The Meta Platforms logo is seen in Davos, Switzerland, on May 22, 2022. Photograph taken on May 22, 2022. REUTERS / Arnd Wiegmann
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
June 21 (Reuters) – Meta (META.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and other tech giants running to build the emerging metavers concept have formed a group to encourage the development of industry standards that would make them compatible the nascent digital worlds of business. with each other.
Participants in the Metaverse Standards Forum include many of the largest companies working in the space, from chip makers to gaming companies, as well as bodies established to set standards such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), he said. the group in a statement announcing its creation on Tuesday.
However, notoriously on the list of current members, Apple (AAPL.O), which analysts expect to become a dominant player in the metavers race once it introduces a mixed reality headset this year or the close. Read more
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Gaming companies Roblox and Niantic were also not included in the forum participants, nor were emerging crypto-based metavers platforms such as The Sandbox or Decentraland.
Apple has not yet publicly acknowledged plans for a headset, although it has reportedly given its board a snack on the product, according to Bloomberg. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new metavers forum.
The introduction of this device would put Apple in direct competition with Meta, which has committed its future to the growth of metavers and has invested heavily in hardware to make its vision of interconnected virtual worlds a reality.
Meta, known as Facebook until it changed its name as part of its metavers pivot last year, has revealed plans for a mixed-reality headset codenamed “Cambria” to be released this year.
Apple has been heavily involved in creating web standards such as HTML5 in the past. For metavers three-dimensional content, Apple worked with Pixar on the “USDZ” file format and Adobe to make sure it supported the format.
Neil Trevett, chief executive of the Nvidia chip maker that chairs the Metaverse Standards Forum, told Reuters that any company is welcome to join the group, including participants in the cryptographic world.
The forum aims to facilitate communication between a variety of standard organizations and businesses to achieve “real-world interoperability” in the metavers, he said, without addressing how Apple’s absence would affect that goal.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Report by Katie Paul; additional report by Stephen Nellis; Lincoln Feast Edition.
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.