On Tuesday, April 11th, the government of France opened a consultation for setting up a framework for the future of “virtual immersive worlds”, or “metaverses”. The idea behind the consultation, which will remain open until May 2nd, is, according to the press release, to offer an alternative to what is currently being offered by international corporations like Meta.
France Opens Consultation for a Framework for the Future of Metaverses
The government of France opened a consultation on the future of “metaverses” on Tuesday, April 11th. The consultation calls on “various stakeholders” such as citizens, companies, associations, and researchers to express their opinion on what the future of such digital worlds should look like.
According to the press release, the French government believes it is necessary to develop a national strategy for how to handle the technological and cultural developments leading up to immersive digital worlds. It also believes that an alternative to the vision offered by international companies should be found in order to build, as the title of the consultation suggests, a French-style metaverse.
The consultation follows President Macron’s campaign speeches about the need to create a European metaverse. Furthermore, it mirrors the somewhat Gaulist tone of his latest speech which called for greater European sovereignty and independence from foreign powers.
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Are Metaverses Still Viable?
The disclaimer at the end of the press release warning that the term metaverse is still very much in flux. While nowadays mostly associated with projects like Meta’s Metaverse, there is no fixed definition for the term yet, and many concepts popularized by movies like “Ready Player One” such as the integration in VR are currently neither present nor on the current roadmaps of the biggest active “metaverses” like Decentraland.
Recent developments with the Metaverse, and other metaverses haven’t been particularly promising with the cryptocurrency media outlet CoinDesk getting into a spat with Decentraland after reporting the world has only about 650 daily active users. Similarly, the reports of countless billions Meta spent on its own virtual world without even having legs to show for their effort might appear to signal there is little but doom and gloom in store for various metaverses.
It is, however, important to remember that even Meta itself disclosed its belief that a proper Metaverse is more than a decade away. Furthermore, the digital assets industry has only started recovering from a prolonged “crypto winter” which saw much of its value wiped out—and with metaverses’ ties with cryptocurrencies, put a dent in the broader enthusiasm for such virtual worlds. Additionally, despite the adverse developments, many entities across the globe are still signaling their interest with, for example, Sandbox recently signing an MOU with the Saudi Arabia Digital Government Authority.
What could a Fench-style (or any other country-style) metaverse look like? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
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