Matt Ball literally wrote the book on the metaverse - with a new update out in late July. So who better to chat all things metaverse and distribution with?  In the last several years, Matt has become known as one of the most astute writers and thinkers about the nature of business, innovation, IP, and the deep structural factors that shape the entertainment and gaming industry. He also had a frontseat to the streaming wars during his time at Accenture and Prime Video. Finally, we get a clear concise understanding of what the metaverse is (and no, it’s not just VR and NFTs).  In this episode of Secret Stash, co-hosts Justin Kan and Archie Stonehill sit down with Matt Ball and discuss 👉 streaming war winners and losers (sorry, Hulu) 👉 why big tech companies never hugely invested in games 👉 what the metaverse actually 👉 and the impact Apple and Google had on mobile and gaming Read the highlights here: https://dev.stash.gg/blog/secret-stash-episode-4-matt-ball-reveals-the-secret-to-the-metaverse 0:00 - Intro 1:55 - Wildfire fighter 3:25 - Moving to business 5:00 - The OTT streaming opportunity 8:45 - Meet Liam Bullock 12:33 - The economics of streaming 15:43 - The streaming war and Hulu’s failure 23:36 - Amazon and the video opportunity 30:08 - Why not gaming? 34:05 - The origin of the metaverse 36:12 - Fortnite isn’t unique 38:39 - What is the metaverse? 42:32 - Interoperability and standards 48:28 - Why hasn’t mobile opened? 56:32 - Changing tides 1:00:00 - The power of disconnecting 1:02:45 - A better world 1:05:00 - Games vs. social 1:07:46 - Matt’s secret Subscribe now to be the first to listen to new Secret Stash episodes! Stash is the first of its kind direct-to-consumer platform for games. Learn more about Stash here: https://dev.stash.gg/