Latest news with #virtualworlds
Entrepreneur
19-06-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
How Building Gaming Tech Led Us to a Business Breakthrough
What we learned about scale, AI and ownership when we tried to connect thousands of people in real time. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Over the past decade at Improbable and now with Somnia, I have worked on solving some of the hardest problems in the new digital age. We've learned a great deal from powering massively multiplayer video games, immersive virtual events and defense simulations so sophisticated they got me sanctioned by Russia… But in the process of building tools for virtual worlds, we discovered something far more foundational: The infrastructure we needed for the metaverse turned out to be exactly what businesses need to operate in the AI era. Like many, we expected that the surge of interest in the "metaverse" in 2021 would be a tipping point. After all, we'd been working on persistent virtual spaces since 2012. But the deeper we got into the problem, the more we realized the infrastructure wasn't ready. Virtual worlds that allowed thousands of people to move freely across different platforms with their identity and assets intact simply weren't feasible with existing systems. Blockchain, on paper, offered the right ingredients: user ownership, decentralized control and the ability for different developers to build on shared standards. However, when we tried to use it for real-time interaction, it collapsed under the weight. These systems were too slow, too expensive and entirely unsuited to applications that needed responsiveness. Imagine trying to run a Zoom call where every frame of video had to be verified by thousands of computers before it could appear on screen. That's what we were dealing with. Eventually, we faced a choice. Either continue building applications on infrastructure that couldn't support them — or build the infrastructure ourselves. What we ended up creating, Somnia, started as a necessity for gaming. But it has become a blueprint for how business will operate in a future shaped by artificial intelligence, digital identity and real-time interaction. Related: Is Metaverse the Future for Business? The new demands of digital business Three trends are colliding to reshape how modern organizations operate. First, AI is no longer just a chatbot; it's an actor. Agents powered by large language models are starting to participate in digital ecosystems. In our testing, we've seen AI agents generate thousands of transactions per second simply through their interactions with each other and with users. Second, digital ownership is shifting from a niche crypto concern to a mainstream expectation. People increasingly want control over their digital identities, possessions and reputations — and they want these assets to persist and travel with them. Third, businesses are shifting from transaction-focused to relationship-focused models, where continuous engagement in digital environments drives loyalty and growth. The infrastructure to support this convergence didn't exist. So we built a system that could process over one million transactions per second, about 20,000 times faster than traditional blockchain systems. To put this in business terms: Imagine the difference between a corner store that can serve 50 customers a day and a Walmart Supercenter that can serve 50,000. Beyond gaming: Business applications and cultural impact This leap in performance has implications that go far beyond gaming and drive real business outcomes. Retailers can track inventory changes across thousands of stores in real-time for a fraction of a penny per update. Manufacturers can build secure, verifiable supply chains that don't compromise speed. Financial institutions can process compliance checks, document verification and settlements with both transparency and efficiency. But the bigger shift is cultural. As AI begins to automate routine tasks, we are entering what I call the "Fulfilment Economy," as mentioned in my book Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience. This is not just about productivity. It is about meaning. People are looking for purpose, community and creativity in the digital environments where they now spend increasing portions of their lives. AI helps by saving time and taking on the burden of process, allowing us to focus our energy on more valuable activities. These environments go beyond entertainment. They are places of work, collaboration, identity and economic activity. In many cases, AI agents will participate alongside us. For businesses, this presents a strategic shift. When your users don't just consume your products but contribute to and build on your platform, your role changes. You're no longer just a provider; you're a host. Your brand becomes part of an ecosystem — one that thrives on participation, portability and interaction. Supporting this shift requires infrastructure that can scale in real time, preserve ownership across environments and connect disparate platforms into a single seamless experience. Related: The Future of Business in the Age of Technology What comes next Most business leaders aren't thinking about blockchains, consensus algorithms or transaction throughput — and they shouldn't have to. What matters is whether your company is ready for a world where intelligent agents transact alongside humans, where users carry persistent digital identities between services and where engagement happens in real time, not just during scheduled interactions. The hype cycle around the metaverse may have passed, but the vision of shared, persistent, intelligent digital environments is more relevant than ever. What started as a solution for virtual worlds is now becoming the foundation for how businesses will deliver value in an interconnected, AI-driven future.
