Ready Player LEGO
Mr. Zuckerberg's VR gimmick had us all thinking the metaverse was dead, and limited to VR headsets. But then...
…Fortnite LEGO happened, bringing back the true meaning of the metaverse, without VR goggles. After 18 months in the making, the LEGO themed ‘metaverse for kids’ has landed, available inside Fortnite, alongside two other new experiences, and it’s nothing short of a BIG BANG!
So, with all that big bang, is the metaverse the future of gaming after all? And what's the deal with this LEGO Fortnite version? I’ll explain it all in this video, because this is setting new standards for how we create, play, learn, engage with brands in a virtual world,- and man - for how to light up the Las Vegas Sphere.
But first: What was the metaverse again?
Something along Snoop’s lines. He’s not too far off. In the Fortnite trailer - a good example to help us remember the metaverse concept - you see galaxies, sort of gateways to a unique adventure with its own unique flavor, all connected to the Fortnite universe. We then see the Fortnite character being sucked into one of those worlds: In the LEGO world, one would find all sorts of different LEGO experiences. For now, it’s a cozy, exploratory survival-crafting game. No guns, just axes, sowrds and crossbows, a kid-friendly and cozy place to build, craft and just hang out with friends. A Lego version of Minecraft and perfectly in line with LEGO’s brand values. The journey wouldn’t end there. We can leave this world, and hop over to the next one, another reality so to speak, in this case the Rocket racing experience. All without downloading a whole new game. Now jumping into the next reality, you’ll be in a music-rhythm game that you can play both solo or with friends and just vibe to the Jam Tracks, Music Icons, concerts, and stages. And many more such realities to come, all within the same shared digital space.
And if you wonder how this all comes together, take a look at the Fortnite menu. It looks likes this. Each tile is a unique adventure.
Now, you might think, 'This just looks like a bunch of games inside a game.'
And yup, you’re right. That’s what it is. That’s what the metaverse is, essentially.
One grand virtual space, a platform, with many smaller virtual spaces in it, all interconencted. Like the internet, just in 3D.
Back in the 70s and 80s, we were just as confused about what the internet is, how it looks like and what it would do.
Everything was just theory at first. Just like today with the metaverse, where it’s mostly theory for now, and not just with one, but with many different definitions of what the metaverse is. But this guy here says it best:
“I think that the closest things that we currently can see to metaverse like experiences are games like Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft where you've got a bunch of people running around in a space they're all experiencing the same space at the same time I mean there might be shards um but but the idea is there that going to a place and you're sharing it with other people.”
That’s Neil Stephenson, the guy who coined the term Metaverse in his book Snow Crash. The concept of a shared virtual space dates back to 1938 where a French poet uses the term VR in his essay. Following the birth of the internet, multiplayer online games like Ultima Online, EverQuest or WoW emerged, all early examples of a shared virtual world. And with blockchain tech emerging around 2009, we see sci-fi stories like Ready Player One pop up, depicting the metaverse the way we want it - a vast, immersive virtual universe where users escape their reality.
The confusion comes when people like this guy, or this guy, OR this guy make you believe that the metaverse only exists inside a VR headset.
Like this one:
Zuckerberg's Horizon Worlds, heavily banking on VR, really just missed the broader picture of the metaverse. With VR as the only gateway, it simply didn’t appeal to the broader mass, failed to provide a more accessible virtual experience and overlooked the diversity of platforms that users have come to expect for such expansive digital environments.
It's misleading to think the metaverse exists only within VR googles.
“We absolutely do not need VR and AR to build the metaverse”
Neil Stephenson
Yep, VR is just one way to access the future Metaverse. And the reason I say ‘future’ is because today, we have a sea of separate Metaverse apps emerging, all separate virtual worlds in which people build economic and social connections. This guy, this guy and this guy, for instance, they were in an app called VRChat, a social game to hang out with others virtually. But that’s just one out of many, with the most famous one being Second Life from 2003, an early virtual world where your avatar would do real people stuff like, buy stuff. Sell stuff. Listen to music. Buy property. Have meetings. But again, they're not THE Metaverse. For now, these are just individual pieces, fragments of the Metaverse.
