Metavers: have we oversold this virtual world?

In the aisles of the Vivatech show, which was held this week at Porte de Versailles in Paris, we have never talked about him so much. And yet, the metaverse, this immersive universe in which we could one day spend our days, is still waiting, including at Meta, which still spends a trillion dollars a month on this subject, recalls the American news site Venturebeat.

The tech giant has started to deploy its Horizon virtual world in several countries (United States, Canada, United Kingdom). Nevertheless, it does not yet integrate all the tools of Web3 allowing the direct monetization of virtual assets created by users. Conversely, other platforms actually use the blockchain, but they do not use virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality. For the time being, the immersive, persistent metaverse, including all the options, does not exist, concludes a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

With a hint of amusement, tech specialists comment on one of Mark Zuckerberg’s latest talks about Crayta – a video game creation platform now offered on the Facebook Gaming portal. This software ticks a few boxes necessary for the emergence of a metaverse: the personalization of an avatar, the creation of games by users, the social aspect… But ultimately, it is still an activity taking place in front of a “flat” screen. So classic. Nothing to do with a possible revolutionary VR equipment.

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Limited experiences

For such is the reality of the metaverse today. Some interesting building blocks have emerged – the blockchain, the famous NFTs, etc. -, but in general, the resulting experiences still lack interactions, consistency or immersion. “Take The Sandbox for example. This French platform, which we hear a lot about, is not yet a completely open world, explains Neal Robert, co-founder of the BEM Builders agency, which supports companies in these new virtual spaces. Its access , voluntarily limited, is done only during alpha seasons : for a few weeks, users have the opportunity to participate in handpicked events”.

The system is still in its infancy. If The Sandbox opened up to everyone overnight, there wouldn’t be enough crowds, even if to create enthusiasm, its leaders sign partnerships with artists or brands known to the general public. . “People who understand this new way of understanding the virtual world – which notably involves the creation of a digital wallet serving both as an identity and as a wallet – are still a minority”, notes the expert.

Decentraland, its competitor, faces the same problem. It is an open metaverse. You can therefore connect to it freely from your computer. But it sometimes gives an impression of emptiness for lack of connected users. “For now, the pioneers are snapping up land. Some have the ability to develop great experiences there. We have seen this, for example, with Virtual Fashion Week, which has managed to bring together fashion enthusiasts for more days. in the same place”, tempers Neal Robert. But in general, the number of interesting proposals and people ready to discover them must still increase.

Have we oversold the concept of Metavers? “The oasis depicted in the film Ready Player One remains a fantasy. We are promised perfect immersion, capable of bluffing the user. But that would mean that we reproduce the way we interact with reality, through vision, hearing and touch. We are far from it. Even in five to ten years, it is not certain that we will be able to market a solution of this kind”, comments Samih El Hadef, creative technologist at WeAreSocial.

Multiple windows rather than one big whole

This does not prevent the ecosystem from progressing. Interoperability, an essential link that will allow virtual goods to exist on different platforms, is gradually becoming a reality. “A certain number of technologies will allow the advent of metaverses in other forms in the short and medium term. Starting with augmented reality, eye tracking and more generally the capture of movements and facial expressions”, specifies the specialist .

The American entertainment show Another self gives the perfect example. It features real singers, visible only through avatars. Behind the scenes, telephones placed in front of their faces capture their facial expressions, which makes it possible to create special effects. “We’re on to something completely embodied with many ways to consume the show. One can watch these avatars in VR, on a smartphone, or in augmented reality in their living room. Virtual glitter or tears can come out of their eyes. .. We touch on what a metaverse really is. A window to a virtual world that can be understood in many different ways. No need for complex equipment”, explains Samih El Hadef.

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Thanks to software innovations, more and more similar windows will open, predicts the expert. “By dint of seeing this singer she loves on her TV and her smartphone, Madame Michu may eventually want to push the virtual experience further”, thinks Samih El Hadef. The younger generations, they seem already ready to switch. Between 2019 and 2020, they doubled their time spent playing video games, to the detriment of social networks. And some teenagers now spend more time choosing their virtual clothes than their real outfit, note the BCG experts. A real generational divide.