EVE Online team building in web3

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✨ Top Picks

The Future, today. In just 3 minutes.

1/ A $40M investment in CCP Games and its new AAA game

Silicon Valley-based VC Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is leading a $40M investment in CCP Games and its new AAA game, set in the EVE Universe and merging 20 years of game design with blockchain technology.

On Twitter, a16z GP and GAMES FUND ONE co-founder Jon Lai touted that years before the first blockchain, sci-fi MMO Eve Online has already proven many of web3’s core principles as it takes players to a virtual world in which every item from drones to dreadnoughts is player-made and tradable in an open economy.

Lai believes next-gen web3 games will share many of the principles that EVE pioneered, from open economies to player-driven social systems to composability.

Since 2018, 50 million EVE players have manufactured over 276 billion items and engaged in some of the biggest and most expensive wars in games history. The EVE community has also built a rich ecosystem of third-party tools and apps supported by an API, reflecting great interest among players to participate in building virtual universes.

2/ Bill Gates praises artificial intelligence in blog post, calling it 'revolutionary'

On the same day Google released its AI chatbot Bard and a week after ChatGPT creator OpenAI announced GPT-4, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made his thoughts on AI known in a 7-page letter that adds to the already hot conversation around the technology.

Some key passages worth highlighting:

• “The development of AI is as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone.”

• “I’ve been thinking a lot about how AI can reduce some of the world’s worst inequities.”

• “Advances in AI will enable the creation of a personal agent.”

In a nutshell, Gates focused on the workforce, healthcare, and education as sectors that AI will transform, as well as validated fears and concerns around the tech including sometimes being inaccurate, experiencing "hallucinations," and failing to properly pick up on context.

Perhaps the most fitting conclusion: “The Age of AI is filled with opportunities and responsibilities.”

3/ Tim Sweeney believes the metaverse is ‘happening for real’

At GDC 2023, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney shed light on his vision for an open ecosystem across gaming - as well as the Fortnite maker’s “unified” vision of the metaverse - as the company unveiled details about the economy around its Unreal Editor for Fortnite, the new unified marketplace Fab, new Metahumans animation tools, and more.

Talking about Epic’s metaverse plans:

• The metaverse is deemed more attractive if the majority of a player’s real-world friends are there, thus highlighting the need for interconnection

• Epic appears to work toward these open systems with the end goal of being the leading service provider in the space

• The metaverse is happening for real, with 600 million users engaging and growing exponentially to the point of reaching several billions by the end of the decade

Asked about anything standing in the way of Epic’s metaverse’s bid, Sweeney didn’t bat an eyelash: it’s Apple. "They'll either try to crush the metaverse, or extract all the profit from it.”

4/ The industrial metaverse: Are we there yet?

The metaverse isn’t the stuff of science fiction anymore: It’s real, and it has arrived. But how is the so-called industrial metaverse actually faring right now, as ideated by panelists at Nvidia GTC 2023?

• We don’t think the metaverse has arrived yet but we can see its outlines, says Lori Hufford, VP of engineering collaboration at Bentley Systems. “It’s immersive. It’s a 3D geospatial user experience. It’s real time, with real time interactions and real time data. It has to be engineering-grade.”

• The metaverse is never going to be finished, declares Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO of Siemens Digital Industries Software. “We’ll keep adding to it. We’ll make it more and more real.”

• Looking at workflows, the digital twins, and the metaverse, BMW Group senior VP Michele Melchiorre lauds the benefits: These tech can change or accelerate workflows, or make workflows, bring all the data together in one location, and do things in parallel.