“Rule number one…There is onlye THE Metaverse, not a bunch of metaverses.”
Neil Stephenson
Exactly. And for it to become THE Metaverse, these virtual worlds need to be interconnected. Meaning, you should be able to move from one virtual world to another, including all your items and assets your purchased in these worlds. Imagine you’re shopping in a virtual mall in one app, and then with a click of a button you’re attending a concert in another app with the clothes you just bought. No logging out, no separate accounts. It’s like websites on the internet, which are all linked up and reachable from one browser, yet they’re all part of one giant web. The Metaverse will be the same, just in 3D virtual spaces, accessible either through phones, laptops, VR or AR for you to escape your reality.
OR to pay taxes. Seoul has launched the world’s first urban metaverse app, where you create your avatar, visit top attractions, visit the mayor’s office, or pay your taxes. It’s a $180 million metaverse project, integrating AR and VR into the city’s daily operations by 2026. The European Commission has been diving deep into tech implications as well, including the metaverse and AI like ChatGPT. And over in Japan, big names like Fujitsu and Mitsubishi are teaming up to build an open metaverse. They’re working on this project called RYUKUKOKU to boost Japan’s MV Economic Zone. So yeah, from Seoul to Tokyo, from virtual cities to gaming worlds, the metaverse is shaping up to be a game-changer in sustainability, education, healthcare, tourism…AND BRANDS!
BRANDS
Ever heard of Nikeland? That’s Nike making its mark in the metaverse through gaming platform Roblox. On Roblox, you can enter Nikeland and play a bunch of different experiences. But Nike didn't stop there. Since the metaverse is still fragmented and all over the place, they've also launched into Fortnite with their Airphoria map, expanding their virtual footprint across different gaming platforms.
At some point, every company or brand will want its own virtual experience - and it’s not going to be just a bunch of ads…it’s going to be a place where you can actually drive the latest car model of your favourite manufacturer, or engage with Frank's RedHot. They too jumped into “the metaverse”, reimagining Fortnite's 'Floor is Lava' game. They created an island where players were encouraged to dive into 'Flava' (Frank's + Lava), even if it meant losing, making the act of losing as fun as winning. While gamers had fun, so did Frank’s RedHot, with a 10% year over year sales increase of their hot sauce, surpassing any of its previous Super Bowl impression numbers, with over one billion earned impressions in the US alone.
Ever heard of AFC Richmond in FIFA 23? Yeah, that's Ted Lasso's fictional team turned real in-game players. It generated 13 billion media impressions in just a month, and it became the 17th most played team out of 700! Over 2000 articles later and this Fifa partnership generated more social buzz than Ted Lasso's Emmy win. No paid ads, just pure fan love. And the kicker? Streaming of 'Ted Lasso' on Apple TV+ shot up by a whopping 35% as well…
And Fortnite has been bringing brands into its universe for a while now. From Travis Scott concert to John Wick, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande or that wild Coachlla party, Fortnite’s been pulling in the big names and big crowds. The TS concert had over 45M people tuning in. If you look at some of the other Metaverse concerts, whether in Forntite or Roblox, the attendance numbers are all in the millions. Meanwhile, the top 10 largest stadiums in the world have a combined capacity of only 1.1M. And with Fortnite’s ability to run live experiences at massive scale - it was the perfect fit for LEGO.
While LEGO has opened 155 new physical stores in 2022 with revenues soaring by 17%, they know that they need to create the “Lego brand universe also digitally”. So much so they created their own metaverse department called LEGO G.A.M.E, standing for Games, Activations & Metaverse Experiences, and job boards that look like this.
LEGO tried to get Metaverse ready since 2002, with games like Lego universe, Chima online and minifgures online. And after those failed, including a cancelled partnership with Mojang (Minecraft maker) and a not so successful Lego WORLDs, they’ve partnered up with a legacy franchise that had it all going already - Fortnite.
