Why angel investor Matthew Ball still believes in the metaverse

Matthew Ball:

“There’s been a tremendous amount of news over the last two and a half years. The amount of progress that has been made when it comes to tooling, the popularity of the major platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite, the standards in and around that ecosystem, regulatory advances — there were so many that there really wasn’t a practical way to just put in the odd line here or there, or the odd addendum to a chapter. 

There are three categories, which are at the youngest 15 years old — blockchain — and at the oldest about 80 or 90, or in some definitions 100 years old, in AI. And then head-mounted displays, which are roughly 70 years old. And over the past two and a half years, they’ve each experienced what feels like decades of changes.”

Digiday:

Ball is right: In the past two years, the conversation around technology has shifted significantly. Where once blockchain was the belle of the ball, artificial intelligence now reigns supreme in Silicon Valley, and Apple’s release of the Vision Pro headset has breathed new life into the concept of spatial computing and virtual reality. It’s been an exciting time to work in tech — reason enough for Ball to take a new look at 2022 bestseller.

What separates Ball from many other thought leaders in the modern tech landscape is that he is still actively interested in connecting today’s technological advancements back to the concept of the metaverse. Although the hype surrounding the metaverse concept has subsided somewhat, Ball views advancements in AI and blockchain technology as incremental steps toward the formation of a true metaverse.

Matthew Ball:

“In the original book, I say clearly that it’s actually unlikely that, when the metaverse does arrive, we’ll call it the metaverse. I said it’s more likely we’ll use another term less encumbered by what came before. And I’d say it’s more likely we’ll just call it the 3D internet, or beyond that, probably just the internet. 

So, I certainly considered changing the name. I kept the name because I thought it was truer to the ideas, the original inspiration and readers of the first book. In my definition section, there’s now a five-part “what the metaverse is not,” so that’s instead where more of the focus is.”

Digiday: 

It’s not surprising that Ball is still confident in his personal vision for the metaverse. Although Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse dreams have yet to come to fruition, the metaverse concept as outlined by Ball in his book is more or less proceeding apace. Every day, more and more people access the web through three-dimensional, embodied platforms, largely through the expansion of video games such as Roblox and Fortnite. Even if they don’t consciously think of this activity as “entering the metaverse,” that’s what they’re doing.

Matthew Ball:

“The reality is, there has never before been an instance in which a technology or platform is, in name, so strongly associated with a single company, to the point where it becomes hard for other companies to use it. America Online was not called “The Internet.” In fact, its proposition was, ‘we are going to put you onto the internet,’ not that ‘we are the internet,’ right?

I think part of the reason why you see Apple, even in its documentation, say that you can’t call XR or AR apps ‘metaverse apps’ — they have to be called ‘spatial apps’ — is because they feel that there is now a branding-related requirement, not just to step away from a somewhat encumbered term, but a term that is so firmly associated with a single company.”

Digiday:

For better or worse, the average consumer still associates the concept of the metaverse with Meta itself — a potentially unfortunate association, given the relative emptiness of Meta’s VR metaverse platform Horizon, as well as consumers’ generally wary perception of the company. This was the case in 2022, when the first edition of Ball’s book came out, and it is still the case in 2024.

As one of the original voices promoting the concept of the metaverse, Ball is in regular contact with the leaders of metaverse-building companies such as Roblox and Epic Games, and Meta is no exception. Last week, Ball interviewed Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth on the current status of the company’s metaverse-building plans. 

“As much as I feel confident that I have a clear vision of the product and what the platform is going forward,” Bosworth told Ball, “there is still a lot of work to do.”