And Zuckerberg has been mercilessly mocked for trying to hype seemingly minor metaverse features like low-res graphics or avatars with legs. AI, on the other hand, is much more exciting.

The company is adding avatar-based, 3D video chat to its virtual world in an effort to expand its audience—and to keep the kids around as they grow older.

A metaverse can be any 3D virtual space powered by technologies – including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and ...

The metaverse could contribute as much as $760 billion or about 2.4% to U.S. annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035, according to a study commissioned by Facebook owner Meta Platforms .

The Metaverse Is Closer Than Ever Before – In Fact, It’s Already Here According to a report from McKinsey & Company, the metaverse could generate $5 trillion in revenue for businesses by 2030.

In other words, AI looks like money now, while metaverse looks like "maybe money at some point, just not for a while." And investors, apparently, don't prefer the odds of the latter.

Updated with a new afterword chapter in April 2024. The industrial metaverse—a metaverse sector that mirrors and simulates real machines, factories, cities, transportation networks, and other ...

Disney laid off its entire metaverse team, which included around 50 people, in recent cuts. It's the latest firm to abandon its metaverse ambitions, despite assembling a team just a year ago.

However, the metaverse as a business tool is far from being on solid ground. 2022 was a year of experimentation for marketers, and the odds are that will not change in 2023.

According to the Game Developer Conference’s (GDC) State of the Game Industry 2023 report, which surveyed over 2,300 game developers, game makers don’t believe in the promise of the metaverse.

The metaverse does not mean everyone will spend most of their time living in virtual worlds or wearing VR HMDs. I’m also not sold on Web3 elements like NFTs and crypto as core to the metaverse.

Per Burris, the metaverse “serves as a great way for people to make money no matter who they are, or where they’re from, in the real world.” ...