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- Welcome to New World Notes’ 2006-2025 Archive!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
- Top Five Posts Including: Huge Rec Room Layoff & Meta Boots Neal Stephenson Off Facebook (Briefly)
- Four Glorious Second Life Sims to Explore — After Watching Sabina Valeska’s Machinima Tributes to Them!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
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Category: Making the Metaverse
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Here's what I wrote in July 2021 about Facebook/Meta's flagship metaverse platform project: "I think Facebook has the money and people to throw at the problem," as they put it to me, "but making products as a large entity hasn't been one of Facebook's strong suits… it's been to acquire other products and integrate them…
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Click here to register for free to attend a Zoom webinar on That M Thing in a conference hosted by Canadian non-profit org CPAC (Chinese Professionals Association of Canada), which kicks off April 29 at 6:30pm PT. I'm preparing a slide deck now covering a range of topics, including how to define the Metaverse, Second…
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My post yesterday questioning the logic behind The Sandbox's reported $4 billion valuation (by Bloomberg) led to an interesting conversation on LinkedIn. Staff members of The Sandbox took some umbrage in the thread, pointing out that the co-founder recently reported that The Sandbox client now has 300,000 monthly active users, which is pretty solid growth…
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Headscratcher of the day: The Sandbox, a platform that allows users to trade and monetize virtual assets in the Ethereum blockchain, is considering raising fresh funds at a valuation of more than $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is looking to raise about $400 million from both new and existing…
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When I was talking to that Government Body That Shall Remain Nameless about regulation of metaverse platforms, and plans to start calling public hearings before Congress and EU Parliaments, they were surprised when I mentioned that this already happened in 2008 with Philip Rosedale and other metaverse developers. "Yeah," I said. "Jon Stewart even did…
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Just got this pretty amazing breaking news note from Shawn Whiting, Head of Influencers & Partners at Rec Room: "Shortly after the holidays, Rec Room crested 3 million VR monthly active users… A majority of those VR monthly active users are Quest 2. [Emph mine – WJA] "We're very happy with the VR growth but…
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As part of Meta's Horizon monetization announcement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had an in-world chat/demo with several community creators (watch below). And before I get too ranty, let me start by saying that's a smart and good thing! If you want to foster a positive and thriving metaverse platform community, you definitely want to show…
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Meta, a latecomer to metaverse platform development, just announced the launch of a marketplace for user creators in Horizon Worlds, and you can see the potential problems right in the immediate details: [A] “handful” of Horizon creators will be able to sell virtual items and effects in the worlds they create for others to explore.…
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When I mentioned that metaverse platform CEOs should prepare to testify under oath before Congress soon, that was not an exaggeration: In fact, that very thing already happened in 2008, with Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale. (Wearing a suit for the first time that I'm aware of since meeting him in 2003!) Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts),…
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In the weeks since my interview in The Atlantic, officials/staffers with at least two major world power governments have reached out to me, asking for advice as to how they might regulate metaverse platforms. I won't name them specifically, beyond saying that they're from member nations of the EU/NATO, and that this is in addition…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 