Gemba Raises Money For VR Metaverses, Microsoft Shuts Down AltspaceVR, Game Developers Lose Interest in Metaverse

There are usually interaction of forces to cause equilibrium in a system. The metaverse space would soon find its equilibrium through momentary surges and declines of interest among players in the space. The highlight of the past week will interest you.

Gemba Raises $18 Million For Immersive VR Metaverses

Gemba, a London-based enterprise metaverse developer, is planning to build virtual worlds for corporate training in Virtual Reality. Currently, it is announcing an $18 million series A fundraising. The fundraising was led by New York investor Parkway Venture Capital. The funding is expected to help grow Gemba’s business in North America while also honing in on EMEA. One thing that most people agree on is that, at least in terms of the full-on virtual realities that sparked most of the hype, is that metaverses will probably impact the enterprise first, forming part of the future-of-work category.

In Gemba’s opinion, learning is probably one of the most obvious wins in the commercialisation of VR. The prospect of practicing new skills in field work or in specialized fields like medicine would guarantee more visual learners. Employees of health products corporate Johnson & Johnson and pharma firm Pfizer as well as Coca-Cola are notable clients at Gemba. While it is true that learning differs from person to person and that there will always be room for traditional courses and recommended reading, Gemba supports corporate executive training whose students will perhaps welcome hands-on practice and experimentation.

Gemba was founded by Nathan Robinson in 2013 with headquarters in London. It was a spin off from The Leadership Network, an established provider of executive-level training. Gemba has executive-level “masterclasses” which merge VR classrooms, educational content and corporate-specific services. For example, a logistics executive may be able to walk through virtual factories to understand frontline pressures. In conjunction with the series A round, Parkway Venture Capital general partners Gregg Hill and Jesse Coors-Blankenship will join Gemba’s board of directors.

Microsoft Is Shutting Down AltspaceVR

AltSpaceVR was acquired by Microsoft in 2017. The platform has faced challenges in the past but this time, it doesn’t look like Microsoft wants to keep grappling with it. This is because Microsoft wants to make huge cuts to its spending, which will affect thousands of its employees. Information gathered indicates that It is laying off 10,000 of its staff with its game division seeing significant cuts as studios such as The Coalition, Bethesda Game Studios, and 343 Industries reduce their workforce. Along with this, it is also closing down teams in the AR and VR segment of its business.

It doesn’t seem that Microsoft acquiring AltspaceVR was a good choice. This acquisition occurred after AltspaceVR management revealed that it lacked the funds to keep its servers on, despite being one of the most popular social VR platforms. Microsoft was among the tech companies that embraced the metaverse alongside others like Tencent, Google, Alibaba, Amazon, ByteDance, and Facebook, which even changed its name to Meta. As it is now, it seems like the shine is starting to come off the idea.

Microsoft Mesh is the new brand for the company’s metaverse projects and which enables users to share experiences from anywhere, on any device, through Mixed Reality applications. It also uses 3D captures for holograms to enable people to work together as if they were in the same space, but it is a much more business and professional orientated product than AltspaceVR. The platform was known for its lively and dynamic spaces, with club nights featuring DJs, fashion shows, book launches, stand-up comedy, parties, and gatherings for many kinds of niches and interests.

Game Developers Are Losing Interest in the Metaverse and Blockchain

It doesn’t seem like the metaverse and blockchain are garnering as much interest from game developers as they did last year. This was gathered from a survey by the Games Developers Conference (GDC). The GDC’s 2023 State of the Game Industry Survey questioned 2,300 game development professionals. Two-thirds of those surveyed have worked in game development for three to twenty years.

When asked what companies or platforms are best placed to deliver the metaverse, nearly half (45%) of them said they did not believe the metaverse concept will ever deliver on its promise. Only 7% of them supported Meta. It’s no longer news that Meta changed its name from Facebook to show its seriousness in the metaverse. The result of the survey is a regression from the 2022 survey when only 33% of developers stated they didn’t believe the metaverse concept would ever succeed. From the survey, Epic Games/Fortnite received the highest vote of confidence, with the support of 14% of respondents, while Microsoft/Minecraft obtained 7%, the same as Meta/Horizon Worlds.

The respondents cited a range of reasons for their lack of faith in the metaverse concept, such as its “unclear definition” and the high cost of hardware, as well as the lack of “substantial interactivity” offered so far. 23% said that their studios have expressed “some level of interest” in using cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens, and Web3 to support their games. This stands as a 4% drop from 2022. 17% stated that they were inclined to use blockchain technology in their future games, with a huge 61% being opposed to it. 25% percent said they were unsure or did not have an opinion. Meanwhile, just 2% of developers said their studios were already using blockchain technology in their projects.