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When is the Metaverse going to be released?
When is the Metaverse going to be released?
In case you didn’t already hear, the most exciting and revolutionary technological development of the 21st century – the Metaverse verse – is on its way. From changing the way we play video games to the interactions we have in the workplace, Metaverse is surely going to take the internet by storm, and everybody is asking for a piece of it. But when is the Metaverse going to be released? And how will you be able to access it? Fortunately, there is an answer.
The New - Metaverse put simply
With the recent rebranding of a certain social media giant, the word “metaverse” has begun to be used more and more in various contexts, from social media, fashion, to education. In futurism and science fiction, the Metaverse is an immersive virtual and universal world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. In short, a metaverse is the internet, but in 3D. Today, we are here to discuss when is the Metaverse going to be released.
When will the Metaverse be launched?
Despite Zuckerberg not providing a concrete timeline, we can forgive him as this is not a traditional product launch. Meta will release new VR/AR products that make these concepts and technologies possible, with multiplayer or social elements baked in. Even the Quest 2 has what Zuckerberg calls their “early vision for a home space in the metaverse.”
Check out the Meta Quest 2 here:
The big question is when is the Metaverse going to be released by Meta? Zuckerberg has quoted that the Metaverse is still “a long way off” and by his predictions, the technology he has described as the Metaverse will be ready in “the next 5 to 10 years”. Interestingly, in this article Meta’s press release suggested “10 to 15 years”. Meaning the Metaverse could take off anywhere from 2026 to 2036.
Will the Metaverse become mainstream?
With Zuckerberg predicting Meta’s mainstream to begin in 5-10 years, we can only think “when the Metaverse is released, how will it make its way into daily life?”.
With regards to Meta becoming mainstream it is all about the user experience. User experience is crucial for any technology product to attempt to enter the mainstream market. Looking at the history of the smartphone, where the product that won over the mass market was not the first with the technology – it was the one that built a better product. By the time Apple released its first iPhone in 2007, smartphones had already been in the market for a while.
But the difference with the iPhone was the defining product because the high-resolution display with a user-friendly multi-touch function gave users a fundamentally better way to use their phones.
How much will the Metaverse cost?
As the Metaverse is still developing it is hard to put a number on exactly how much it is costing, but based on its current valuation of $47 billion it has been predicted to reach over $800 billion as soon as 2024. So when the Metaverse is launched will users have to pay to experience it? Likewise to the internet of today, the metaverse is not owned by a single party or accessed by a single piece of hardware.
Unfortunately it won’t be as simple as a “metaverse subscription” that you pay to anyone or a single provider of any “metaverse console.” But, there will be costs associated with accessing the metaverse that will be paid in different ways to different parties, as well as currencies used within the actual experience, if you want to learn about the best currencies used in the Metaverse check out our blog here.
If you already have high-speed broadband you may take these costs for granites, as you will need it to access the Metaverse and those who don’t, may feel like they are paying additional costs. You won’t need a VR headset or AR glasses to enter the metaverse. But, if you want the fully immersive experience that extended reality can provide, it will only come from these devices. And, naturally, these devices have a hefty price tag.
When is the Metaverse going to be released to the public?
As we discussed previously, the prediction is that the Metaverse is going to be released in 5-10 years. But aspects of the metaverse currently exist. Ultra-fast broadband speeds, virtual reality headsets and persistent always-on online worlds are already up and running, even though they may not be accessible to all. “The challenge” released a blog where they discussed the current state of the Metaverse a year ago and interestingly we can already see the development.
Looking at the AR/VR-enabled metaverse first coined by Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash. This is essentially what Zuckerberg referred to at Connect, an all-encompassing 3D VR world that relies on blockchain for decentralisation. And even this isn’t an incredibly futuristic concept. There are four companies that are currently developing a workable metaverse and making impressive progress: Decentraland, Microsoft Mesh for teams, Sandbox, and Second life and Minecraft.
Is the internet technically a Metaverse?
You could see why this argument makes sense, with Zuckerberg describing the metaverse as an interconnected digital space where you have new experiences through avatars, independent of your real-world surroundings. The ultimate value of the metaverse is that it helps you forge and strengthen meaningful connections; the immersive-ness of AR/VR is merely an added bonus. If we keep this core value proposition in mind, one could call Web 2.0 an early version of the metaverse – obviously lacking its three-dimensional characteristics, but similar in terms of interoperability, forms of access and transaction, and with similar privacy and regulatory issues.
If that were the case, then the answer to your question “when will the metaverse be released?” is that it’s already arrived. But if you are wondering what the future holds alongside the Metaverse then check out our blog where we discuss the possibilities that Meta holds.
So, when is the Metaverse going to be released?
Although we have not got an exact release date for when the Metaverse will be launching, we do have a rough timeline of when we can expect aspects of Meta to appear in our lives. Facebook’s Metaverse is likely to be much more sophisticated, by being closer to the seamlessness and intuitiveness of science fiction. By his own admission, Zuckerberg notes that the metaverse could take several years to build. However, you can expect a soft launch of sorts within the next five years, as, by 2031, it’s been predicted to sign on a billion users to its metaverse platform.
