It’s a bit of a contradiction: how can you be excited about something if you have no idea what you’re expecting…?

A recent survey showed that many people have heard of the term metaverse, but only a fraction of them can explain it, which is not surprising because the answer depends on who you ask. Some see metaverse as the next evolutionary step for the Internet, and others just sneer and call it nonsense. We don’t have the precise definition of it, like a console.

In March, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence produced a study called New Realities Into the Metaverse and Beyond. Over 3,000 people aged 16 to 65 in China, the US and the UK were surveyed about the metaverse, crypto and NFTs. 74% of respondents had heard of the metaverse, almost double the figure from a year earlier. The same proportion thinks that the metaverse is “the future”, but only 15% “knew what the metaverse is and can explain it to someone else.”

The biggest concerns for those who know about metaverse are privacy and data protection, and for parents, it’s cyberbullying, as most of them see it as a platform for socialisation. More than 50% consider the metaverse a workplace, a shopping area, a region to play in, or all of these. 60% see it as the future of e-commerce. Nike, for example, has set up a digital store in Roblox, and Sketchers has become the first apparel company to rent a small region in the Decentraland Fashion District. A few companies tried Second Life a few years ago but didn’t have much success.

The percentage of people who know about cryptocurrencies and can explain it to others was 15%, and 42% of them owned/own digital assets, and 60% of those who know about the metaverse think they should sell digital (NFTs) as well as physical products, which is a bit unusual because the market is in a slump right now.

…and now is when one of Mega Man’s major ex-developers, Keiji Inafune, has to enter the NFT market with Beastroid.

Source: PCGamer