Into the Metaverse

On the fifth episode of This Week in the Metaverse, Matthew and Yon break down three news items that are influential to the development of the metaverse and on which we can provide unique perspective and expertise. First, we discuss the departure of COO Sheryl Sandberg from her role at Meta Platforms (nee Facebook) and what it means for the company’s growth in the metaverse. Next, we dive into the announcement that Neal Stephenson, the father of the metaverse and author of Snow Crash in which he coined the term, is launching LAMINA1. And lastly, we discuss Playful Studios’ $43 Million funding round and their ambitious plans for the Wildcard Alliance.

Creators are flourishing with the proliferation of non-fungible tokens and web3 technologies, empowering them with new tools to better connect with fans and collectors. We were happy to be joined by Sutu who uses art and technology in new ways to tell stories including his latest project, Neonz, which explores the full potential of an AR Metaverse. We had a wide-ranging conversation with Sutu about many topics including the empowerment of creators in the metaverse era, how intellectual property takes shape in the web3 era and at the end of the conversation, an exclusive about an upcoming project from Sutu.

On the fourth episode of This Week in the Metaverse, Matthew and Yon break down three news items that are influential to the development of the metaverse and on which we can provide unique perspective and expertise. First, we look at the announcement of new UGC games from Sky Mavis from its Builders Program. Then, we dive into the financial results of Animoca Brands, the parent company of the Sandbox. And lastly, we discuss the announcement that Gala Games’ Grit will be available on the Epic Games Store.

Venture investing in the metaverse is continuing at a rapid pace as investors seek to spot the next generation of multi-billion dollar tech leaders. Angela Dalton, the CEO at Signum Growth Capital and a venture partner at Griffin Gaming Partners, breaks down the outlook for VC investing in companies at the forefront of technologies and digital economies in the metaverse, what parts of the market are most exciting, the impact of recent financial market turbulence on investments and how gaming companies can evolve to become metaverse leaders.

On the third episode of This Week in the Metaverse, Yon is back and he and Matthew break down three news items from the last week that are influential to the development of the metaverse. First, we look at Roblox’s hire of former Zynga CTO Nick Tornow as VP of Engineering for its Developer Team. Then, we dive into the rumors swirling about Apple’s upcoming RealityOS for a potential mixed reality headset and what this means for its metaverse aspirations. And lastly, we discuss the seed funding environment for metaverse startups after Crunchbase reported that metaverse was one of five strong themes in seed venture funding so far in 2022 despite broader market turbulence.

Unity is one of the few companies with advanced real-time 3d capabilities that is positioned to help usher in the metaverse era. Marc Whitten, the Senior Vice President of Create at Unity, joins the podcast to breakdown Unity’s growth in the metaverse, how Unity plans to unleash the creator economy by democratizing real-time 3d development tools, platform interoperability and the potential of web3 technologies as we build towards a collective vision of the metaverse.

On the second episode of This Week in the Metaverse, Matthew is joined by Brian Peganoff, an advisor to several games companies and previously the Senior Director of Corporate Development & Strategy at Glu Mobile, to break down three news items and how they impacting the development of the metaverse. They look at a16z’s new $600 million Games Fund One and $4.5 billion Crypto Fund Four, the M&A rumors swirling around Electronic Arts and the games industry as a whole and earnings takeaways from Roblox, Unity and Nvidia.

On this new sub-series of Into the Metaverse called This Week In the Metaverse, Matthew and Yon give a brief rundown of some of the biggest news and events in the broader metaverse space. This week, we discuss the turbulence in financial and crypto markets and their impact on the metaverse; Epic Games announcing their competitor to Roblox and how that fits into their strategy to conquer the metaverse; and Roblox’s first quarter 2022 financial results.

Decentralization is a key trend in the metaverse, empowering users and creators and seeking to break down the walled gardens of current Internet platforms. Saro McKenna, the CEO of Dacoco, the creator of the largest NFT metaverse Alien Worlds, joins us to discuss the power of decentralized organizations, making web3 technologies more accessible to more users, building through the crypto market turmoil and building a diverse metaverse for people of all walks of life.

What’s it like starting a gaming company in the metaverse and web3 era? We chat with Joseph Kim, the CEO of LILA Games, about his outlook on the metaverse and web3 in gaming and how these megatrends influence product and team decisions in starting a new mobile game company. We also discuss why now may be the right time to start a gaming company based in India amid a flurry of tech growth and venture investment in the country.