In the Stock Media World, the Metaverse Is Already Here

Epic Games built it

If you’ve been following the often-contentious renaming of Facebook—or really any tech media these days—you’ve probably heard about the “metaverse.” The concept of a metaverse has its roots in science fiction. Today, the term is used to describe virtual worlds where people can meet, play, and yes…buy things.

If you’re like me, you might be skeptical about whether metaverses are for real. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg presented the metaverse as a place where people walk around in the form of animated avatars, virtually running into friends, playing games, and posting social content. Maybe that appeals to some people, but are we really all willing to don virtual reality headsets and descend into a virtual world of Facebook’s creation? In short, is the metaverse for real, or is it a bunch of marketing hooey?

I’m not sure what will happen with social metaverses. But one type of metaverse is already here and is already proving itself incredibly useful in the stock media world. This one is a bit more utilitarian than Facebook’s. There are no pixelated, fun animated avatars. But this real-life metaverse is already allowing companies to stage virtual photoshoots—or even produce entire feature films—in fully virtual or hybrid virtual/physical spaces.

This real-life metaverse was created—at first by accident and then very much on purpose—by Epic Games. I learned about it at DMLA’s 2021 annual conference, and it looks like a remarkable place. I wrote an in-depth article exploring Epic’s metaverse and sharing some snippets of video showing what it makes possible.

You can read my article in One Zero to learn more about Epic’s metaverse, and to see how it will impact the stock industry and anyone in the business of creating content.