🏃‍♂️ Quick Hits

🎮 Gaming

• Two-decade-old virtual pet game Neopets banks on nostalgia to become a bankable web3 title. (Link)

• Epic Games has just wrapped its State of Unreal 2023 keynote, boasting Unreal Engine 5.2 enhancements, Fortnite’s long-awaited Unreal Editor tools, stunning new MetaHuman tech, and more. (Link)

• Can a “dead game” gain a second life in web3? Indie card-battler Shardbound gets second wind as a web3 game. (Link)

• Shrapnel preview: This web3 shooter looks and plays like a AAA game. (Link)

• Can P2E metaverse game Pikamoon give The Sandbox a run for its money? (Link)

• Welcome to Vivendi’s “clubhouse” in The Sandbox. (Link)

🕶 Fashion

• Balmain drops a limited-edition digital Unicorn sneakers collection. (Link)

• The much-anticipated Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland highlights the growing intersection of fashion and top blockchain games. (Link)

• Supermodel Karlie Kloss, also a programmer and women-in-STEM advocate, embraces the metaverse with Fashion Klossette on Roblox. (Link)

• Vodka brand Wisher Vodka presents MFW event BRAmazing to support breast cancer awareness. (Link)

• What does fashion and lifestyle metaverse PARIZ have to offer to India’s savvy shoppers? (Link)

🏀 Sports

• NBA legend Magic Johnson files for NFT and metaverse trademarks, with plans for an online marketplace in the works. (Link)

• A new study is split over whether most audiences will consume top-tier sports content in a virtual environment. (Link)

• Dubai Verse Cup’s virtual horse racing experience gives players a taste of owning, breeding, trading, and racing their horses. (Link)

• Is sports the new vertical for XR markets? (Link)

• The Football at AlphaVerse universe brings together major European and South American football clubs in the virtual realm. (Link)

• French government plans to trial AI-laced surveillance cameras at the 2024 Olympics have got critics fuming. (Link)

• Sinclair and Deloitte are launching a new virtual community for sports fans in the metaverse. (Link)

🎥 Media & Entertainment

• Comedians are trying to make the metaverse cool, but it won’t let them. (Link)

• Bangladeshi-American artist Jai Wolf offers an AI-powered music video for “Want It All,” getting all hyped up for Coachella 2023. (Link)

• No need to carry cash around anymore - Telegram users can now transfer USDT with just a few taps in their chatroom. (Link)

• Metaverse is giving music licensing a whole new tune to dance to. (Link)

• K-pop superstar G-Dragon's is launching an NFT collection on Opensea. (Link)

• XLA, a community of video game and entertainment pros, announces Metasites, a modular 3D internet framework using metaverse, cloud, and AI. (Link)

🖼 Art

• Amsterdam is now home to the world's first art gallery with a twist - it's powered by AI. (Link)

• Dubai embraces divine female sexuality with futurist and artist Katie McIntyre's fully immersive art piece Zenith Women. (Link)

• The IRS and U.S. Treasury Department are releasing new regulations around taxing NFTs and classifying them as assets. (Link)

• NFT creator Terrell Jones tells stories with NFTs inspired by gangster flicks. (Link)

• Swiss metaverse digital real estate and gaming platform DecentWorld expands its NFT lineup with buildings. (Link)

• Creators on Ethereum NFT marketplace Zora can now create and deploy their own ERC-1155 smart contract. (Link)

🤖 AI

• AI is helping researchers identify and analyze some of the world’s oldest art. (Link)

• Worried that AI will take over your job? You might not have to, at least in the meantime. (Link)

• The EU is set to introduce its breakthrough AI Act, major legislation that can shake up AI’s future in Europe. (Link)

• How does AI make things easier for scriptwriters? (Link)

• Scammers may have leveraged AI to steal $200K from Newfoundland seniors. (Link)

• Here’s the potential of AI to change white-collar freelance jobs. (Link)

• Top 10 AI mobile apps that have raked in an impressive $14M in 2023. (Link)

• Works generated by AI can be copyrighted - only if they have a human touch. (Link)

• Smile, AI algorithms are here to make orthodontic care a breeze. (Link)

💸 Funding & Partnerships

• Seed Club Ventures is a DAO investing in internet-native organizations with a $25M war chest. (Link)

• Tomi is building an “Alternative Internet” and has just raised $40M to attract content creators. (Link)

• Bazooka Tango, Bit Fry Game Studios, and Studio 369 are the newest additions to the Immutable Games family. (Link)

• Global comms player Havas Play ties up with The Sandbox to develop new gaming and entertainment ventures. (Link)

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All content on this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not aim to serve as or replace expert investment advice.

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