Metaverse

Sony’s New VR Headset for PlayStation Competes in Metaverse

Published

2 weeks ago

January 5, 2022

Sony (SONY) – Get Sony Group Corporation Report has partly unveiled the new generation of its virtual reality headset, called PlayStation VR2, for the hard-to-find PS5 console, intended to improve the user’s experience, thus showing its ambitions in the metaverse.

A new virtual reality controller so you can play the game, called the PlayStation VR2 Sense Controller, is also on the way, and it is set to feature haptic feedback (i.e. the control will vibrate at certain times, in order to make the gaming experience more tactile).

At the moment a release date, general price range and images of the console have not been disclosed.

The company also said that the popular game franchise “Horizon Call of the Mountain” will have an exclusive installment built specifically for PS VR2

PlayStation VR2 Set to Be as Immersive as Possible

PlayStation VR2 will come with a number of features that will make going outside even more unfathomable, according to the PlayStation Blog. These features include enhanced 3D Audio and enhanced Visual Fidelity, including 4K high definition resolution and a 110-degree field of view.

The headset will also come with integrated cameras and eye tracking, so your movements and the direction you look at will be reflected in the game, so all you have to do is look left and your character will look left.

The overall goal, it seems, is to make gaming as intuitive and lifelike as possible. As the company states on its blog:

“PlayStation VR2 takes VR gaming to a whole new level, enabling a greater sense of presence and allowing players to escape into game worlds like never before”

Twitter Reacts

It seems that people are already pretty psyched about the news.

The PlayStation announcement comes when many companies, like Oculus (OVTZ) , Fortnite (EPOR) , Roblox (RBLX) – Get Roblox Corp. Class A Report and others, are racing to profit from the metaverse, the 3-D, immersive digital world where people can log-on, play games, chat, buy virtual land and virtual clothes and whathaveyou (probably with cryptocurrency).

The whole thing has been gaining in popularity lately, and if Meta, (FB) – Get Meta Platforms Inc. Class A Report the newly rebranded Facebook, has its way, one day people will be strapping on headsets and logging onto the metaverse to attend work meetings or see concerts.

(If you’re still not clear on what the metaverse is, just think of it as something akin to a ‘90s sci-fi movie that takes places in a virtual reality world, or something from a William Gibson novel, or the sort of videogame experience that fuels the plot of about a quarter of “Black Mirror” episodes.)

The metaverse has already become a big business, as virtual land inside crypto-based metaverses Decentraland and Axie Infinity have already sold for more than $2 million, according to Markets Insider.

And investors and companies are expecting even more growth, as the cryptocurrency asset management firm Grayscale (BCHG) predicts it has the potential to become a $1 trillion annual revenue generator across the fields of advertising, digital events, e-commerce and hardware.

Mark Zuckerberg has been making an aggressive play to control the metaverse, and as ever, wherever the Zuck goes, concerns about privacy are sure to follow.

Last year, Facebook officially changed its company name to Meta, and Zuckerberg went on a full-court press tour to tout its upcoming virtual reality initiatives, on which is has spent more than $10 billion, including the purchases of several VR startups.

The goal, he said, is to create the “successor to the mobile internet,” per The New York Times. The paper also speculated that the rebranding effort is just a way for Zuckerberg to deflect questions about how Facebook collects its user data, and its seeming laissez-faire approach to the white supremacists, vaccine deniers and others extremists that use the site to push out conspiracy theories.

But already critics are pointing out that the company’s meta push might have some security risks, and the company still hasn’t proved that it can be trusted with user’s personal data.

“So beyond the fact that these immersive environments are extremely addictive and they encourage people to unplug from the reality we actually live,” said Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in an interview with the Associated Press, the metaverse will, according to Forbes, require people to put “many, many more sensors in our homes and our workplaces.”

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Metaverse

Walmart signals metaverse plans with trademark applications around virtual goods, NFTs

Published

2 mins ago

January 18, 2022

michael jones

Dive Brief:

Walmart filed a series of trademark applications late last month that indicate the retailer has bigger plans for the metaverse, including through the development of cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). CNBC first spotted the batch of documents that were submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Dec. 30.
The applications, of which there are seven in total, encompass concepts like “virtual goods” across product categories such as furniture, toys and sporting gear, along with downloadable software for managing cryptocurrency portfolios or establishing an electronic wallet.
Games and other services powered by augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technology also make appearances. The news suggests the metaverse could play a significant role in Walmart’s strategy as the big-box brand centers more of its business around the digital world.

Dive Insight:

Walmart isn’t the first marketer to show budding interest in the metaverse, but a potentially substantial push to build out its offerings could go a long way in sparking more mainstream adoption of technologies that are foundational to the channel, including cryptocurrencies. The big-box store is the largest retailer in the world, reaching a massive audience of shoppers, and rivals may follow Walmart’s lead in ramping up their bets lest they lose an early-mover advantage in a market some view as the next evolution of the internet.

That said, many metaverse-related technologies like NFTs haven’t served a purpose in marketing beyond one-off stunts or generating some headlines. But the broader vision of what the metaverse could eventually become is appealing to companies like Walmart, with shared virtual realms acting as a venue for customers to try out experiences and products and eventually make purchases of digital goods as they look to customize their online avatars and living spaces. Though businesses clearly smell an opportunity, consumers haven’t quite come around to the idea, even as categories like gaming provide a loose sense of what’s possible in the metaverse.

Some groundwork has already been laid for Walmart’s metaverse approach. Last year, it began seeking a digital currency and cryptocurrency product lead, following in Amazon’s footsteps. Recent executive changes point to a possible strategy switch-up. Longtime merchandising chief Scott McCall is retiring, Bloomberg reported, while Chief Customer Officer Janey Whiteside — a key player in rounding out Walmart’s e-commerce playbook — will depart in March.

Walmart dipping its toes in the metaverse could support other ventures that are important to staying competitive in retail. In 2020, it introduced its long-awaited Walmart+ e-commerce portal meant to tackle the growing threat of Amazon Prime. Several of the trademark applications were also made under Walmart Connect, the marketer’s fledgling advertising business. Walmart has quickly built out the unit as the demand for retail media soars during the pandemic and packaged goods brands seek alternative targeting methods to cookies, which are being phased out next year.

Other marketers are more firmly planting their metaverse flags. Nike in December acquired RTFKT, a digital studio that designs virtual collectibles like NFTs. The sportswear marketer also recently established Nikeland, an interactive experience inside the Roblox gaming platform that lets visitors participate in activities like dodgeball and trying on virtual apparel.

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