Experts have given mixed views on what role virtual reality technology will have in the Metaverse.
Virtual reality (VR) will eventually have a place within the
Metaverse, but not for the foreseeable future given its slow adoption
rates, according to experts.
There isn’t much that can rival the experience of having one’s senses almost immersed in a virtual world — which is why many believe that the technology will have a natural fit for the Metaverse.
It's a technology that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is betting big on by introducing Meta accounts that it says will allow users to access its Meta Horizons platform more easily through Oculus VR headsets.
Founder
and CEO of Metaverse platform CEEK Mary Spio is also one waving the VR
metaverse flag. In an interview with Cointelgraph, Spio argues that the
true power of a Metaverse cannot be realized unless users are totally
immersed through the use of VR devices.
Spio’s metaverse platform
CEEK helps digital content creators, including musicians and athletes,
connect directly with their fanbase in a virtual world setting.
Spio
said that her platform opted for a focus on VR immersion because “the
benefits of the Metaverse cannot be fully realized in the non-VR mode.”
“Virtual
Reality enables full immersion and creates that sense of presence, real
emotions, and memories; no different than actually being at a time and
place in real life.”
However, Spio admits that their
metaverse needs to allows for both VR and non-VR accessibility, as
content, ease of use, and accessibility are all still required before we
see the mass adoption of VR technology.
She believes that a “quantum leap will be in the next two to three years” for Metaverse and VR adoption.
Janine Yorio, CEO of Metaverse ecosystem developer Everyrealm however disagrees.
To Yorio, Metaverse platforms and VR technology should develop exclusively of each other without mutual consideration.
By
her estimation, a very small portion of Metaverse experiences are being
built for VR like CEEK, noting VR making a significant change in the
world likely won’t happen in any meaningful horizon.
The reasons
for this lie in “technological obstacles” and simple human preference
for the most casual applications of technology:
“People
typically game or engage with technology while they are doing something
else. That is impossible when using a VR headset which effectively
blocks out the rest of the world and makes the user physically
vulnerable while using it.”
Her view is backed by the numbers as Statista found that the VR market size was about $4.8 billion in 2021 from only 2.4 headsets per hundred households according to Virtual Reality Marketing. Compare that to Web 2.0 Metaverse companies that enjoy a $14.8 trillion market cap and the Metaverse token market worth $7.1 billion according to CoinGecko.
Related: The opportunities and risks of Metaverse for small businesses
Meanwhile, the creative and technical director at Human Park, Ricky Pearce, took a middle-ground stance on the issue.
He
told Cointelegraph in an interview that it might be five to ten years
before VR becomes a Metaverse-ready item due to developer-side
limitations, as well as the various hurdles to mass adoption — though he
admitted that VR implementation "isn't off the cards."
To Pearce,
the main hurdle is the headset, which he says Oculus has solved for the
most part by making the device more accessible. However, connectivity
and gameplay will remain a difficult challenge for least the next five
years.
Pearce added that some of the limitations of integrating
VR and Metaverse may have no solution because of “physical limitations
that stop those things from connecting on a fundamental level.”
“When
we saw VR kickoff, you could see that there was potential. But the
mechanical components to be able to deliver a sustained enjoyable
experience just weren't there, and they still aren't now.”
Human Park has not yet implemented VR to its platform, but says it is a possibility for the future.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/experts-clash-on-where-virtual-reality-sits-in-the-metaverse
