Amazon unveils new Metaverse esports and education project

Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports has launched UNIVERSITY World, a project that brings the Metaverse to the esports and education sectors to connect students across the globe. 

In a world that continues to become increasingly digital, blurring the lines between the ‘real’ world and the virtual, the latter is becoming an ever more present scenario in our lives.

This leads to the creation of online virtual worlds (metaverses in some cases), immersive experiences that provide people with the opportunity to interact through avatars in cyberspace, participate in games, attend conferences or lectures, buy products. The possibilities are almost endless as all the elements of the real world can be incorporated, but without the physical limitations of the real world.

UNIVERSITY World is the newly launched virtual world of Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports, the esports and education project aimed at university students from 16 countries on 4 continents. In this newly designed space, students -and wider audiences who want to access the space- will be able to interact with each other, both in a central hall common to all countries, as well as in the specific rooms of each one. This will create a community among players from all over the world, being able to communicate through the integrated chat, score points to win prizes through different mini-games, and other multiple activities.

Virtual worlds have a story to tell

Attempts to develop virtual worlds have been made for many decades. As early as the 1960s, the concept (and some technologies) of immersing us in purely virtual environments began to be developed.

In 1992, in the novel Snow Crash by the American writer Neal Stephenson, the term metaverse appeared for the first time. It was described as a collective virtual space in which the user appears as an avatar in this virtual world. And that is exactly what UNIVERSITY World allows: each user can customise his or her avatar with different colours, names and a series of predetermined gestures and movements that will be visible to other users in the environment.

Users create the world

One of the essential characteristics of metaverses is that it is the users themselves, through their interaction with the app, who create this alternate world. In other words, they are formed through collective participation.

This will not be the definitive version of UNIVERSITY World; it will continuously evolve to incorporate updated features. Changes will be driven by the community’s demands and how its members want to improve the world. There are several improvements planned for the app, including educational materials, news, and video-workshops.

A promising future

Since the advent of technology, wider access to devices, and the ever-increasing use of them, virtual worlds have become increasingly popular in recent years. The popularity of social networking and streaming has also led to an increase in this type of interaction. According to a recent study, the metaverse market is expected to reach USD 5 billion by 2030.

The use of metaverses will undoubtedly grow over the next few years as more industries begin to explore and invest in them, making them more accessible to more users.

UNIVERSITY World aims to enhance the user experience for Amazon UNIVERSITY Esports students, and bridge the boundaries to explore new ways to interact and test new products in a virtual environment.

The web-based app is already available in seven countries (KSA, UAE, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the UK), and the British version can be accessed here.