Into the Metaverse

Marcus Holmström, Founder and CEO of The Gang, shares his journey of building a game studio focused on Roblox and the metaverse. He discusses the successes of branded experiences like Vans and Shrek, and the future of integrating real-world commerce into virtual environments. The conversation touches on the challenges of adapting to Roblox's unique audience, the importance of community feedback, and the evolving role of brand partnerships. Holmström also highlights the emerging potential of new gaming platforms and innovations on the horizon.

Charlie Fink, writer for Forbes, discusses the evolution of XR, AI, and the metaverse. Topics include defining the metaverse, tech generations, future devices, and more. Dive into his career journey and insightful tech discussions.

Matthew Ball, known for his work on the metaverse, discusses the current state and future of the metaverse with Yon. They talk about AI's impact, adoption by young generations, Roblox's role, and enabling interoperability. A follow-up part two is anticipated.

Welcome back to Into the Metaverse. In this week’s episode, Yon and Matthew dive into four topics from the last week or so that we see as influential to the development of the metaverse. This weeks topics are:  Nvidia’s earnings report and how the company is helping fuel the future infrastructure of the metaverse. (More on this in our recent blog post) The recent leadership changes at Unity. Some thoughts from Yon on Roblox’s earnings. Brand activations on the Roblox platform. If there’s any topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes, please get in touch with us. And if you haven’t already, please complete our short survey to help us understand how we can best fine-tune our content. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:29 Nvidia Earnings  08:15 Unity Leadership Changes 12:33 Roblox Earnings 19:16 Brand Activations on Roblox 25:16 Wrap Up Learn more about Into the Metaverse by visiting the website. Follow Yon: LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Matthew: LinkedIn | Twitter Learn more about Supersocial by visiting the website.

In this podcast, Matthew discusses Roblox's earnings impact on brands, Microsoft's Xbox strategy post-studio closures, Sony's digital communities backlash, and Nintendo's upcoming Switch platform. The podcast explores financial trends, gaming industry moves, community engagement, and Nintendo's evolution strategy.

Roblox is the closest platform to the true vision of the metaverse; a persistent, immersive, shared, 3D space that re-imagines how users can connect, communicate, play, shop, and express themselves. In a sense, Roblox can be viewed as the public beta of the metaverse. And Roblox is already emerging as the primary social platform for Gen Alpha and younger Gen Z. With 72 million daily active users and approximately 350 million monthly active users, all of whom spend about 2.4 hours per day on the platform, Roblox is truly the most engaging platform on the Internet. And with a user base that is increasingly getting older, with 40% of DAU now over the age of 16, Roblox is no longer just a platform for young kids. But how did the Roblox of today come to be? From its founding as Dynablox 20 years ago, to launching the first experience, to opening up the avatar economy and more, Yon and Matthew dive deep into the company and platform’s history, its founders and its future in our latest episode of Into the Metaverse. And as always, if you liked this podcast, make sure to rate, review and subscribe to our substack. Topics: Where Roblox Started (02:07) Building the Developer Community (10:10) Four Core Values Drive Employee Ownership and Accountability (19:01) The Numbers Behind Roblox’s Present (23:10) Brands and IP Have Begun Leveraging Roblox (29:17) How Roblox Gets to 1 Billion Users (38:18) AI and New Technologies Impact on Roblox Growth (40:41) The Economics of Building on Roblox vs Other Platforms (46:40) The Future of Real World Commerce on Roblox (53:09) The Challenge of IP Use in a World of Digital Self Expression (58:41) Could Roblox Ever Be Acquired (01:04:22) -- -- -- -- -- Follow Yon: LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Matthew: LinkedIn | Twitter Learn more about Supersocial by visiting the website.

Roblox has a large, vibrant community of Gen Z users that spend on average about 2.5 hours per day on the platform. And to discuss how best to market to this audience, Yon welcomes Krystal Hauserman, a dedicated marketing executive to the podcast. Krystal was previously the CMO of 11:11 media, the company founded by Paris Hilton to transform the celebrity’s consumer products, entertainment and media empire for a youth audience. Notably, they launched a persistent Roblox experience themed around Paris. Krystal and Yon had a great conversation covering a broad range of topics, including bringing celebrity experiences to the Roblox platform, learnings from interacting with Gen Z and Gen Alpha users on Roblox and more broadly in marketing and much more. Follow Krystal: LinkedIn | Website Learn more about Into the Metaverse and Yon by visiting the website. Follow Yon: LinkedIn | Twitter Learn more about Supersocial by visiting the website.

How are enterprises viewing investing in the metaverse today? Yon was delighted to welcome Edwina Fitzmaurice, the Chief Customer Success Officer at EY to the podcast. Edwina is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council, an adjunct associate professor at Trinity College Dublin and a board member and chair of the governance committee of WIN: Women in Innovation. Edwina and Yon had a wonderful conversation covering a broad range of topics, including which technologies are driving the conversation in the boardroom today, why companies are expanding into immersive metaverse platforms and why inclusivity is a core tenet of building disruptive technologies. Follow Edwina: LinkedIn Read Edwina’s column in Information Week. Learn more about Into the Metaverse and Yon by visiting the website. Follow Yon: LinkedIn | Twitter Learn more about Supersocial by visiting the website. The views reflected in this video/podcast are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.

Roblox just reported a very strong set of results for 2023 and Yon and Matthew are back to break it down. We also had to dive into Epic and Disney’s new partnership. For those that missed it, Disney is investing $1.5 billion for an undisclosed equity stake in Epic. They will partner to build immersive experiences around Disney’s iconic IPs like Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar. Chapters: Key Highlights from Roblox’s Earnings (01:22) Aging Up of the Roblox Platform (06:18) Roblox Cash Flow & Financial Numbers (07:10) Upcoming Initiatives for Roblox (08:38) AI Deployment on the Roblox Platform (11:05) Roblox Wrap Up (13:45) Epic x Disney First Reactions (14:20) Disney’s Gaming Strategy (20:37) Epic’s 3rd Party Partner Strategy (22:05) -- -- -- -- -- Learn more about Into the Metaverse by visiting the website. Follow Yon: LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Matthew: LinkedIn | Twitter Learn more about Supersocial by visiting the website.

Welcome back to Into the Metaverse. In this week’s episode, Yon and Matthew dive into four of the most important and interesting news stories related to the metaverse. The topics we discuss today include the smash hit new video game Palworld, the latest salvo in the Apple vs. Epic saga, the launch apps for the Apple Vision Pro and Netflix’s gaming strategy. Check out friend of the pod Joost Van Dreunen’s take on the Palworld controversy. Read the interview Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters did with Stratechery. Chapters: Introduction (00:00) Palworld Dominance & Controversy (01:13) Apple Announces Third Party Payments in EU (07:25) Apple Vision Pro Launch Apps Announced (15:30) Netflix’s Gaming Strategy (20:15) Learn more about Into the Metaverse by visiting the website. Follow Yon: LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Matthew: LinkedIn | Twitter Learn more about Supersocial by visiting the website.