Summary Bullets:

• The metaverse fell hard because of how high it flew, and initial metaverse world implementations had severe technical and social flaws.

• Metaverse worlds may not survive, but AR/VR/XR will. These technologies have strong enterprise use cases and potential for more as the technology grows.

During our annual predictions exercise in late 2022, I predicted that the metaverse (AR/VR/XR) was going into a winter, a period of decline, frustration, and of course the airing of the metaverse grievances. Every technology goes through a cycle of hype and decline, the bigger the hype, the bigger the decline. Interest in metaverse was so high, companies were creating metaverse divisions, making bold predictions, and in general very publicly spending money. After all, Mark Zukerberg wouldn’t have renamed his company and spent billions on nothing, would he? The hype on metaverse was artificially boosted by another technology segment that specializes in hype and hot air, namely crypto/blockchain/Web3. Claims were that the metaverse couldn’t function without blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and it would be the first big ‘Web3’ application to hit the market. All the arrows pointed up and the fear of missing out got checks written and plans altered.

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