Good morning, and happy new week! We’ve changed things up around here, and you’re reading ‘The Metaverse Edit’ for the first time - welcome. Since our humble beginnings as an NFT-maxi news brand, we have gone on to witness some incredible moments in the NFT space (Jack Butcher, we’re looking at you) and some, well, not so incredible events (SBF, we are DEFINITELY looking at you).

However, over the years we have spread our wings a little, reaching out to bring you the low-down on all things Metaverse, Blockchain Gaming, Digital Fashion, Web3 AI, and of course - Digital Collectibles. So, to help you become experts on all things Web3, we are curating our Newsletter content into five focused edits. And today, you’re reading the Metaverse Edit. So sit back, strap in, and get ready to be transported to another dimension.

TL;DR:
Old To The Moon - daily recap of the previous day’s top stories
New To The Moon - Five curated edits focusing on all the Metaverse, NFT, Digital Fashion, Web3 AI, and Blockchain Gaming news of the week.

📈📉Weekly Metaverse Moves

Metaverse Markets: Last week’s big movers all made big announcements, which no doubt fuelled their growth. Aurory announced their first cross-platform integration with Arbitrum, Metaverse.Network presented at a Satellite Event in Hanoi, and Decentral Games DG Casino opened for beta! However, Sinverse struggled despite offering rewards on Mini Games, and MagicCraft and SIDUS also fail to keep their audience impressed during this bear market.

🌑Full Moons - All Eyes on The Sandbox

This week, The Sandbox Metaverse has been busier than an ant at a picnic, and so the virtual world finds itself the main character of this week’s Metaverse Edit. Let’s begin.

Making History

What do Snoop Dogg, Adidas, Gucci and The British Museum have in common? They all have virtual spaces in The Sandbox Metaverse.

That’s right, The Sandbox Metaverse has teamed up with none other than The British Museum! Together with LaCollection, they will create a range of NFTs to highlight the museum’s collection. The museum says that it aims to be a ‘museum of the world, for the world’. By creating a digital landscape, they are certainly well on their way to meeting their goals.

• This is not the first time the The British Museum has played in Web3. The historic institution has previously collaborated with LaCollection on three different NFT projects. However, this new move is significant, as the museum is creating its own interactive metaverse space.

• Sebastien Borget (COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox) is of course excited about this collaboration, stating that it allows people from all over the world to experience the history, art, and culture of The British Museum.

Together Online

In other news from The Sandbox, Belonging Week 2 kicked off with a bang. Although called Belonging ‘Week’, the event actually runs from July 24th until August 7th, and exists to showcase the ‘uniqueness and differences found across our global community of players, creators, builders, and collectors!’.

• Within the ‘Valley of Belonging 2’,you can take part in quests, explore art at the museum, or even relax with ALO Yoga. At the WoW Museum you can view iconic artworks in the Metaverse space. Or for something more exciting, go dance to DJ BLOND:ISH in Club XYZ.

I could start the day with Yoga and finish with a dance party, without even leaving my room - this is what the Metaverse is all about!

Your Creations, Your Rules

Finally, The Sandbox has taken a HUGE leap forward by welcoming user-created content. By the end of this year we can all host and run our own experiences.

If you’re a creator you can now join the early access launch. Just submit a request for permission. If you’re accepted, you can work on your metaverse experience then open it up to the public. You can even charge an entrance fee (hello new 2024 side hustle I see you!). Or, you can token-gate your creation using NFTs. Right now there are some limitations, but you can still build something beautiful in The Sandbox Metaverse.

• Until now, we could only explore carefully controlled experiences in The Sandbox via partner projects.

• The ultimate goal was always to let everyone who owns a plot of land publish their own creative experiences, and even games.
  

🔭The Scope: There is so much happening in the metaverse, and we only need to look at what The Sandbox is doing this week to see how quickly the metaverse is growing and developing! We are moving towards a future where everyone can build their own online experiences and share these with others. Not only that, but the metaverse is becoming a playground for art and culture, with The British Museum’s metaverse expansion and Paris’s Pompidou Center Web3 debut earlier this year. The metaverse is far from dead, and mass adoption is happening at a rapid rate.

🌓Half Moons

Lenovo is quietly taking on Meta and Apple in the metaverse race with ThinkReality VRX, an enterprise-focused virtual reality headset. This is not a gaming headset - instead, Lenovo aims to reshape workplaces and improve employee training through its practical metaverse vision. This VRX headset rivals Apple on price, coming in at $1299 - for comparison , Apple’s Vision Pro starts at $3,499! However, Meta will also be launching a headset this year - ‘Quest 3’, for only $499.99. The battle of the headsets is on.

Heard of the Industrial Metaverse? Neither had we until this week, but we are sure that we are going to hear a LOT more about it. Siemens has invested a cool 1 Billion Euros in creating a global R&D hub for the industrial metaverse in Germany, enabling companies to analyse the impact of movements in a stimulated physical space. Why doe sit matter? Well, this could be the beginning of mass-adoption of the metaverse, with big corps leading the change.

After losing $3.7 billion in Q3 2023, Meta is taking measures to rejuvenate its struggling Horizon Worlds metaverse platform by launching a new in-house VR game studio named Ouro Interactive. Meta hopes that with new titles and improved visual interactivity they can revitalise the platform. How? Well, by targeting mobile gamers worldwide! That’s right, Horizon Worlds is coming to app stores and incorporating cross-platform play. Zuck is still committed to the Metaverse after all.

🔭The Scope: Big companies, making big moves. With Siemens investing in the industrial metaverse, Lenovo quietly creating their VR headset, and Meta still pumping money into their Horizon Worlds platform, there is some serious money being injected into metaverse visions. We won’t jinx it, but is this mass adoption?

⚪Total Eclipse

A little two-minute quiz to give your brain a break (or a workout!)

• What was the first Metaverse application?

• Which novel has the first mention of the Metaverse?

Answers revealed at the bottom!

💫Shooting Star

This week’s shooting star is Andrii Pavlov.

Andrii Pavlov is a generative, parametric design artist, 3D artist and architect. He has multiple metaverse spaces in Spatial.io, including Ghost Jumps_v0.01. Within Ghost Jumps, you can ‘defy gravity and feel the sensation of soaring through the air as you explore this unique, translucent, and ethereal landscape.’

You could spend hours exploring this beautiful virtual world as you walk along bridges, jump through portals, and fly through the air.

🌚Dark Side of the Meme