Just like a multitude of other tech companies HTC Vive is getting into the metaverse through a range of initiatives like its previously revealed NFT marketplace Vive Bytes. Today, HTC Vive has teased its vision of the metaverse – or Viverse – with a new trailer jumping between several environments and virtual use cases.
Just like every other corporate vision of the metaverse, HTC’s world is a dynamic place where you can have work meetings, talk to your family, attend events and visit museums and art galleries, and, of course, buy stuff. As you’d expect, Viverse contains plenty of nods to HTC Vive’s current product lineup, from its hardware offerings to software solutions.
Early on there’s a plug for Vive Sync, the virtual meeting platform that forms part of the Vive XR Suite. Here you get a notification of upcoming meetings in beautifully barren offices, even the Vive Focus 3 standalone headset makes a brief appearance.
It can’t all be work and no play so there’s a virtual wine tasting experience you could enjoy with friends. While you’re not going to taste the digital bottle of plonk in your hands it showcases the idea that you could then order a real bottle for yourself using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Crypto continues to play a role further on when heading to a gallery visit where you can buy an NFT of the image you’re looking at.
Once again, this is a nod to both Vive Bytes and Viveport’s online exhibition for Yamamoto’s Step Into Cat Art. No metaverse is complete without at least one of two cat pictures, with the Viverse demo highlighting the purchase of Yamamoto’s Meowna Lisa NFT using Ethereum.
Ultimately though, Viverse is a marketing vision for something that’s currently fragmented. Much like Meta and its various Horizon-branded apps, HTC Vive’s XR Suite, Viveport and Vive Bytes aren’t quite a homogenous whole – it also doesn’t help that Vive’s hardware lineup is just all over the place.
Viverse looks pretty but it still feels a long way off. For more metaverse coverage, keep reading gmw3.
