A statement posted on Epic Games’ website reveals that Sony and Kirkbi, the parent company of Lego, have each contributed $1 billion USD to Epic Games in support of its metaverse plans. The CEOs of both companies have expressed the usual excitement over the metaverse’s supposed potential.
Kenichiro Yoshida, the CEO of Sony, stated that his company’s technologies could function in tandem with Epic’s game engine to speed up “‘the development of new digital fan experiences in sports and our virtual production initiatives.'” Meanwhile, Søren Thorup Sørensen, the CEO of Kirkbi, said that the metaverse will greatly “impact the future world that we and our children will live in.”
Again with this?
By all accounts, interest in NFTs and the metaverse has declined significantly within the past couple of months. According to Google Trends via Statista, searches for both the “metaverse” and “NFT” terms rose rapidly throughout the later months of 2021, but by the time February rolled around, these searches fell just as sharply. This does not definitively mean that the public has lost interest in these emerging technologies for good, but it does appear to mean that their proponents have struggled to maintain the hype surrounding them, especially as more criticisms of NFTs in particular began to surface.
The drop also apparently did not stop Sony and Kirkbi, the parent company of Lego, from lending a whopping $2 billion USD. Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, claimed that Sony and Kirkbi’s investments will boost his company’s efforts to develop engaging spaces where players can thrive and foster communities.
Unsurprisingly, the statements made by these companies come across as little more than empty corporate speak, and it seems difficult to imagine how they could convince anyone who doesn’t already have an interest in the metaverse. These plans remain in their early stages, and it’s yet unknown if this metaverse propped up by Epic, Sony, and the Lego parent company will amount to anything substantial.
