Entering 2022, global Internet giants continue to accelerate the pace of deployment of the Metaverse, and domestic Internet companies are also rushing to apply for the registration of Metaverse-related trademarks to seize the opportunity for the development of the digital economy.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the development of the digital economy has gradually become a national strategy.
Several industry authorities said that the Metaverse may lead the development of the global digital economy, and it is urgent to introduce policies as soon as possible to crack the legal, technological, and talent barriers that restrict the development of the Metaverse, strengthen governance and supervision, and guide Chinese enterprises to speed up their entry into the Metaverse. A track of healthy development, chasing and pursuing to lead the development of the global next-generation Internet and digital economy.
Hardware, Social, Gaming - The Troika to the Metaverse
Microsoft announced on January 18 that it would buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and all cash payments.
Activision Blizzard has launched classic games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. As of the third quarter of 2021, there are 400 million monthly active users.
After the deal, Microsoft will become the world's third-largest gaming company after Tencent and Sony.
Microsoft "dances the sword", meaning the metaverse.
Microsoft CEO Nadella said the deal will play a key role in the development of the Microsoft Metaverse platform.
The relevant person in charge of NetEase Group believes that under the tide of the Metaverse, the game industry is not only the best test field for the Metaverse technology, but also the best scene for the commercialization of the Metaverse.
The two complement each other and promote each other.
"As the basic model of the next-generation Internet, the metaverse has basic characteristics such as identity, interactivity, and immersion, and games are undoubtedly the most ideal entrance." said Kong Rong, chief overseas analyst of Tianfeng Securities.
The industry also sees the acquisition as a defensive battle between Microsoft and Meta, another big tech company, in the metaverse.
Ma Tianyi, chief analyst of Minsheng Securities Communications, believes that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard allows Microsoft to complete the three-wheel drive of hardware, social networking, and gaming to the Metaverse.
Four new tracks, three new breakthroughs
Global stock markets reacted quickly.
On January 18, Activision Blizzard soared about 37% in U.S. stocks before the market; Sony Group’s shares fell nearly 13% in Tokyo, Japan.
On January 19, my country's A-share game concept stocks rose rapidly, and Xunyou Technology and Starlight Entertainment hit their daily limit...
Capital from all walks of life is moving.
Dong Yueying, equity partner of Beijing Dacheng (Shanghai) Law Firm, who has been following Metaverse for a long time, believes that the current Internet dividend has declined, and capital is eager to find the next outlet based on profit-seeking.
Tencent, ByteDance, Wanxing Technology, Zhongqingbao, NetEase and other domestic companies have accelerated their deployment of the Metaverse, and many Internet giants and their affiliated companies are rushing to apply for the registration of Metaverse-related trademarks.
"Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital, ZhenFund, Wuyuan Capital, Xianfeng Evergreen, Morningside Capital, Xinghan Capital and other first-tier investment institutions have all started the layout of the Metaverse track." Dong Yueying said.
"Metaverse will lead the development of the global digital economy." Li Anmin, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Telecom Group Xinguomai Digital Culture Co., Ltd. believes that the Metaverse has spawned at least four new tracks: technology research and development, intelligent computing power, and scenarios. applications and digital assets.
On the technology research and development track, there are virtual reality, artificial intelligence, GPU (visual processing chip), Internet of Things, blockchain/NFT, etc.
On the intelligent computing power track, GPU-based intelligent computing power is the key, and the development of the Metaverse will accelerate the world into the era of intelligent computing power.
On the scene application track, the metaverse era will give birth to rich application scenarios such as life, work and urban governance that combine virtual and reality.
On the digital asset track, digital assets will become an important part of world assets and value because there will be a large number of digital assets such as animation characters, works of art, and various IPs created in the metaverse.
The relevant person in charge of NetEase Group believes that in the future, the game industry should be integrated with the metaverse, not only to create a virtual world outside the real world, but also to focus more on supplementing the real world, so that the superimposed effect of games and the metaverse can be achieved. Continuous overflow, applied to industrial, medical, transportation, education, culture and other physical fields.
The first is to eliminate estrangement, form a new way of life and production with two dimensions of virtual and real, expand more space scenes that cannot be realized in reality, and combine virtual and real to bring unprecedented sensory experience in all aspects of vision, hearing, touch and taste.
The second is to break through the limitations of physical conditions and bring about a substantial increase in capacity and efficiency.
Taking the human body teaching in biology class as an example, an AR game can be developed to present the internal organs of the human body in front of the user's eyes, intuitively display the three-dimensional relationship of the internal organs, and even observe through them.
Such immersive learning is more effective than traditional teaching methods.
In addition, in application scenarios such as emergency rescue, earthquake rescue, and poison gas treatment, metaverse technologies such as digital twins can break through physical and human constraints, and will play an unexpected role in improving efficiency and overcoming difficult problems.
The third is the development of the game industry and the metaverse, which will bring a new round of technological innovation and technological explosion, accelerate people's demand for new energy and quantum computing, and help make major breakthroughs in brain-computer interfaces and other aspects.
