Everyone is talking a lot about the metaverse these days. What is the metaverse? It’s a progression of how we live. My father used to read books as a kid, and the books would entertain him and come to life in his head. I grew up with comic books and the illustrations would give me hours of fun imagining that I too could be Spider-Man. My children grew up on cartoons that took the comic to the television. My grandchildren are growing up in a world where all the books, comics and cartoons are now on the big screen in IMAX and Xbox. What will their children watch? The metaverse.
That’s the importance of this development. It’s the next generation of entertainment and its inception is now. It’s why Facebook renamed itself Meta, and why it is so important. For example, you might not use an Xbox or PlayStation, but the gaming industry is bigger than the film and music industries combined. In 2020, the US video game industry grew 27% to $56.9bn in revenue, says market research company NPD Group, surpassing movies and music. Imagine surpassing even this – that’s what Facebook is banking on.
