HTC revealed its vision for the future metaverse, branded ‘Viverse’, and the internet did not like it.
In a now-pinned tweet, the Vive Twitter account yesterday posted a concept for a virtual ecosystem split across both augmented and virtual reality hardware labeled as Viverse. It suggested this platform would deliver a “future where the impossible becomes possible.”
The video itself proposed several broad possibilities for Viverse, from graspable concepts like working out at the gym with your performance displayed on virtual overlays to more outlandish ideas like attending virtual wine tasting sessions and then purchasing said wine using bitcoin. Oh, and there’s of course a bit where a young woman buys an NFT of the ‘Meowna Lisa’ (which is exactly what it sounds like) for her grandma.
Check it out in the video below. And, just in case you were wondering, no, that’s not a typo. It’s Viverse, not Viveverse.
HTC’s Viverse Revealed
It’s a strange and unspecific video that seems to cut between actual HTC products like the Vive Sync collaboration platform and currently non-existent concepts, with no real outline for how the company plans to actually deliver any of this in the future. How, exactly, are you meant to taste virtual wine? Why would users want to interact with NFTs in Viverse when reaction to them in the real world has been so strong that many companies have rolled back and distanced themselves from the concept?
Unsurprisingly, many Twitter replies were less than enthusiastic about the company’s vision.
This is up there in the list of grossest and worst takes for a mixed reality future https://t.co/WyOJ5eCmj2
— Alex (vastt) (@vastener) February 24, 2022
Who is more verse ?
It is starting to look like a parody, this Metaverse thing… https://t.co/42Oz4L5xKI— Diego Bez. (@Diegobez) February 23, 2022
Disappointing seeing another major hardware manufacturer take this direction. VR is so much more than a place for business meetings and shopping. It’s a canvas for art you can stand in, pick up, and play with. It allows people from anywhere to share the same space. https://t.co/bFiHLGUr6T
— rosebur (@heyrosebur) February 23, 2022
The video itself has seen over 120,000 views but less than 200 likes (YouTube no longer shows dislikes).
HTC isn’t the only company to take heat for its potential vision of the metaverse, of course. Mark Zuckerberg’s protracted explanation of why we’d all want a digital lifestyle from last year’s Connect has seen similar criticsm. Just last week, Meta pushed that vision with its Super Bowl TV spot before delivering an underwhelming Foo Fighters performance inside social VR that many couldn’t even get into.
Certainly, it seems like these companies have a long way to go before they can convince many people of the potential uses of a metaverse.