A game targeted at teens.
So to make it more kid-frindly, both LEGO and Epic Games are all in to make the metaverse for kids safe and age-appropriate. The internet was never really built with kids in mind. Safety for children was only an afterthought. That’s why both companies want to make sure this next iteration of the internet, the metaverse, is built and designed with players of all ages in mind from the beginning. So things like voice and text chatting as well as purchasing are disabled and lots of other things require parental consent or a parental PIN. And players under 18 automatically get a version with text and voice chat turned off.
And the strategy is working. LEGO is now up on place 59 on the list of top 100 brands, up by 4 places. I think it’s great to see LEGO taking its role in developing safe online environments for children, because with all the mess out there, it’s not always easy for parents to navigate the digital world, where trust in companies is not always given. We've seen the internet stumble with safety and privacy issues, right? But here's our shot to get it right with the metaverse. The way LEGO does it could become a model for other brands as well because in the one killer feature of the metaverse is always going to be “social interaction”. Safety for both adults and children must therefore be front and center. And learning from the past, we can build a virtual world that's safe, cool, and works for everyone. It's a chance to make a digital universe way more awesome and way less problematic than the early days of the internet.
And speaking of making things better, there's this thing called the Open Metaverse Standards Forum. It's all about folks from different tech places coming together to make sure the metaverse works smoothly and everyone's on the same page. Think of it as setting the rules for a game where everyone can play fair and have a blast. It’s like building the metaverse's backbone so it can be the awesome place we all want it to be.
So. While some companies like Microsoft, Disney, and even Facebook are unsure about their metaverse initiatives, Lego is doubling down on the idea of constructing it, inside the Fortnite metaverse. While they nailed all things policy, they’re also innovating. LEGO has filed patents for their metaverse ambitions such as scanning and translating minifgures to the virtual world. This patent right here is super interesting because it lets you snap a photo of your LEGO build, and the app adds cool digital effects, like a ghost or something to bring it all to life.
A NEW ECONOMY
And to bring more brands to life in the metaverse, more and more companies recognize the importance of staying culturally relevant and meet people where they are. Which is - in games. Most of us already spend our spare time gaming, so it makes sense to dive into the metaverse through games. Games are the best gateway to bring about the metaverse because the foundational elements of game mechanics and environments is exactly what the Metaverse needs - missions, leveling up, walking, jumping, flying around, simulating real-life stuff in virtual worlds…games have the MV framework ready. And that’s why the Metaverse is picking up in the gaming industry first. Because in games, you already have a digital ‘You’ besides your physical ‘You’. Soon, your house, your work, your company, heck even your last LEGO brick will have a digital version. It’s like we’re all part of this giant digital LEGO set where we can build, play and connect in ways we never imagined. What you do and what you own online will really mean something - just like in the real world.
But while brands are getting smarter about how they hang out with us online, let’s not get too comfy just yet. We’re hanging out in these digital worlds but they’re all sorta doing their own thing right now. It’s like Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, or Seoul’s Metaverse app - they’re cool and all but they’re like separate islands in this huge digital ocean. So what’s the game plan? The next big era is here, a new kind of economy in the metaverse. And if we want this to work properly, we gotta start thinking big, like, really big. We’re talking about moving from these closed-off digital playgrounds to a shared world. Imagine a universe where you can jump from Minecraft to Fortnite, then hang out in Roblox, all without missing a beat. From Lego to Rocket League to Snoop Dog’s world - it’s all about breaking down those walls. And for that, we need solid standards, rules to keep the bad stuff out and a level of interoperability based on file formats that allow for moving seemlessly between metaverse apps.
Of course, it’s not gonna happen overnight, but we’re heading in that direction. Every genre, every game, they all have a role to play in this huge digital melting pot. Because let’s face it, we don’t want a metaverse that’s all chopped up and disconnected like our social media apps in our phones - so…a new kind of economy in the metaverse is emerging. Might be early, might be slow. But it’s real. It’s meaningful. And the LEGO x Fortnite collab the blueprint for THE metaverse done right.