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We are talking about a market that is still in its initial phase, very difficult to estimate precisely, which is not worth billions but more realistically is, at the moment, in the order of tens of millions of euros. However, the phenomenon of virtual and immersive worlds is alive and even in Italy it is preparing for a “new” season of growth. This was confirmed by the director of the Extended Reality & Metaverso Observatory of the Polytechnic of Milan, Marta Valsecchi, commenting in a preview for Il Sole 24 Ore on the results of the research presented this morning at the Milanese university. «Although the hype about the metaverse has waned, the extended reality sector has not stood still in the last year, it has worked to enhance technologies and make steps forward towards a new frontier of online interaction that will allow new immersive and interactive experiences . There are several positive signs recorded in 2023 – continues Valsecchi – and among these are the investments of Big Tech such as Apple, Meta and Microsoft and the interest of the European Commission in regulating the phenomenon, certified by the presentation of the web 4.0 strategy to guide the next transition technology focused on virtual worlds”. If the definitive form that the metaverse will take is still unclear, there is no doubt that over the last 12 months significant bricks have been added to the pillars that could constitute the scenario (or rather the virtual environment) in which it will be It is possible to replicate the activities of daily life, in the name of total immersion and ample opportunities for physical-digital interaction that are difficult to implement with the current web. According to the Observatory’s analysis, there are three fundamental components for the full implementation of the metaverse: the so-called “virtual worlds” for playing or working online, in which users can interact with each other via special digital avatars, extended reality technologies and the interconnection between virtual worlds (and of these with the physical world) to create a more fluid experience for the user who moves from one part to another with its features and assets. As is easy to imagine, the first two are already a constantly evolving reality, made up of large gaming environments and multiple areas of application, although the cost of virtual reality devices (primarily viewers) is still a brake the accessibility of these solutions on a large scale. The next step, according to experts, will be linked to the more pervasive development of other new generation technologies, starting with blockchain, which could allow interoperability between virtual worlds, spatial computing, which will facilitate the recognition of objects in physical space virtual and user interactions, and then, last but not least, artificial intelligence, which will make the creation and customization processes of the various elements of the metaverse (environments, characters, objects and virtual assistants) more efficient and will allow optimizing the industrial processes.
The Observatory has distinguished the virtual worlds between public and private, counting 130 and 119 respectively. The former are open and freely accessible to anyone, and designed to entertain users with various activities and experiences. They are divided into Rooms (58% of the total, and include for example Roblox and Spatial), Open World (32%), i.e. unique environments such as Decentraland and The Sandbox which extend over a single map, and finally worlds hybrids (10%) such as The Nemesis and Coderblock, capable of offering access both through rooms and a single map. The latter, however, are accessible only to some users at the discretion of the company that creates them, are customizable to meet specific needs and in most cases are created via specific platforms, the so-called metaverse as a service platform (an example is MetaPresence by TechStar). Compared to 2022, we read in the report, a greater number of abandoned worlds were observed compared to nascent ones, projects aimed at the final consumer decreased (down by 59%) but B2b/B2e type initiatives (business to business and business to employee), especially for the creation of collaborative spaces and for corporate training. From 2018 to today, a total of just under 740 projects have been identified at an international level (around seventy Italian ones), of which over two thirds were activated in public virtual worlds.
The photograph that portrays the Italian context, extended to all the applications of extended reality technologies (augmented, mixed and virtual reality), tells us that over 300 initiatives have been launched from 2020 to today in the business to consumer sector and around 180 activated for the B2b/B2e market. A fifth of these initiatives (22%) were developed in 2023, with a decrease of 18% compared to the previous year, while 15 new projects have already seen the light in the first months of 2024. At sector level , retail and tourism are the main supporters of virtual worlds (both with a share of 18%) (manufacturing dominates in the business sector, focusing on solutions to encourage collaboration between employees in some phases of internal processes) but it is education, with the creation of virtual classrooms for student training and lessons (developed by various universities), the sector that has proved to be most dynamic over the last twelve months, with 22% of projects implemented.