Gaming metaverses

While Meta Life will be a space for socializing, it will also eventually become a fully-fleshed video game in the long term with its unique mechanics and systems, making full use of blockchain capacities and latest cutting-edge softwares (see here). Nevertheless, before Meta Life is turned into a video game, players will be able to enjoy a playable experience with gamified activities, at half way between a social metaverse and a gaming metaverse.

The video game industry is experiencing spectacular growth. During the 2020 pandemic, time spent in video games globally rose by 40%. This led to the video game industry being worth an estimated $175 billion in the second quarter of 2022. Predictions estimate that the global video games market may be in the region of $300 billion by 2027.

Some Web2 games that are currently gathering the most users and mass market attention, such as Roblox, Fortnite and World of Warcraft, broadly meet the definition of a metaverse. While these aren't direct competitors to Meta Life because of their inherent nature to be founded in Web2 (vs Web3 for Meta Life), their existence and success is proof that the metaverse model works.

Our aim is to utilize similar roots and gameplay mechanics in addition to decentralization processes to offer the market a virtual space where they can enjoy the benefits of Web2 and Web3, combined. Web3 games and metaverses, often referred to as Play-to-Earn, offer an additional experience by allowing their users to generate revenue while playing. This is also the approach taken by Meta Life, which will allow its players to monetize their experience with METAL, our dual-economy token (see here).

GameFi (ie Game + Finance) itself is still a young, emerging market. Total capital investments in GameFi are thought to have exceeded over $4.1 billion in the first half of 2022, and yet the GameFi market cap is less than 4% of the total estimated gaming market at $6.2 billion. In 2021, P2E games made a significant impact in the gaming space. In November of 2021, nearly 50% of cryptocurrency wallets connected to dApps were for gameplay. P2E / GameFi titles include The SandBox and Star Atlas.

Let's take a closer look.

World of Warcraft

• Launched in 2004

• 8.3 million paying users as of August 2022

• 11 billion $ generated since its creation

While WoW is the perfect example of a gamified metaverse, it wasn't defined as such before late 2021 when the Metaverse began to attract mass market attention. WoW ticks all the boxes of a gaming metaverse: a virtual open world where user interaction, co-op adventures and character skill-up make the essence of the game. Its compelling similarities to what Meta Life aims to become make it a comparable player. Its massive and durable success inherently feed optimism in regards to the future prospects of Meta Life.

Roblox

• Launched in 2006 202 million estimated MAUs (as of June 2022)

• 12 million creators on the platform

• $1.9 billion revenue generated in 2021, a 107% increase year-on-year

• Valued at $25.20 billion (as of September 2022)

Fortnite

• Released in 2017

• Around 400 millions of estimated registered users

• 80 million estimated MAUs

• $5.8 billion revenue generated in 2021

• 77% of users have made at least one purchase on the game marketplace

Web2 massively multiplayer games such as Fortnite and Roblox also account for comparable sources of reliability when looking at the potential success of metaverses such as Meta Life. Their inherent aim to connect millions of players together to live common experiences, their capacity to create special events, easter eggs and treasure hunts, and their will to let players create their own experiences (skins, concerts, easter eggs on Fortnite, builds, crafts and custom maps on Roblox) make them metaverses by definition.

The Sandbox

• Created in 2012, turned into a blockchain game launched in alpha version in November 2021

• 2.2 million registered users in April 2022

• 350 000 MAUs estimated (on April 2022)

• Has a governance token, $SAND, whose ATH was $8.40 in November 2021

• Raised $3 million through its ICO in August 2020

Star Atlas

• P2E game in development, on the Solana blockchain

• 185 million raised in 2021 from sales of $ATLAS token (IDO) and assets (GAO)

• Currently at its marketplace development phase for players to trade and stake assets

Similar to Web2 video games, Web3 gamified metaverses utilize traditional gameplay mechanics (eg Player vs Player, Player vs Enemy) while adding a layer of technology at the service of players with player-owned assets that allow for the monetization of their gaming experience. Still, The Sandbox have chosen to go with voxel graphics while Star Atlas plan to use Unreal Engine 4 graphics engine.

With Meta Life, we aim to build a world where players will own the goods they will play and trade with, giving them the opportunity to participate in building the environment they operate in (see here) and earn a living.