Movies in the Metaverse - Tech Insiders News, April 2023
Welcome to the Digital Explorers' Diary #34!
A curated collection of thought-provoking topics about interactive technologies, AI, web3, sense-making, entrepreneurship, and psychology.
Meta-movies!
What will be the evolution of movies? What will be the evolution of entertainment? All the technologies we need are now emerging; it’s now a matter of industry initiative, integration, and coordination.
Imagine: tonight is the worldwide release of James Bond #42 in the Metaverse. As a franchise fan, you purchased a golden, all-access ticket, one of the only 10 in the world. As a reward, you got to play one of the villains in the introduction scene!
An hour before the live starts, you put your headset on, open the James Bond #42 app, and enter your secret code. Immersed in the scene in Virtual Reality, you are briefed: James Bond has been spotted in the city, and you must capture him by all means. You can rehearse, try the weapons they gave you, and look at the streets map… And here he is! Live, seen by millions of people, heart racing, you’re doing your best to go after him. There’s no way you can kill him - it’s James Bond, after all - but you can affect how fast he will escape and how hurt he will be - one of the many storylines the studio planned for this meta-movie.
You have help: five of the people who purchased silver tickets are in the live too, and they give you real-time hints and assistance.
He finally escapes; your part is done, and you enjoy the rest of the movie, freely choosing your point of view in every scene.
Millions of users watched, some in VR like you, some on their TV or smartphone, and many from movie theaters and theme parks. Over the following years, countless plays of James Bond #42 will occur, with different storylines and different people.
This is where gaming, movie, and entertainment meet. In 2023, VR quality is getting better and better; and the emergence of AI will speed this all up very fast.
Are you ready?
In Other News
- Elon Musk has started a new company named x.ai. His goals are unclear, and the contradiction is staggering between this news and his initiative to pause AI training and his constant warning about AI risks. Is he also a victim of the unhealthy competition currently occurring?
Which one do you prefer? - A group of researchers at Stanford and Google have created an AI-driven simulation inspired by The Sims. An AI Agent drives each player, making the scenario extremely easy to create: for example, they just had to tell one of the agents to run a Valentine’s Day party; and the AI did the rest: invitations, scheduling, etc. You can even see the replay here.
Very relevant to the meta-movies concept above! - At Laval Virtual, the annual French event of Immersive Technologies, Pico announced its new G3 headset. It’s only 3DOF - meaning it tracks only the head’s rotation and not the position - and is dedicated to enterprise use with features like device management or kiosk mode. And believe me, having spent half a day last week configuring 10 Meta Quest devices, that would have been helpful!
From the Podcast
Every week, I’m teaming up with Guillaume Brincin and Sébastien Spas on the Lost In Immersion podcast. This week:
- Seb had the opportunity to test the Infinadeck VR treadmill. It’s an omnidirectional treadmill that allows a VR user to walk in all directions. Mostly used for industrial, military, and medical use because of its huge price tag; it’s a great device that still needs a lot of improvements before coming to the general public.
- Last March, the Metaverse Fashion Week was held on the Decentraland platform. With an increased audience compared to last year, it was a success where brands could showcase the next trends and blend real with virtual with redeemable NFTs. The Decentraland platform suffered some glitches, though, emphasizing the importance of technology for such an event to become mainstream.
- We also discussed VR in education by looking at this picture of a school in Sacramento. We agreed that such initiatives facilitate VR's potential for teaching in a remote context. The future of education will be awesome!
Tune in at 10 am UTC on Wednesdays on Twitch, and listen to the replays on Youtube!