Snapchat opens an augmented reality Holiday Market, and Niantic and deadmau5 team up to create a planet-scale music Metaverse.
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Deadmau5 & Niantic developing planet-scale music Metaverse
Gaming platform PIXELYNX partners with Niantic to create a Pokémon Go-like collectable music experience. Behind PIXELNYX is the DJ and producer Joel Zimmerman, aka deadmau5, and Richie Hawtin.
The new virtual world ecosystem aims to make it easy for music artists to launch their own interactive environments and monetize them with NFTs. The experience's visitors will be able to explore the virtual content in the real world, such as attending concerts and visiting physical locations to collect NFTs that can be used in-game to unlock additional rewards and music.
Inder Phull, CEO of PIXELYNX, revealed the company's thoughts behind the experience to VRScout: "Working in the middle of music, entertainment and interactivity in general, one thing was pretty clear, gaming is going to consume most of these cultures. Ideas of gamification, game mechanics, in general, are going to become more and more relevant in every part of our lives."
"At the moment, it is not scalable enough to create a gaming strategy for most artists. It costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time to develop assets, and most teams don't have the knowledge in-house. How can we democratize that process and make gaming more accessible for the music industry?" Phull stated in the VRScout's fireside chat.
PIXELYNX believes that their "Musiverse" will blend digital and real-world experiences and enrich the fan experience in entirely unique ways.
Coca-Cola, Walmart open AR holiday stores in Snapchat
Snap has launched an augmented reality Holiday Market on Snapchat.
The Snap Holiday Market lets brands like Coca-Cola and Walmart utilize AR to recreate and enhance the traditional shopping experience. For example, Coca-Cola's AR room taps into childhood memories of visiting Santa at the mall, and Verizon rolls out a virtual treasure hunt. Consumers can make purchases through the Lens, reducing friction and shrinking the sales funnel.
The Snap Holiday Market follows Snap's increased investment in AR. In October, the company unveiled Arcadia, a new division operating an independent creative studio for branded AR. Snap has previously teamed with WPP on an AR Lab focused on linking AR technology with e-commerce.
That's all for now, see you next time!
