The rise of the Metaverse has undoubtedly opened up the door to the future of communication via digital avatars.
With its rise in popularity, it is unsurprising to see many big AR companies looking to carve their way into different niches within the Metaverse. However, do you know who the leaders of the Metaverse race are?
Here are a few AR companies that are changing the Metaverse in front of our eyes.
For many Metaverse enthusiasts, it comes as no surprise to see Meta at the top of this list.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, was rebranded in October 2021. This was done with the aim of shifting its focal point from social media platforms to the virtual world of the Metaverse
With the launch of Horizon Worlds, a free online video game using VR technology; Meta has taken a big step forward, joining hundreds of other companies in developing the Metaverse.
“Our hope is that within the next decade, the Metaverse will reach a billion people,” says the founder and CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg.
The platform is designed to give its users an active world-building experience instead of just being spectators. By creating an avatar and entering the virtual world, you can partake in activities such as attending work meetings, concerts, parties, sports events, and many more through an immersive virtual experience.
Ever since the launch of Horizon Worlds, Meta has encouraged its users to utilize Horizon’s world-building tools to create new spaces within the Metaverse.
The company hopes to host billions of dollars of digital commerce and support jobs for creators and developers around the world.
2. Nvidia
3D workflow has become an essential element in many different industries.
With the launch of the Omniverse Open Beta in December 2020, Nvidia has taken its first steps in contributing to the development of the Metaverse.
The Omniverse sets out to “unify 3D worlds”, and find a “common way for people to collaborate whether they are across the room or across the globe”, says Richard Kerris, General Manager for Omniverse at Nvidia.
Inside the Nvidia Omniverse, content creators can now collaborate to create three-dimensional digital content in real-time.
Today, the Omniverse has over 30,000 users from different industries, including architecture, engineering, product design, game development, robotics, entertainment, and many more.
3. Tencent
Tencent is a multination, Internet-based entertainment and technology conglomerate company with headquarters in Shenzhen, China.
As one of the highest-grossing multimedia enterprises in the world, it is no wonder that Tencent is one of the leading forces in the development of the global Metaverse.
Joining the Metaverse race in early 2022, the Internet giant has created the so-called ‘extended reality’ division. This unit of tech professionals aims to develop hardware and other services for the Metaverse.
At first, very little information about the division was publicly available. Reuters tells us that, as its first Metaverse project, Tencent’s extended reality division is developing a metaverse-optimized headset.
Furthermore, Tencent also aims to contribute to the Metaverse through its game development wing, Tencent Games.
4. Microsoft
In Microsoft’s take on the Metaverse, the digital representations of people, places, and things must be persistent, and the gap between the digital and the physical world must be bridged.
Supporting Meta in its development of applications, Microsoft has become one of the biggest Metaverse contributors.
The tech giant has also joined forces with Qualcomm in developing an augmented-reality chipset for the virtual world.
At the Microsoft Build 2022 conference, Microsoft brought together a group of experts to discuss the company’s next move regarding the Metaverse.
While many interesting topics were discussed, it is clear that the company’s individual Metaverse strategy mainly revolves around Teams, their collaboration platform.
All in all, Microsoft aims to deliver a beneficial software experience to its users on all devices.
Conclusion
As we can see, the Metaverse is influencing many different industry sectors. It is only natural to see leading tech companies adjust their workflow to accommodate new tech trends.
So far, we have only scratched the surface. However, it is exciting to think about what kind of opportunities the Metaverse will present us with in the future.
What do you think the next big Metaverse trend will be?
