Page 15 - Executive briefing on the metaverse

Executive briefing on the metaverse

Figure 6: Consumer metaverse

The gaming industry has often been at the forefront of interactive digital technologies, and
is likewise an early adopter and beneficiary of the metaverse. Combining virtual and physical
worlds will create complex and sophisticated game worlds, allowing players to interact in ways
that were previously impossible. The transformative possibility of the metaverse is to create
persistent, shared virtual worlds that can be accessed by players from anywhere in the world.
This new development enabled by the metaverse is expected to create new economic, social
and collaboration opportunities. 14

4 Underlying technologies

While various models have been proposed by numerous organizations and individuals to
organize the metaverse components, they differ on emphasis and granularity. Examples are
Deloitte’s metaverse ecosystem, WEF’s five layers of value creation model, Jon Radoff’s
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seven-layer model, and McKinsey’s ten-layer model. This document introduces a model
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that breaks the metaverse components down into five core building elements: infrastructure,
human augmentation, digital identity, economic enablers, and ecosystem.
Based on connectivity and computing infrastructure, consumers can access the metaverse and
explore the virtual and physical worlds seamlessly with the support of human interfaces and
various software and hardware platforms. Enabled by digital identity and decentralized finance
technologies, the metaverse can provide various immersive experiences, creating profound
impacts on economy and on society by gradually fostering a new digital ecosystem. The five
building elements of the metaverse consist of the following concepts and technologies:

1) Infrastructure: Networks/connectivity, computing power, graphic processing units,
storage capacity, sensing/perception, cloud/edge infrastructure, semiconductor (chips/
processors).
2) Human augmentation:

a. Mobile devices: headsets (VR), smart glasses (AR), other wearables, haptics,
holographic, brain-machine interface.

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