Every week, Metaland presents you 3 Metaverse news not to be missed for brands!
Don't miss the latest Metaverse news of the week!
Happy New Year everyone!
🇪🇺 The European Union has spent 387,000 euros to launch its own metaverse and only attracted 10 people during its inauguration... That's the narrative we've seen in the press. We tried the experience for you and we'll give you our opinion.
January 6th, 2023 edition:
Decentraland Worlds, The Sandbox in numbers and the European metaverse!
Why is it important?
It's the first large-scale experience conducted by a political and economic organization with the aim of using the metaverse as an alternative to traditional channels in order to reach a younger audience that it is struggling to reach through other media.
Pros:
Accessibility: The experience is accessible with just a few clicks from your computer or mobile device, particularly well-suited for non-initiated users.
Quality: This virtual world, created from scratch for the occasion, does not rely on an existing metaverse like The Sandbox, Spatial or Decentraland. This allows the EU to break free from the technical constraints of these platforms and offer a much more visually pleasing experience. The avatars (in the form of robots that look like a slide trombone) have also been heavily criticized in the media. On our side, we found them rather fun and different from what can be found in other metaverses.
Space: By creating its own metaverse, the EU frees itself from the constraints of space (no purchase of virtual lands) and offers a relatively large space that can be expanded as new content is deployed.
Cons:
Content: Although the space offers a lot of video content and some nice interactions like flying above the water, the experience lacks directions and quests to complete. We would have liked to be more guided in a more gamified journey to give more meaning to the visit.
Playability: The handling of the avatar is significantly different from what is found in classic games or on other metaverses. Potentially less bothersome for newcomers, but navigation is likely to irritate experienced users.
Communication strategy: In our opinion, what hurt the most about launching this initiative was the communication around the project. By creating its own platform, the EU should have made more efforts to attract visitors who can't land by accident in this virtual space. Partnerships with Web3 and gaming communities, influencers, media (specialized and mainstream) sharing their target audience could have attracted much more people at launch.
Metaland's rating: 6/10
The experience is fresh and of quality. Although the budget seems high, it is good to remember that this is not a one-shot deal. It will be much less expensive to add new content now that the foundations have been laid. The main challenge for the EU will be to attract more visitors and keep them engaged, a task that is even more difficult when creating your own platform, adding friction to the user experience. Connecting to a new app, platform, or website always requires more effort.
To test the experience, click here!
🧱The Alpha season 3 of The Sandbox, metrics recap!
Why is it important?
The Sandbox is the leading metaverse in terms of market cap (USD 633M) and brand adoption. Therefore, we would like to review the performance of the last season in order to take the pulse of the market after the year 2022.
🕹️Players:
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17 million visits, three times more than during season 2
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Several experiences offered by brands received more than 300,000 visits.
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More than 360,000 unique users from around the world participated in this season 3.
👩🎨Creators:
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The diversity of experiences has established a new engagement record with over 2.4 million hours played in total and an average session time of 20 minutes.
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85.7 million quests were completed among the 98 available experiences.
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Among the most visited experiences of the season, we find:
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Avenged Sevenfold: Deathbats Club (470K visits)
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The Walking Dead: A Day in Alexandria (400K visits)
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WMG Land (330K visits)
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Ledger School of Block (330K visits)
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Next week, we will provide a recap of the new features of The Sandbox Game Maker, which will allow for even more engaging experiences for your customers in 2023!
To learn more, click here.
👨🎨 Decentraland is launching "WORLDS" to make creating experiences more accessible for creators.
Why is this important?
The cost of lands in decentralized metaverses like Decentraland has long been a hindrance to creating experiences, especially for individual creators who do not have tens or hundreds of thousands of euros to invest.
This high cost of land, acquired by speculators who do not intend to use it, has contributed to Decentraland being dotted with deserted, uninteresting areas for visitors of the platform.
In response, the Decentraland foundation recently launched a land rental option, allowing users to rent land on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, securely directly through Decentraland's marketplace.
To take it a step further, at the end of 2022, Decentraland is launching the beta version of "WORLDS," a space of 4 parcels (each parcel is 16 square meters) for any user who has a "NAME."
What is a "NAME"?
A NAME is like a domain name in the Decentraland universe. It is an NFT that allows you to assign a unique name (maximum of 15 characters) to your avatar, land, or WORLD.
This NAME allows for the creation of a unique link containing the name of your experience or brand, similar to a personalized URL that creators on YouTube can use.
For example, if I create the following NAME: HighCo, my WORLD will be accessible through:
play.decentraland.org/world/HighCo
You can buy a NAME on the secondary market (Decentraland marketplace, OpenSea, etc.) or create a new one for 100 MANA, which is equivalent to 30.30 euros today.
In comparison, the smallest plot of land in Decentraland to date is worth 6,000 euros.
Metaland's perspective on WORLDS:
So, do WORLDS represent a risk for land owners and the Decentraland ecosystem?
There are two major differences between a WORLD and a traditional land:
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A WORLD does not appear on Decentraland's map. It is only accessible through its dedicated URL or a chat box command. Its discoverability is therefore limited to the creator's audience.
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A WORLD has a maximum of 4 parcels, which is relatively limited compared to the content you can create. The most sophisticated experiences deployed on brand lands such as Samsung and LaLiga have 35 and 96 parcels, respectively.
We believe that WORLDS will play a positive role in the development of Decentraland. If more creators offer content, this should lead to growth in the number of users, and in turn, push more creators and brands to join the ecosystem. This could in turn have a positive impact on the price of the token and lands.
We will therefore follow the evolution of NAME purchases and WORLD creation, as well as their impact on the Decentraland ecosystem in the coming months.
Click here to learn more.
Have a great day,
Charles from Metaland