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- 1 Only Fortnite has developed itself as a proper metaverse today.
- 2 Recently, the game collaborated with LEGO, a leading toy maker globally, to launch a minigame.
An immersive digital world taking people to a whole new reality via a virtual reality (VR) headset. It is the metaverse many have imagined, either by watching a movie called Ready Player One or reading a novel namely Snow Crash. However, accessing virtual worlds is far from such a concept. The metaverse is here but behind flat screens rather than a head-mounted display (HMD).
Culminating Different Worlds
Only Fortnite has developed itself as a proper metaverse today, feels Paul Tussi, a gaming expert. In his recent article published in American business magazine Forbes, he writes, “Unlike Facebook trying to capture the magic of OASIS with VR, Fortnite is doing it with normal gameplay.”
OASIS was a virtual world in the movie Ready Player One. Players are allowed to access it using HMDs and to make it more immersive, an omnilateral treadmill to walk around a digital avatar freely. It featured several cultural references including The Iron Giant, RX-78-2 Gundam robot, Tyrannosaurus rex, and more.
Fortnite has been doing the same. It has included several characters in the game including, Kratos from God of War, Goku from Dragon Ball Z, Ironman from Marvel Comics, and more. The metaverse is fundamentally a culmination of several virtual worlds interconnected with each other.
Recently, the game collaborated with LEGO, a leading toy maker globally, to launch a minigame, adding another genre to its gameplay. Paul writes, “So, in effect the game now has a battle world (Fortnite Battle Royale) survival/building world, racing world and music world.” Metaverse concerts have become popular on the platform too.
During COVID-19, singer Travis Scott’s concert garnered 47 Million views. He reportedly generated $20 Million from the show. Similarly, 27 Million people saw songwriter and actress Ariana Grande’s concert in August 2021. She allegedly produced the same revenue as Travis Scott. Another artist Marshmello managed to attract nearly 13 Million views, which ultimately boosted the artist’s streams by 20,000 percent.
“I always said that if anywhere had the potential to truly become the metaverse, it was Fortnite. These blockchain imitators almost killed the concept before they died themselves,” Tassi concludes in his article. “Facebook making the metaverse was essentially channeling the villains from Ready Player One trying to do the same. But after a few years of relative quiet, Epic has come out and shown yeah, maybe they can actually do it now that everyone else has abandoned the concept.”
Facebook effectively rebranded itself to Meta Platforms in 2021. The company explained that they are going to focus on the metaverse more. Their CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, presented his vision during Meta Connect 2021. However, their strategy has not even come closer to what they envisaged back then.
In fact, it proved to be a financial sinkhole for the company as Reality Labs, their metaverse research arm, lost $46.5 Billion to virtual worlds.
Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.
