Fortnite At Work? Leaders Brace For Zuckerberg’s Predicted Metaverse Invasion

The rise of metaverses has been likened to the dot.com boom—regaled as the next internet by some analysts, dismissed as baseless hype by others. But, recent developments in tech, retail, productivity, entertainment/gaming, and education are signaling rapid and dramatic changes that will transform the ways we work, learn, shop, play, and interact with one another.

In business, the metaverse is aggressively emerging as a trend that leaders, across industries, must address to protect company growth opportunities and competitive strategies. Although metaverses have been around for decades (the term originated with Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel Snowcrash), companies are now starting to make big bets on them—expecting enhanced virtual immersive experiences to be unprecedented disrupters in the global marketplace. But, when it comes to embracing the Metaverse:

• Recognize Opportunity. How can your firm and industry leverage elements of the metaverse for competitive advantage?
• Analyze the Landscape. If you’re not already there, have you sponsored a team to continuously scan for current opportunities and scenario plan potential uses?
• Evaluation and Planning. When and how will you start experimenting by aligning functional needs with metaverse environments?

Answers to these kinds of questions will facilitate predictive planning and prevent risk-aversion operating cultures.

Where We Are Now: Early Adopters and Innovators

In late 2021, Facebook chose to rebrand itself as Meta (a move dismissed by some as an effort to deflect from its not-insubstantial public relations crisis). CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the metaverse the “holy grail of online social experiences,” indicating the company expects to “help the metaverse reach a billion people and hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce this decade.”

Zuckerberg's vision of momentous sales in the virtual world is already a reality in the gaming sector, where competitors spend real-world money on virtual items (think clothing, weapons, décor) that they can use in games like World of Warcraft, Fortnite, and Animal Crossing. In addition to generating serious profits (over $9 billion annually for Fornite’s Epic Games, for example), gaming platforms are now competing with virtual and real-world destinations by hosting meetups, concerts, movie screenings, and parties. More than half of U.S. children and teens under age 16 are already there. Gartner, a management consultancy, expects that by 2026, adults will have joined them—predicting that 25% of people will immerse in the metaverse, at least an hour a day, working, shopping, learning, socializing, and/or being entertained.

Early adopters are leveraging these existing metaverse communities, and the technologies they are built on, to improve business outcomes, educate, reach more potential customers, increase brand loyalty and engagement—and boost real-world sales. Last year, Animal Crossing players could order virtual snacks from food delivery service Deliveroo, which included promo codes to order food in the real world. Designer Gucci has released virtual clothes and goods on Roblox, test-marketing products to gaming communities well before real-world production begins.

Fast food chain, Wendy’s, promoted its use of fresh beef by sending an avatar into Fortnite to destroy a virtual burger restaurant’s freezers. The stunt was viewed, live, more than a quarter of a million times on Twitch, increased social media mentions of the brand by 119%, and won eight Cannes Lions (an award given at the event formerly known as the International Advertising Festival).

Commercial insurance broker HUB, which launched in 2019, is using Meta’s virtual reality collaboration platform Horizon Workrooms, internally and externally, to host board meetings, engage clients, onboard talent, and provide an enhanced hybrid working experience. The platform has plenty of competition: Roblox, Engage XR, Microsoft’s Mesh (which the company calls a “gateway to the metaverse”), Gather, and Spatial, among others, are using virtual reality to improve online collaboration and other work experiences. Some of these platforms require the use of a virtual reality headset, creating another revenue stream for companies like Meta and Accenture (which acquired Microsoft’s XR—extended reality—division to develop its Nth Floor and compete in the space) that are developing their own compatible hardware.

The existing metaverse also can be used as a training environment. Medical schools are harnessing virtual reality to teach future physicians before they ever work with real-world patients, and doctors are using it to plan complex procedures, including the recent operation to separate conjoined twins. Richard Ward, McKinsey senior manager in the enterprise virtual reality practice, says the metaverse can be used to prepare workers in many industries: “Why not practice first in the metaverse, where it’s low cost, you can do things in an infinite way, and you can make the impossible happen? Those types of things really offer people more efficiency and productivity….The [metaverse] has very broad uses across the board that you can literally do now.”

Where We’re Headed

The price tag for groundbreaking innovation can be astronomically high, making the decision to strike first or wait to be a late mover a challenging one. Consider toymaker, Lego®, which just got a $2 billion investment to create a family-friendly metaverse on the Epic Games platform. CEO Niels Christiansen said, “Kids enjoy playing in digital and physical worlds and move seamlessly between the two. We believe there is huge potential for them to develop life-long skills such as creativity, collaboration and communication through digital experiences.” Lego® is betting that its virtual experience will create its own revenue stream and enhance sales of its real-world product.

For organizations that want to get into the market, and who don’t have the deep pockets to become a first mover, there is plenty of good news. The tech industry, in particular, is replete with examples of later-mover winners, including Google, Apple, and PayPal. If your business precludes your using an existing platform, waiting at this early stage of the game can be a smart choice. Late movers receive advantages that include learning from first-movers’ mistakes, spending less on R&D and market education, refining early innovations to create a superior offering, reducing the risk of product acceptance, and spending less on customer acquisition.

Even with deep pockets, choosing to forego first-mover status can make sense. Earlier this year, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the company’s ambition to “connect the physical and digital worlds” would be overseen by a newly hired VP. Mike White is currently establishing a task force and developing models for how to leverage the emerging technology to bring Disney characters and storytelling to the next level.

Succeeding with the “late mover” approach requires businesses to, like Disney, be both transparent and intentional. Is your business prepared to pivot and adapt to the trending metaverse and inevitable impact on cross-sector markets? What’s your plan?

You may need to take your time to determine the best way to bring your product or service to the virtual world. Or, you have a plan but need to wait for new technologies to support your move. Or, you know a competitor has made a formidable investment that makes it unreasonable for you to compete against them right now. Or you are working to build an ecosystem of partnerships (including suppliers, talent, distributors, locations, and/or customers) that will support your future forays into the metaverse. Whatever the reason for your wait, have a team in place to keep tabs on your industry and competitors, which will enable you to continuously update your strategy and communicate your current status to stakeholders.

Whether choosing to jump in now as an early adopter on an existing platform, invest in disruptive technologies and applications, begin experimenting on a small scale, or take a wait-and-see approach, the opportunities for business to expand into the virtual world appear unlimited. The only barrier? A failure to appreciate the potential of strategic innovation and business model adaptation for metaverse integration.