Metaverse products from Meta, Microsoft, and others are just 3D virtual social spaces, and lack key features of the metaverse concept, chiefly interoperability
Meta's ‘Horizon Worlds’ app, Microsoft and Roblox are capitalizing on a buzzword that's far from reality
This piece lands the follow-up critique: what Meta, Microsoft, and Roblox ship under the metaverse label are 3D virtual social spaces, missing the concept's defining feature — interoperability between worlds. The later correction was already visible in the corpus: [[a:838575|Decentraland land prices fell from roughly $45 to $5 per square meter between 2022 and 2023]] as the hype receded.
First-order effects
Meta, Microsoft, and Roblox are monetizing a buzzword their products don't yet honor — buyers of virtual goods, land, and brand placements inside Horizon Worlds and similar spaces get assets locked to single platforms rather than portable across a metaverse.
Roblox and VRChat enter 2022 holding a real advantage over Meta: they already have the active user bases and creator economies that Meta's Horizon Worlds is still trying to build.
Second-order effects
With interoperability absent, competition reverts to classic platform economics — whoever locks in creators and audiences wins — putting pressure on Meta to buy or build engagement rather than rely on the metaverse narrative alone.
Speculative markets built on the label, like Decentraland's virtual land, reprice downward once buyers distinguish between the word 'metaverse' and working cross-platform infrastructure.
Third-order effects
If no player has an incentive to open its walls, the industry splits into walled 3D social networks wearing metaverse branding, and the term itself devalues — an outcome the Decentraland price collapse already previews.
The gap between promise and product creates the opening for whichever actor — a standards body, a neutral platform, or a regulator scrutinizing locked-in virtual purchases — can make interoperability real and claim the category.
The trend: Virtual-world marketing is outrunning open-standards reality, and the correction is hitting speculation first while platform lock-in decides who actually profits.
“The metaverse” implies a unity of online worlds, or at least an interoperability between them. Calling today's corporate walled gardens “the metaverse” lets tech giants capitalize on a futuristic buzzword while letting them off the hook for the hard part. https://www.washingtonp…
The Quest 2 is the iPhone 4. Spent 4 hours on it last night and completely flipped my opinions. More Quests sold than Xboxes last year. The Star Wars game made me feel like a Jedi. Watched some 6K videos and felt intimately present. If you build things, buy one to be informed
IBM put tremendous resources into creating an interoperable Metaverse protocol that bridged Second Life with its open source spinoff OpenSim. It attracted roughly zero consumer / enterprise interest & introduced new problems (esp. IP infringement). Benefits still remain unclear. …
Since Facebook rebranded to Meta, tech and the media have started talking about “the metaverse” as if it's a real thing that already exists. Here's my friendly reminder that it isn't, and doesn't, and won't anytime soon. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
A key mistake many make when thinking about the Metaverse is assuming that it's essentially the web but in 3D. But the essence of the Metaverse is immersion, which implies avatars, which implies communities, which implies “walled gardens”, i.e. protective & protected spaces.
Facebook/ Oculus/ Metaverse is not safe for our kids. I wrote to Facebook this morning, sending them 100 examples of *horrifying* behavior we found every 7 minutes in the #Metaverse. Child grooming, racism, even mockery of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We need action, now. https://…
Great article from @WillOremus on ‘the Metaverse’, which, despite much hype, doesn't yet exist. The question of how it will come to be, and who controls it, comes down to the universal schemas and access agreements - which will be increasingly complex https://www.washingtonpost.c…
This is true; I was there. We spent several millions in SL at the peak of involvement. Once, we held a meeting in world for several thousand participants; my take is that only about 10% could really grok the experience in an immersive way. https://twitter.com/...
17/ Another key player of the future of the Metaverse is @qualcomm, who is making the chips that powering nearly all of the mobile XR devices (except for Apple & maybe @Meta in the future). Their new Snapdragon Spaces implements new features with OpenXR: https://twitter.com/... h…
incredible how fast this metaverse word caught on despite the product and tech status quo barely changing over the last 6 months https://twitter.com/...
Interoperability in the Metaverse is somewhat like the blockchain — theoretically interesting idea in search of a mass market use case. “I want to use my Elder Scrolls Online sword in Minecraft” is not anything actual gamers say & give actual game devs like @ZenOfDesign agita.
I've watched with discomfort as every outlet started using “Metaverse” to describe things that have existed already for years. Not sure why we're so willingly allowing Facebook to own and brand a term for something it didn't really create. https://twitter.com/...
@NathieVR @EricPresidentVR Very likely! Also, I have heard conflicting reports about the minimum age to access Horizon Worlds. Published reports say 18+, but a friend who was recently in Horizon told me that one of the moderators there sais it was age 13+. 🤷♂️
14/ The biggest factual error in @WillOremus' article is his claim that @Meta hasn't shown support for interoperable standards. They've been a key driver for @OpenXR @thekhronosgroup standard & have the most robust WebXR implementation in Oculus Browser. https://developer.oculus.…
It's not the virtual worlds that'll be the bridge to interoperability, it's the economics. Too many people claiming you'll be able to take your items/ assets from one to another with no understanding of development. Imagine trying to take your Cutlass Black into Roblox. FML https…
[@oculus: “Your future friends are waiting #VRChat #StartYourQuest] This is really interesting Oculus promoting VRChat directly Am I reading into this too much?
I received a guest submission recently that referred to “the metaverse” as a real thing and my one note back to the author was “get rid of that part” https://twitter.com/...
3/ @Meta's approach to the metaverse emphasizes Interoperability, & they do actually have OpenXR + WebXR implementations, which @WillOremus ignores. They also claim to be prioritizing Privacy, but only according to their narrow definition of consent-based control of information. …
1/ I agree with @washingtonpost tech journalist @WillOremus that we haven't achieved an interoperable Metaverse yet, but I disagree with his assessment that we won't anytime soon as it depends on how you define a minimal viable Metaverse. TREAD comparing Metaverse frameworks 👇 ht…
This. This new “metaverse” rebranding is a retcon of history and a corporate cash grab. The new walled garden will be in 3D it seems. Sadly last year Mozilla's whole VR team was laid off. The metaverse should be open. https://twitter.com/...
Important new @CCDHate research supports what @ADL has long called out: FB's lack of commitment to address hate effectively on its platforms bodes ill as its moves into the #Metaverse where abuse & intolerance already has a foothold. We have solutions: https://socialpatterns.adl.…
ElOhEl, that's what they said about the WorldWideWeb, blockchain, clean tech, 3D printing, sharing economy, crypto, Web3, etc. Do your own research! https://twitter.com/...