Will walled gardens rule VR?
Or will an immersive open web take shape?
The Internet falls into two categories: 1) the open web, and 2) walled gardens.
To access the open web, you open the browser. You open Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or another browser, and you navigate to a URL.
To access walled gardens, you generally open an app. You open your phone and click on an app such as Facebook, TikTok, or Twitter.
On mobile, there are robust ecosystems for both the open web and walled gardens. But in VR, the major platforms – such as VRChat, Roblox, Horizon Worlds, and Rec Room – are all walled gardens.
There are a couple reasons why walled gardens have the early lead in VR:
It takes a long time to develop shared standards for the open web, while walled gardens can experiment & iterate independently. This is magnified by how much new infrastructure is required for cohesive AR/VR experiences.
Meta, which is investing heavily in the space, has a walled garden philosophy. Facebook & Instagram are quintessential walled gardens, and Meta’s VR social app, Horizon Worlds, is also a walled garden.
There are a number of players who are laying the foundation for VR’s open web. Initiatives such as the Metaverse Standards Forum are bringing together stakeholders. And platforms such as Mozilla Hubs are enabling creators to build virtual worlds on the open web.
I asked Liv Erickson, who leads Mozilla Hubs, why some creators are choosing to build on the open web instead of walled gardens. A big reason, she said, is ownership & portability: On the open web, creators have control of their content and data. This is the same reason why publishers and businesses don’t put all their content on Facebook. By having a website on the open web, publishers and businesses retain control of their content and user data, which comes with revenue opportunities.
Given these incentives, it’s a good bet that VR will eventually have robust ecosystems within both walled gardens and the open web. How long will it take for the immersive open web to emerge? That’s harder to say.
P.S. Want to know what it’s like to use the open immersive web? I recorded a video exploring worlds in Mozilla Hubs, via my VR headset’s browser. Watch the two-minute video here.
P.P.S. Want to listen to my full conversation with Liv Erickson, head of Mozilla Hubs? Listen here.
Roundup
Meta’s Horizon Worlds is coming to web & mobile, in addition to VR. This suggests a long game Meta is playing: In the near-term while headset adoption is low, they can leverage Facebook & Instagram to grow Horizon Worlds users on mobile. Later, when mobile users do buy a VR headset, they’ll already be active in Horizon Worlds.
Horizon Worlds is launching “member-only worlds,” which could be used for things like book clubs, gamer groups, or support groups. (I think university alumni groups would be a great use case.)
Walkabout Mini Golf added another virtual golf course, “Atlantis.” In the physical world, minigolf is one of those casual games that anyone can play. Similar to bowling, corn hole, or darts, it’s less of a “sport,” and more of something to do while you’re chatting. I expect this category will do well in VR.
You can play pickleball in VR. Huge news everyone :)
AI is being used to generate 3D objects and worlds. “Researchers from Nvidia, for example, announced Magic3D in November, which is an AI that can create 3D models from prompts like ‘A blue poison-dart frog sitting on a water lily.’”
Rec Room is adding legs to avatars. VR World Cup anyone?
See you next time!