“RIP Metaverse”: Epic Games CEO knocks down detractors with statistics

Ed Zitron, CEO of EZPR, believes that the metaverse is dead. However, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney disagrees, stating that nearly 600 million monthly users are happily immersed in the virtual world right now.

Sweeney challenges Zitron

While Mark Zuckerberg and the Meta team’s concept of virtual reality may be on the brink, the metaverse is not, at least according to Tim Sweeney, as reported by Insider today.

An article by Ed Zitron, published two days earlier, highlighted the end of the metaverse. The CEO of EZPR even mocked virtual reality enthusiasts in his blog post, entitled “RIP Metaverse, we hardly knew yet.”

The Epic Games CEO wasted no time in responding and started with this tweet:

The metaverse is dead! Let's organize an online wake so that we 600,000,000 monthly active users in Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, PUBG Mobile, Sandbox, and VRChat can mourn its passing together in real-time 3D.https://t.co/tRpFHsdZLw

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 9, 2023

“The metaverse is dead! Let’s organize an online wake so that we 600,000,000 monthly active users in Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, PUBG Mobile, Sandbox, and VRChat can mourn its passing together in real-time 3D.”

What did Ed Zitron say?

“The Metaverse, the once-buzzy technology that promised to allow users to hang out awkwardly in a disorientating video-game-like world, has died after being abandoned by the business world. It was three years old.”

This claim from Ed Zitron was initially based on Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement of Facebook’s transformation into Meta in 2021. “The hype could not save the Metaverse, however, and a lack of coherent vision for the product ultimately led to its decline,” he continued.

As a result, metaverse players, including Zuckerberg, the great pioneer, decided to pivot towards generative AI. This led to the ultimate demise of the virtual world’s daydream.

Even Meta’s VR Horizon World platform suffered from the lack of realism and accountability criticized by Zitron. Meanwhile, Walt Disney’s project has completely disappeared.

Promising predictions for the metaverse

Tim Sweeney, who didn’t hesitate to confront Ed Zitron, surely knows what he’s talking about. After all, didn’t his company just raise $2 billion to accelerate in the child metaverse recently?

In addition, Statista’s projections for the global metaverse market value are as follows:

• 2022: $66 billion ;
• 2023: $82 billion ;
• 2030: $937 billion.

In short, the metaverse is far from joining its tomb. The only downside is that the giants of this world also want to extend their grip on the virtual world.