Fast Company
15-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Gaming is the key to reaching Gen Alpha consumers
If brands want to reach the shoppers of the future, they'll need to meet them where they already are: playing video games. For this youngest generation, the coolest places to hang out aren't the local mall or park but inside virtual worlds. While Millennials had Sega Mega Drives and Mario Kart, and Gen Z grew up on The Sims and Angry Birds, Gen Alpha — born between 2010 and 2024 and still under 17 — is coming of age in a world even more seamlessly integrated with technology. Gaming is no longer fringe culture; it's where they socialize. Analysts at investment bank UBS recently found that while older generations still spend about two more hours per week on social platforms than on games, Gen Alpha splits their time evenly between the two. Their engagement with digital platforms goes far beyond passive scrolling. For them, gaming is a medium for creativity and self-expression. If Gen Z and Millennials were the social generations, raised on MySpace, Facebook, and Instagram, Gen Alpha is the gaming generation. Now, brands are stepping further into these virtual spaces. Just today, Roblox announced it's opening its Commerce APIs to eligible creators and brands, with Shopify as the first integrated partner. That means Shopify merchants can now sell physical goods directly within their Roblox experiences. It also works the other way. Through Roblox's new Approved Merchandiser Program, users can buy physical items in the real world that unlock digital content in-game. Among popular gaming platforms, Roblox reaches one of the youngest audiences, with 60% of its users under the age of 16. 'These digital worlds have replaced group chats and casual hangouts, with avatars serving as extensions of personality and style,' Liv Burke, associate director of social at social media agency Superdigital, recently wrote in an op-ed for Variety. In these spaces, Gen Alpha is building and personalizing virtual worlds with limited-edition skins and viral emotes—and inviting their friends to join. For a generation that grew up with iPads in hand, their entertainment ecosystems exist largely beyond the reach of traditional advertising. As a result, advertisers' investment in gaming is projected to nearly double over the next five years, according to Futurescape. After all, this generation already accounts for an estimated $50 billion in annual spending—a figure expected to reach $5.5 trillion by 2029. For brands looking to connect with the next wave of consumers, it's game on.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Should I buy Roblox for my Stocks and Shares ISA?
I'm hunting for a new company to add to my Stocks and Shares ISA in May. One I've been watching for a few months now is gaming platform Roblox (NYSE: RBLX). The share price recently neared a 52-week high after the firm reported a strong first quarter. However, at $70, it's still 48% lower than where it was in November 2021. As I'm sure most parents of schoolchildren are aware, Roblox is a gaming company. It lets users play and and explore millions of virtual worlds and games. Like YouTube, it's a creator-driven platform, where developers can earn money from their creations. As parents will also know, players can customise avatars and unlock features through Robux, the platform's virtual currency. I finally took the plunge this year, buying my daughter £20 worth of Robux as a reward for doing well at gymnastics. The money lasted less than 24 hours! A powerful thing I've noticed on the platform is the term 'Bacon', which refers to default avatars/new users that have brown hair that resembles strips of bacon. Kids nowadays do not want to be labelled a Bacon, leading to increased pressure on parents to buy Robux. In Q1, Roblox's daily active users (DAUs) surged 26% year on year to 97.8m, while hours engaged were up 30% to 21.7bn. DAUs in India grew 77%! So you've got more people spending longer on the platform, which is what I want to see as a potential investor. Bookings jumped 31% to $1.2bn, with monthly unique payers reaching 20.2m, an increase of 29%. Free cash flow more than doubled to $426.5m. Another thing I want to know is whether Roblox is still attracting users that are older than 13. Encouragingly it is, as this reported cohort grew 36% and now makes up 62% of total DAUs and 64% of total hours. So Roblox is increasingly not just about tween players these days. All of these numbers were higher than expected. For 2025, management now expects bookings between $5.28bn and $5.36bn, which would represent solid growth of about 22%. While Roblox is booming, there are a couple of things that worry me. One is regulatory risk, given that the platform is still mainly for kids that need to be kept safe. Another is extremely high levels of stock-based compensation — over $800m last year! — which continues to depress reported earnings. Also, after its strong run, the stock's forward price to free cash flow ratio is approximately 53. This indicates that a lot of growth is priced in. Finally, while Roblox is fully virtual/digital and therefore insulated from tariffs, it might not be from spending pressures during a recession. Roblox is confident it can carry on growing at 20%+ and is targeting 10% of the global software gaming market, up from about 2.75% today. Longer term, it's aiming for 1bn players. Needless to say, a platform with that many users would be worth significantly more than the current $47bn market cap. That's because many advertisers will pay up to reach a huge young audience. I think advertising is a massive long-term opportunity here and I'm interested in investing. I'd just prefer to do so at a lower price, so I'm keeping Roblox on my watchlist for now. The post Should I buy Roblox for my Stocks and Shares ISA? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool Ben McPoland has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Roblox. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025 Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
