An Outline Of The Metaverse Market And Its Key Enablers

Metaverse Market Map

The Metaverse has become the tech world’s latest fascination despite its origins in a dystopic sci-fi novel.

The concept of the metaverse refers to the notion of a shared, persistent virtual place, identical to a digital replica of the real world — but with none of the constraints. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg articulated his ambition to transform Facebook into a metaverse firm, characterizes it as "an embodied internet, where you are in it rather than just observing it."

The concept is not novel. For centuries, people have fantasized about living in a virtual world, and vast sums of money have been spent (and squandered) in virtual economies such as Second Life and EVE Online.

Today, companies and service providers are attempting to cultivate new forms of customer involvement in the metaverse in order to sell more items, fintech are capitalizing on new financial demands, and a host of entrepreneurs are inventing totally new virtual products, ranging from avatars to NFT collectibles.

While tech CEOs like Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella extol the possibilities of enterprise applications and the "infinite office," critics warn that the metaverse could follow in the footsteps of "artificial intelligence" and "blockchain," becoming a catch-all term startups integrate on robust SaaS platforms to entice venture capital.

Whatever shape the metaverse inevitably takes, its existence will necessitate technological advancements in infrastructure, consumer-facing products, platforms, and other areas.

Value-chain of the Metaverse

The Metaverse is better defined as the next era of the internet: it will build on and modify it iteratively. It will necessitate exceptional technological advances (creating shared, persistent simulations with millions of users synced in real-time), as well as a strong legislative framework, business practices, and a shift in consumer behavior.

We already discussed the value chain of the metaverse in detail in the previous blog: Understanding the value chain of the metaverse. In this blog, we will examine three of the most major metaverse firms — Unity, Epic Games, and Roblox — and discuss their similarities and contrasts.

Here's a quick rundown of what seven layers of the metaverse represents:

1. Experience is what we truly participate in video games, social interactions, live performances, and so on. 
    
2. Discovery is how people learn about the existence of the experience.
    
3. The Creator Economy includes everything that assists creators in creating and monetizing items for the metaverse, including design software, animation systems, graphical tools, monetization techniques, etc.
    
4. Spatial Computing consists of software that converts items into 3D, compute them in the real environment, and allows us to connect with them. It is supported by 3D engines, gesture detection, spatial mapping, and AI.
    
5. Decentralization is everything that is transitioning more of the ecosystem to a permissionless, distributed, and more democratized structure.
    
6. Human Interface is the hardware that allows us to interact with the metaverse, which includes anything from mobile devices to virtual reality headsets to technological breakthroughs such as enhanced haptics and smartglasses.
    
7. Infrastructure refers to the semiconductors, material science, cloud computing, and telecommunication systems that allow any of the higher layers to be built.

Now, let's return to the three major platforms that we'll be discussing: Unity, Epic Games, and Roblox. It is critical to recognize that each of these organizations has grown to the point where they have major activities spread over various layers of the metaverse ecosystem.

Unity

Unity is a 3D design & product development platform, a completely integrated 3D engine and design studio for game designers, AR/VR/XR, and metaverse experiences are at the core of the organization. It supports a wide ecosystem of plug-ins and assets, which are accessible via their Asset Store.

Unity earns a significant percentage of its revenue through the Unity Ads network, which is one of the main three video ad networks, together with Facebook and Google.

Also Read: Analyzing The Virtual Real Estate Boom in The Metaverse

Epic Games

Epic recently raised another $1 billion in private finance, and their list of product categories is impressive:

• Unique is the only one of the three primary metaverse platforms that own gaming IP, the most well-known of which being Fortnite. Using Fortnite's massive viewership, they've also utilized it as a platform for other metaverse experiences, like the Travis Scott music concert, which drew 45 million spectators. Fortnite is a free-to-play game that is monetized.
   
• Unreal Engine refers to Epic's 3D engine setting, design studio, and asset marketplace. The engine is increasingly being used in Hollywood film projects such as The Mandalorian, and they are investing in technologies that will help supply the metaverse with metahumans. Epic retains 5% of the income generated by any game produced on the engine.
   
• The Epic Games launcher is a game shop that also serves as a social network for gamers, similar to Steam. Epic has spent nearly $300 million on exclusive third-party titles. Epic takes a cut of any purchases made through the launcher.

Roblox

Roblox is the most misunderstood of these three firms because it is commonly referred to as a "game." However, Roblox is not a game in and of itself; it is a platform that houses a variety of games.

• Roblox does not create games; like Unity, they leave that solely to their creators. But, like Epic, they've used the platform to host online live concerts, such as Lil Nas X's event, which drew 33 million Roblox viewers. Roblox's business plan is to distribute income between its developers and itself.
   
• Roblox's discovery layer is effectively a "YouTube for Games," in which you can explore what other developers have created. Consider everything YouTube provides for videos, and then consider how curation, discovery, social structure, and ratings apply to a massive network of games. Roblox provides an advertising platform that may be used to advertise games in this ecosystem, albeit it accounts for a minor amount of their revenue compared to Unity's concentrated attempt to build a competitive ad network.
   
• Roblox features its own proprietary 3D engine that is connected with its design platform, as well as a marketplace where artists may trade assets and code.

Similarities and Potential of These Metaverse Companies

The similarities between these companies are that they allow developers to create environments, experiences, and games for the metaverse. The way they monetize and empower creators varies significantly.

One of the most significant attributes is revenue sources: Unity earns far more money from their ad network than they do from their development platform licenses. Epic generates significant revenue from its own games, such as Fortnite, and also receives a revenue share from other products that use their engine; while Roblox generates the majority of their revenue from Robux sales, which they share with their developers.

Epic and Roblox both feature a sizable social ecology that revolves around their businesses and experiences. The social and gameplay experiences have been left to Unity's customers.

Over the next many years, each organization will extract significant value from the metaverse. How they develop beyond that will be determined by how they continue to build on the accomplishments of their offerings, develop into adjacent domains, and linger to encourage the creator economy.

Summing Up

While the metaverse is in the early stages of development at the existing time, however, that will not be the case for long. Understanding and preparing for metaverse development services to be implemented in your business workflow could be an avenue for massive success in this new medium. 

At Oodles Technologies, we provide end-to-end metaverse enterprise solutions that help you embrace what’s coming and stay ahead of the curve. If you are looking for digital transformation solutions or metaverse implementation services, feel free to drop us a line. Our experts will get back to you within 24 hours.