Read more about Roblox’s new announcement on CNET and Arstechnica, as well as a blog post by its VP of Creator Engineering, Nick Tornow.
Karlie Kloss unveils her own fashion destination on Roblox
Top 10 entertainment brands crushing it on Roblox (without trying or spending)

AR/VR/XR

Meta’s new hand tracking feature almost feels like touching the future
Snap launches a new business to help retailers with AR shopping

A World of AI

ChatGPT plugins → OpenAI have implemented initial support for plugins in ChatGPT
Jaron Lanier: ‘The danger isn’t that AI destroys us. It’s that it drives us insane’
Nvidia launches new cloud services and partnerships to train generative AI
The Generative AI Revolution in Games by A16Z
Levi’s will begin testing AI-generated models
Canva’s new generative AI tools are now the ones to beat
Introducing Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4
Coca-Cola invites fans to create AI art with its iconic imagery

A World of Wonder, Expression, Beauty & Fashion

5 Tech Trend Takeaways for Fashion and Beauty Brands From SXSW
Why Clinique’s next move in the metaverse is a winning formula for web3 retail

Industrial Metaverse

Nvidia teams up with Microsoft on industrial metaverse
BMW’s new factory doesn’t exist in real life, but it will still change the car industry
The industrial metaverse: Are we there yet? | GTC panel

Gaming & Entertainment

Netflix plans 40 more game releases in 2023

Other Writings, Podcasts and Opinions Worth Checking

Neal Stephenson on the metaverse: ‘It’s happening in a different way’ → check the podcast episode on Into The Metaverse with Neil and his Lamina1 co-founder

Fundraising

CCP Games raises $40M for new triple-A Web3 game in the Eve universe
Bandai Namco’s investment fund invests in 2 tech startups to advance gaming

Joost van Dreunen is an entrepreneur and author. He teaches the business of video games at NYU Stern School of Business and wrote a book called ONE UP: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games. He spent the last two decades as an industry analyst working with all of the major firms on strategy. After selling SuperData Research, a games research firm he co-founded, to Nielsen in 2018, he’s now investing and advising data companies and game makers. Joost writes about the business of gaming and hosts a podcast called Unboxing: Play & Profit for the Gaming Curious.

We cover in detail the growing role of gaming in helping to realize the metaverse and why “video games” are a key pillar in the paradigm shift of human experience on the Internet.

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