News

Explore the metaverse at Pocket Gamer Connects London

Learn what the metaverse is and what it can do for you and your business

Explore the metaverse at Pocket Gamer Connects London

*Please note this article has been updated as of December 15, 2021 to reflect newly announced dates for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2022

With tech giant Facebook recently rebranding to Meta, more eyes are on the metaverse now than ever before. There is no better time to get up to date with what it is, how it works and how it can benefit your business.

We are kicking off 2022 delving deep into what the metaverse is, and you can join us in this exploration by attending our highly anticipated Pocket Gamer Connects London 2022 conference.

Whether you are completely new to the concept of the metaverse and digital worlds and looking to learn or someone looking to deepen their knowledge, we will have plenty of sessions available for you to understand what the metaverse is all about, how it works, and what it can do for you and your business.

For a brief overview of what the metaverse is, how it can benefit you and what we will be covering at the conference come February, read on. If you’re ready to secure your spot at this exciting conference for the best possible price, get your ticket booked with our Midterm Offer before it goes.

What exactly is the metaverse?

Before we dive any further, let’s explore some definitions of what the metaverse is. The metaverse is a persistent interoperable experience, stemming from the games lexicon via Richard Bartle. The metaverse is a world that “continues to exist and develop internally even when there are no people interacting with it”. As per Forbes’ dedicated definition of the metaverse, it can be defined as “the concept of a future iteration of the internet, made up of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe”. This definition is ever-evolving and can be highly variable depending on what individual corporations may perceive as the role of the metaverse in their own expansion, but it is nevertheless the overarching definition.

We have explored what the metaverse is in-depth on our sister site BeyondGames.biz if you are looking for further detail.

 The metaverse is a persistent interoperable experience. 

Why is everyone talking about the metaverse right now?

As aforementioned, Facebook is diving headfirst into working to build their own metaverse. As recently as early November, they began to fire shots via their social networking site at Apple in one of the first iterations of what will be come to be known as the metaverse wars.

Companies everywhere are investing millions of dollars into making sure that their metaverse project is the one that defines the next stage of technological advancement. This overlap between the physical and digital worlds is the future of technology, and it is one of the most exciting developments in the games industry and technology industries as a whole.

As defined by our own resident metaverse expert Kelly Vero, the metaverse is a single level design that never ends. To create the design that millions will explore and build upon is an ambitious feat, but nevertheless one of the most thrilling opportunities that has become possible with today’s technological advancements. The metaverse is the future films like Ready Player One, Avatar, Wreck It Ralph and more have explored, and it is closer now than ever. Our lives are about to become more digitised than ever before, and the reason everyone’s talking about it is because of the daily developments that are emerging in regards to the metaverse.

Some of the most recent news regarding the metaverse:

It's one of the most thrilling opportunities that has become possible with today’s technological advancements.

How is the metaverse relevant to games?

Games encompassing massive virtual worlds to explore have been here for a long time. Some metaverses you can already visit at the moment include the games Second Life, Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft and even Animal Crossing. All these iterations of a virtual world span across a variety of spaces your digital self can explore ranging from user-generated games to Battle Royale scenarios or exploring deserted islands.

These highly popular games today are indicative of the incredible demand for more immersive experiences, all of which end up leading to a virtual world of sorts. The next step for these goes beyond the technology VR headsets can offer, immersing players in feeling as if they are truly present in battle or viewing the deserted islands from a first-person perspective. All games in the future need to be compatible with the metaverse in order to take advantage of its growing popularity as well as the stream of opportunities made possible through economies based on purely digital collectibles such as NFTs.

Where now it may feel like an option to start working on making your games metaverse compatible, in the future, it will be the standard.

In the future, metaverse compatibility will be the standard.

Unmissable talks with metaverse experts

At Pocket Gamer Connects London, we strive for our attendees to have access to the most cutting-edge information possible from experts actively researching the fields being discussed. There are many exciting developments around the metaverse and a wide variety of ways in which game developers are integrating the possibilities brought forth by the technology into their projects. So, we have compiled a fantastic speaker line-up for our Metaverse track covering a diverse range of metaverse integrations.

If you’re interested in learning a bit more about who exactly will be at PG Connects London come February and their experience with the metaverse, get to know just a few of the brilliant minds that will be leading the metaverse discussion come February.

  • Tracey McGarrigan, CEO at Ansible PR & Communications - A specialist in producing communications and events designed to genuinely engage audiences and influencers, Tracey has over 20 years of senior leadership and executive level roles under her belt. As CEO and founder of Ansible PR & Communications, she has worked her marketing metaverse magic with companies like Epic Games, Polystream, BAFTA, Sci-Fi-London, Bossa Studios, Furious Bee, and Green Man Gaming. Listed as one of Games Industry Biz's Top 100 Influential Women, she is also the Coordinator of the annual W.IN (Women.In) event at London Games Festival.
  • Bushra Burge, Founder of BB Studio - Bushra has an eclectic background, with extensive experience in the creative and digital sectors spanning over 20 years from investment banking to fashion. Her groundbreaking innovation company has worked with brands, agencies and academic partners on innovative immersive and tactile storytelling. Her company is currently rolling out a multicultural metaverse magazine about travel, fashion and identity; and also developing a new fashion sustainability game set on Mars.
  • Kaveh Vahdat, CEO & Founder of RiseAngle - Kaveh is the founder and CEO of RiseAngle, Inc., a San Francisco-based company, with a vision of “Shaping the Future of Immersive Games”. RiseAngle, Inc. has been working on a groundbreaking virtuous NFT games metaverse. Prior to RiseAngle, Inc., Kaveh was CMO of Cozymeal in San Francisco where he grew the company to a leading marketplace in the US. He has 10+ years of online marketing experience in various industries and has helped a number of different companies grow significantly. During 2003-2007, he founded and grew a successful game company that was later acquired.
  • Patty Toledo, Director of Developer Relations at Yahaha - From world traveller to Director of Developer Relations at Yahaha and Project Lead at Game ON Mid Sweden, Patty Toledo has been deeply involved in creative media and games for 30 years. Taking the gaming industry by storm, Patty is shaping business and creative opportunities for developers, publishers and creators, enabling them to explore the metaverse and beyond.
  • Benjamin Bertram, Executive Producer at Ethic - Benjamin Bertram Goldman is an executive producer at the sustainable investment firm Ethic, and an early innovator in virtual production and the metaverse. He has been exploring the metaverse artistically for nearly a decade, first as a writer focused on the design and ethics of the metaverse, and later as co-founder of a creator collective called metaverse TV. He also serves as a metaverse advisor to virtual production company Sequin AR and previously led the documentary films unit at the design company InVision.

Book your tickets now

Want in on hearing cutting-edge insights about the metaverse from expert speakers actively working on it? Don’t miss out, get your ticket booked for PG Connects London 2022 today. You can enjoy our Mid-Term offer on all tickets and secure your spot at a great price for a limited time, so don’t wait!

See you in February!


Marketing Executive