Facebook, Microsoft, Epic Games: the race of big tech for an alternative, virtual ecosystem. The metaverse is the latest nail in the coffin of Silicon Valley bigwigs.
OASIS comes to mind, the “total” video game, practically a parallel and collective existence in the form of a video game, from the film Ready Player One, which arrived in theaters in 2018 under the direction of Steven Spielberg. The difference, as usual, is that on this occasion we are talking about something that does not remain on a screen but is really made available to us. At least in the intentions of the Silicon Valley bosses.
What are Silicon Valley and the metaverse
“Silicon Valley” is the name of the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, in California. In the context of this article, however, it is understood as the physical home of several startups and global technology companies, including Apple, Facebook, and Google. The “metaverse,” on the other hand, is a term typically employed to describe an alternative virtual world in addition to the one we are physically in, but shared among people via the internet and structured enough to be comparable to an entire city or nation.
Well, the metaverse has become the latest buzzword in Silicon Valley. The idea is to create a web-like space that users can experience through avatars, i.e. digital alter-egos, interacting with each other in real time. It would mean being able to walk after dinner on a beach, in the company of some friends, not made of sand but of polygons, perhaps with the help of a virtual reality visor in order to make everything a bit more real.
The plans of Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella of Microsoft
The declared intention of Mark Zuckerberg is precisely that of transforming his social network into a “metaverse society”: the number one of Facebook has even said that it would be the realization of an idea that dates back to when he attended middle school.
In the same direction go Microsoft and Epic Games. The CEO of the pioneering company founded by Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, is focused on building a “corporate metaverse.” Epic, the video game company that created Fortnite, is going in the same direction, as is venture capitalist Matthew Ball, who has hired computer component company Nvidia and gaming platform Roblox.
It may only be a matter of a few years. Then maybe we’ll talk about it over coffee on Mars. And it will be of course a virtual coffee.
Giuseppe Giordano