Guide relevant enterprises to lead the digital economy
First, formulate relatively complete rules and regulations for it as soon as possible to promote openness, prevent monopoly, and achieve interconnection.
For example, digital identities in the Metaverse require real-name authentication by the public security system to prevent users from forging and tampering with virtual digital identities.
Another example is the mapping of works of art from the real world to the virtual world. Whether there is a copyright issue requires relevant departments to make regulations to avoid infringement.
Dong Yueying believes that with the emergence of new formats of Metaverse, the confirmation and use of virtual property will bring more complicated legal issues.
In addition, for Metaverse companies that carry out data processing business, they need to pay special attention to data security-related legislation and establish and improve the platform data compliance system.
Secondly, technical limitations are the biggest bottleneck facing the current development of the Metaverse. The country needs to vigorously support the research and development of key technologies, shorten the gap with overseas countries as soon as possible, and strive to catch up.
The game engine is equivalent to the chip of the game, and it is one of the core competitiveness of the metaverse field.
Due to the large investment and high risk of self-developed game engines, domestic companies are currently less involved, and they rely too much on imported engines such as Unity and UE.
According to iResearch's 2020 statistics, 71% of the world's top 1,000 mobile games use the Unity engine.
This means that once the supply of imported game engines is cut off, the entire game industry will be significantly impacted, and there is a risk of being stuck.
Industry insiders expect that a special support fund will be set up to provide tax incentives and talent employment guidance for companies that develop or use self-developed engines.
At the same time, domestic and foreign technicians and scientists participating in the self-development of the engine will be supported with visas, settlement and tax incentives.
Thirdly, the metaverse industry needs more room for trial and error and innovation, among which the exploration and innovation of game products is a very good test field.
Since August 2021, the issuance of game version numbers has been stagnant, which has led to most game companies retreating to games with large categories and mature gameplay in order to maximize the value of limited version numbers. The industry innovation and fault tolerance space has been significantly reduced, and technological development has slowed down. .
The respondents suggested to explore a more standardized game industry management system and industry self-discipline, and gradually weaken the total number of version control.
Accurate support for technologically innovative game products. For game companies with strong self-research capabilities, corresponding support policies such as version numbers and funds will be issued to prepare technical and rule reserves for the development of the Metaverse industry.
Finally, guide enterprises to step up research and cut into the field of virtual reality interaction.
Li Anmin believes that relevant departments and localities can guide enterprises to focus on four aspects: first, to participate in the forward-looking research and development of the underlying core technologies of the Metaverse; second, to participate in the construction of new infrastructure with intelligent computing power as the core; third, to vigorously expand virtual reality The fourth is to use digital technologies such as virtual reality to help the development of the real economy.
Embrace the Metaverse Carefully
Yu Jingdong
At a New Year's Eve party, a virtual human based on Teresa Teng sang classic songs such as "Small Town Story" with live singers, allowing the audience to experience the wonder of the characters' "resurrection" and travel through time and space.
Metaverse is becoming the "next outlet" for the game industry, entertainment industry and digital economy.
However, the tuyere is also easy to mutate into a risk outlet.
Recently, some lawbreakers have rubbed off on hot spots, fabricated fake Metaverse investment projects, defrauded under the banner of the Metaverse blockchain game, maliciously hyped up Metaverse real estate to make money, and engaged in illegal profits from Metaverse virtual currency in disguise.
In this regard, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued a risk warning on February 18.
The risks and crises of the Metaverse are not limited to suspected illegal fundraising, fraud and other illegal and criminal activities.
From the perspective of the existing metaverse concept, the new organization of the virtual world contains certain risks, and it is necessary to be alert to the systemic governance crisis that it may lead to.
The idea of freedom, cooperation, and open source in the metaverse requires transparency in technology, code, and governance, but these are easy points of entry for hackers.
At the same time, judging from the electoral practice of Western countries, vote manipulation and oligarchy in the virtual world cannot be ruled out.
In addition, borderless, authoritative and self-help public life will not only bring challenges to real sovereign states and the international community, but may also become a hiding place for new types of criminal, exploitative and colonial activities.
It should be noted that the metaverse may subvert the objective laws and social order of the real world, but it is impossible to completely rebuild a new set of ethics, concepts and value systems.
Therefore, both Internet giants and sovereign governments will actively participate in and influence the rule-setting of the metaverse world.
There are companies claiming to spend $1 billion to recruit, motivate and train the next generation of creators, the initial “immigrants” of virtual worlds who spread specific conceptual values in development, construction and flow.
How to establish these rules and standards is an important part of the competition between multinational capital, technology companies and sovereign states.
This competition will be all-round, including not only technical matters such as the underlying source code, basic algorithms, and security protocols, but also the output of ideas, culture and ideology.
How to seize the strategic opportunity of Metaverse's innovative research and development, and actively integrate into the reshaping of virtual space rules and values, has become a new important mission under the changing world situation.
(The author is an associate professor at the School of Government Management and Xueheng Research Institute of Nanjing University)
"Ban Yue Tan Internal Edition" 2022 Issue 3
Author: Pan Linqing