In 2021-2022, “metaverse” was the hottest buzzword in tech media. Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to Meta and declared that the future of the internet was virtual worlds. Microsoft, Nike, Disney, and hundreds of other companies announced their metaverse strategies. Virtual plots of land sold for millions of dollars. It seemed like a revolution was just around the corner.
Then something went wrong. Meta lost over 40 billion dollars on the Horizon Worlds project, which sees minimal visitors. Most corporate metaverse strategies were quietly shelved. The word “metaverse” became almost a pejorative in the business press.
What happened? And what really remains of the metaverse idea?
What the Metaverse Is — In Theory
The term dates back to Neal Stephenson’s novel “Snow Crash” (1992), which described a persistent three-dimensional virtual space where people exist on par with the physical world, use digital avatars, own virtual property, and lead social lives.
In the modern corporate understanding, the metaverse is a concept of a persistent, shared three-dimensional virtual space, accessible via various devices (VR headsets, regular screens, augmented reality), where work, communication, entertainment, commerce, and ownership of digital assets are possible.
Key characteristics of an ideal metaverse, according to its advocates: persistence (exists regardless of whether a specific user is connected), synchronous (all users are present simultaneously in a single space), a full-fledged economy with real value for digital assets, and interoperability between different platforms.
Why It Seemed Like It Was About to Happen
A confluence of several factors created the feeling of an impending revolution. The COVID-19 pandemic sharply accelerated the shift to remote work and online interaction, creating a demand for richer formats of virtual presence. VR technologies significantly improved and became cheaper over a decade. The success of gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, which had already created functioning virtual worlds with their own economies, seemed like a prototype of the future. The NFT boom created excitement around the concept of digital ownership, essential for the metaverse.
Why the First Wave Failed
Technology Wasn’t Ready
Modern VR headsets have significantly improved compared to the previous generation, but they are still uncomfortable for many hours of daily use. Legless holographic avatars in Horizon Worlds became a meme. Resolution, latency, physical discomfort during prolonged use — the technological barriers proved higher than investors anticipated.
There Was No Compelling “Why”
Technology solves problems that people actually have. Smartphones put computers in our pockets. Google Maps replaced paper maps. For these technologies, it was immediately clear what real problem they solved better than existing alternatives.
For the metaverse, a convincing answer to the question “why should I put on a bulky helmet to meet a colleague as a legless avatar when a video call works perfectly?” was never formulated.
The Chicken and Egg Problem
A virtual world is valuable when many people are in it. People come when there are already many people there. This vicious circle proved difficult to break without truly compelling reasons to be present specifically there.
The Speculative Bubble Scared Away Serious Users
The sale of virtual plots of land for millions of dollars and NFTs as “metaverse assets” created an atmosphere of speculative frenzy that attracted speculators and deterred ordinary users, for whom it looked like an obvious scam.
What’s Actually Working Now
While corporate metaverses have failed, real virtual worlds with active communities have been working for a long time — they just go by different names.
Roblox — a platform with tens of millions of active users, mostly children and teenagers, with its own economy and millions of user-created “worlds.” It is a functioning metaverse by all key characteristics.
Fortnite has long transformed from a game into a cultural platform, hosting virtual concerts, movie screenings, and social events with hundreds of millions of users.
VRChat — a niche but vibrant community of users in virtual reality.
Professional VR/AR applications in medicine, architecture, engineering, and education continue to develop and demonstrate real value.
Where the Technology Is Heading
A more realistic path of development is not a single, universal metaverse, but a gradual addition of virtual and augmented presence elements into specific contexts where it genuinely improves the existing experience.
Apple Vision Pro and similar augmented reality devices that overlay digital content onto the real world may prove to be a more practical path to what was romantically called the metaverse.
XR (extended reality) technology is gradually maturing, and in 10-15 years, device form factors, network bandwidth, and content quality may well reach a level where virtual presence becomes a truly convenient part of everyday life.
Conclusion
The metaverse as an immediate revolution in the coming years is hype that didn’t materialize. The metaverse as a long-term evolution of the internet towards richer, spatial forms of interaction is a real direction, just significantly slower and more gradual than corporate marketing budgets of 2021 promised. Real, working virtual worlds already exist — Roblox, Fortnite, professional VR applications — they just have more modest names and don’t promise to change all of human civilization.
I’ve been experimenting with VR for a while, mostly VRChat and some smaller social apps, and it’s clear the tech isn’t quite there for widespread adoption. The comfort issue with headsets is real – even my Quest Pro gets heavy after an hour, and the resolution still breaks immersion sometimes. Interoperability is a huge hurdle; jumping between platforms feels like switching between entirely different operating systems. My tip: focus on specific, niche use cases where VR genuinely enhances the experience, like virtual collaboration for design, rather than trying to replicate everything in a clunky virtual world.