Gaming (and more) — Into the Metaverse
More than Gaming
When Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, formerly known as Facebook, committed to the metaverse, he mentioned that gaming would lead the way — and Zuckerberg isn’t alone in betting on gaming.
“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” Satya Nadella, CEO and Chairman of Microsoft said, accompanying the statement with the tech giant’s announcement of purchasing game developer Activation Blizzard for USD 68.7 billion.
And the merge of the two makes sense. Over the past decade, social media and gaming have become the fabric of social engagement for digital native next-gens — and moving into the metaverse is the next stage for integrating non-traditional gaming experiences into a virtual world.
Opportunity for Consumer Brands
The easiest way to understand the metaverse is to think of it like a video game, except there are no objectives. You can play games, but you can also do whatever you would do in the real world, including hanging out with friends, shop, watch movies and concerts, or even work.
When more facets of the daily life are brought to the metaverse, the attention and screentime also comes into it — and one thing that game companies are really great at doing is keeping audiences engaged for a very long time, from hours a day to many years.
For example, O Boticário, a top Brazilian cosmetics brand, held a five-week promotion with a virtual store inside Avakin Life. In total, 2.3 million unique players engaged during the event.
As games are getting increasingly interactive and social, games developers have more opportunity to bring in brand and IP injections boost user acquisition, retention, and monetization. As for consumer brands, this will become the perfect platform to connect with fans and reach new audiences, and we expect to see more inventive and frictionless native in-game ads, where branded content will seamlessly blend in the metaverse.
The metaverse is still in its early days, and who knows how long it will take for it to become what we envisioned it to be — however, this trend is too mega to be missed and we will be keeping an eye out for it.
WNJ Ventures invests in how Next-Gens Live, Work and Play. Shoot us a message if you want to chat! ;)
