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Japanese companies created a ‘Japan Metaverse Economic Area.’

The Immersive Wire - 27 February 2023 (Monday Briefing)

Author

Tom Ffiske
February 27, 2023

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

  • Headline: Several Japanese companies created the ‘Japanese Metaverse Economic Zone’ (analysis below).

  • Competition: NASA started a crowdsourcing contest to build a VR Mars simulator. 

  • Stat of the week: Forever 21 spent $500 to design and launch a virtual beanie in Roblox. It sold over one million units, and the company now sells an 'offline' version for $15 (analysis below).

  • Conversation-starter: Jewel, a major singer, is taking her mental health work to the metaverse.

  • Other stories: Mexico City opened the first VR training centre for police officers at a local academy, Colombia's administrative court hosted a two-hour session in Horizon Workrooms, and Virtuleap worked with researchers to look into ADHD and VR (more below).

Spain has some amazing food, but man is it rich as well. Also, I spoke to Mr Metaverse about interoperability in a new podcast.

Tom Ffiske, Editor of the Immersive Wire

Analysis

Japanese companies created a ‘Japan Metaverse Economic Area.’

  • What’s happening? A whole bunch of companies came together to agree on an interoperable standard for the metaverse, based on an online role-playing game framework. It is called RYUGUKOKU, and will be developed by JP Games. We will hear more in early Summer.

  • My thoughts: The team put a lot of thought behind it, and it stands on solid ground. The group has a plan for avatars, passports, and the area itself - three basic components of an interoperable metaverse. What I wonder now is whether the metaverse will be ‘gamified’ in Japan - which would not be a surprise, but may mean the country will go in a slightly different direction compared to the US or China.

Forever 21 sold over one million Roblox items, having invested $500 in design.

  • A hotbed of ideas? I love the story because it shows that, with some smart iteration and positioning, companies can see some great success. Roblox can be a testing ground for new ideas, where companies can experiment and then deploy swiftly.

  • Innovation: That speed of experimentation got me thinking; can other metaverse platforms also be used to test ideas? And does it even need to be fashion; can it be new types of activities or events? I'll think about it further, but let me know what you think:

Other notable stories

Got any stories? Let me know at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.

  • ARwayis won a contract with South America's largest car rental network, with over 452 locations.

  • Aquent RoboHead announced a new tool that helps users view, comment, annotate, and approve or reject changes directly on 3D files.

  • Colombia's administrative court hosted a two-hour session in Horizon Workrooms.

  • Glimpse Group announced today that its subsidiary company, PulpoAR, has integrated AI-based real Fingernail Segmentation and Skin Diagnostics into its AR products.

  • Healium raised $3.6m funding, and entered into a license agreement with Mayo Clinic.

  • Intangles Lab, a fast-growing Digital Twin solutions provider, secured $10m in Series A funding.

  • Valo Motion announced that ValoArena, its mixed-reality playground, has been sold to operators of 28 locations across 14 different countries during its first year of availability. 

  • Mexico City opened the first VR training centre for police officers at a local academy.

  • Stamford Health partnered with Oxford Medical Simulation to launch an immersive training program.

  • Virtuleap worked with researchers to look into ADHD and VR.

Help corner

Need some assistance from other readers? Let me know at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.

  • Helen Ponsford (Senior Programme Editor): The Economist is looking to speak to industry experts to research the agenda of The Economist's Enterprise Metaverse Summit taking place in London 27th - 28th June 2023. The event will help senior leaders build and benefit from digital twins to enhance productivity. If participating would be of interest to your company, please get in touch with Helen to discuss.

  • Headonists, a UK-based XR community, is looking to compile XR-related events within a single calendar. The calendar itself can be found here, and the submission is here.

That's all for this week! Want to have a chat, let me know about a news story, or talk business? Contact tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com. Have an excellent day!