Maru’s Guide to the Metaverse, Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR)
By Maru Entertainment & Technology | January 2023
Web3 was one of the industry’s buzziest terms at the start of 2022. Facebook had gone all in on the Metaverse with their Meta rebrand in October of 2021. NFTs and cryptocurrency were seemingly unstoppable in hype and valuations. Then a series of scandals in cryptocurrency struck, beginning the onset of the crypto winter and skepticism about all Web3 technologies.
The Maru Entertainment & Technology practice undertook a deep diving thought leadership study in November 2022 to ascertain the current opinions of Web3 among the U.S. public, who are expected to become avid customers of things like the Metaverse and Virtual Reality by big tech firms making large investments into the field.
What we found was that there is a proportion of the market that is seriously amped for the onset of the Metaverse, VR and AR, which is significant considering that virtual and augmented reality is in their infancy and that the Metaverse as conceptualized remains exactly that, a concept that is yet to be realized.
However, there are high levels of disinterest in all Web3 tech. This is only indicative of current disinterest and not the future. Once the Metaverse is up and running and headsets are affordable, this can be expected to change - famously, before HBO’s launch in 1972, researchers went door-to-door to gauge interest in the first premium TV channel and found interest levels at around 2% for the concept.
Maru’s Guide to Web3 analyzes interest across Web3 tech through two different dimensions: age and income. As may be expected, the youngest cohort has the strongest interest levels, with 18-29s having the strongest levels seen, contrasted with 60+, who had the lowest interest levels. This is to be expected and what we see with the adoption of any new format or technology, such as streaming or social media.
Analysis by income suggests that the Metaverse may not ultimately be fully representative of all people. Lower-income households (under $75k a year) report a much lower level of interest across Web3 tech than wealthier counterparts with Household incomes over $150k. This likely means that the immersive Metaverse would skew toward its audience, especially given the investment needed to create 4D environments and the relative size of wealthier households to the much larger group of less wealthy individuals.
The biggest and most obvious barrier to the widespread adoption of the Metaverse is accessed. The envisioned immersive world requires a VR headset for access, with current ownership rates below one in five. A bigger issue is cost of the headsets range in price from $349 to $1,799.99, but our research showed that pricing below that, starting at $200, would see interest heighten and adoption grow.
If the tech barriers to affordable VR continue for the short-to-midterm, another way to boost adoption is to embrace the 2D Metaverse as a concept to develop. This already exists, think of Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft as examples. Maru’s research found that, once respondents were informed about the 2D Metaverse, VR fell from being the number one assumed entry point to being behind computers, smartphones, and smart TVs. It’s worth noting that just over one in three adults are interested in using VR to access the Metaverse.
This is key as many of those who lack the funds to purchase the additional tech needed for Web3 will boost adoption and help make Web3 concepts more mainstream. While this will fall short of the fully immersive worlds some dream of, no one is saying that these do not need to be developed in tandem with more accessible 2D worlds, and a move toward a 2D Metaverse will also make sure that it is more representative of society.
For more detailed findings on Web3, read here.
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