Meta, Adobe, Microsoft join metaverse standards body -- but Apple does not

AppleInsider

A new Metaverse Standards Forum aims to encourage the development of open standards for metaverse technology, but it has not managed to sign up Apple.

Logo of the new Metaverse Standards Forum

Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously said he takes the metaverse seriously enough to invest in it, but separately others are as yet regarding it as meaningless hype.

Now a new standards organization hopes to help rid the metaverse of this meaningless image and instead "foster interoperability standards for an open metaverse." Formed by around 35 companies, the group's most prominent members include:

• Adobe


• Epic Games


• Meta (Facebook)


• Microsoft


• Nvidia


• Qualcomm

"Adobe is excited to join the Metaverse Standards Forum," Stefano Corazza, vice president and fellow of AR at Adobe, said in a statement. "It is in our history to contribute to the industry by defining foundational standards for digital experiences, as we did with PDF and DNG."

"Establishing standards is essential to foster collaboration in the Metaverse," continued Corazza, "and to allow this new ecosystem to truly flourish."

"Building a metaverse for everyone will require an industry-wide focus on common standards," said Vishal Shah, vice president of Metaverse at Meta, in the statement. "Creators, developers and companies will all benefit from the technologies and experiences that will be made possible by common protocols."

"Our goal is to build an open metaverse that enriches humanity and is home to a thriving, fair ecosystem with millions of creators," added Marc Petit, vice president of Unreal Engine ecosystem at Epic Games. "We are thrilled to help launch the Metaverse Standards Forum, a collaborative industry-led effort founded to accelerate the development and adoption of interoperability standards."

Apple is not a member, though the Metaverse Standards Forum notes that membership is "open to any organization at no cost." It's not clear if Apple was invited to be a founding member, or not.

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humbug1873

Building a standards body that tries to do design by comitee usually is a bad idea. Apple never hat much luck with that since there are usually members whose only interest is to block quick successes in favor of their own proprietary standards (as happened with OpenGL that was blocked and talked down by Microsoft in order to push DirectX). Why join?

jose8964

Funny that Adobe mentioned their proprietary standard PDF

jimh2

Metaverse has the same hand-waving and abstract explanations that crypto has had since it first came into existence. 

amar99

jose8964 said:

Funny that Adobe mentioned their proprietary standard PDF

From Adobe's own website: "The PDF format is now an open standard, maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)."

More importantly though, I wouldn't trust their many words worth a dime. Opportunist companies are jumping on the bandwagon hoping for future gazillions in profits at the expense of the private data of each and every end user. Remember, Facebook is the company who required permission to record any audio or actions in any Quest 2 experience. Don't trust this lot.

Cesar Battistini Maziero

Apple shouldn't join Facebook, they can't possibly go by Apple principles of privacy.

Facebook wants people to get sucked into the metaverse. Apple wants AR to enhance real life not replace it.

blastdoor

When Apple has contributed to things that are 'open,' it typically has not been through a design-by-committee process. In the few instances when Apple did participate in those types of big committee structures (like OpenGL), I think Apple has been appropriately disappointed in the outcome. 

rob53

The most prominent members are all has beens trying to stay relevant. Adobe products are over-priced and, at least on Apple products, have alternative products that work as good or better than antiquated Adobe code. The only thing keeping Microsoft relevant is its established base of users, primarily government and corporate, who are locked into antiquated programs and client licenses. I don't know why Nvidia and Qualcomm are even listed, they're hardware vendors. I don't play games and Epic is simply trying to make money on other people's products. Not even going to discuss the garbage from Facebook/Meta/whatever they want to call themselves today.

All of these companies want Apple to be a member so they can force Apple to open up their platform so they can make money with the least amount of work necessary.  

Kuyangkoh

Goggle was not mentioned?

coolfactor

Metaverse... I keep hearing Multiverse from The Flash.

LumpyTapioca

Linden Lab/Second Life should have been a member from the beginning.
Second Life is not perfect, and a bit crusty, but hey still have users and it's closer to a pure metaverse than anyone's gotten so far.
They've had to actually deal with many of the non-obvious problems and issues that a fully open, malleable world brings.
SL also has a user community that "gets"metaverse. They don't have to be "sold"on the concept.  
They've built the world, in both infrastructure and avatars.
The users have dealt with the concepts of item vending and ownership permissions, tied to in-world currencies.

It's thornier than the consortium wants it to be. A Metaverse isn't just gaming apps that share common asset data formats.
The standards need to be more than a way to make it easier to shovel content into a world.
The hard part is making it flow for the users, keeping it continuous, immersive, and unified.
The standards need to be extendedable in-world, because the users they want to attract will know better than them in time.

crowley

Maybe Apple haven’t joined in because it’s a dumb idea that isn’t going anywhere. It’s 3D TV all over again. It’s pivot to video. It’s crypto. 

TightLines

crowley said:

Maybe Apple haven’t joined in because it’s a dumb idea that isn’t going anywhere. It’s 3D TV all over again. It’s pivot to video. It’s crypto.

I agree 100% - its a joke that the mainstream press and news media will try to recruit the next greater fools for… just as they have done with the proven scam, crypto (anything).

netrox

jose8964 said:

Funny that Adobe mentioned their proprietary standard PDF

Thankfully, it's been open since 2008 and software makers can write and read PDFs without royalty fees to Adobe.
 

jumpingcoco

whenever there's a new hype, don't rush yourself into it, don't try to be the first, don't pivot around grabbing the largest market share. Instead, have a grand vision for the next decade and always focus on the humanity side of things. That's the "Steve Jobs philosophy", it has made Apple insanely great.

mattinoz

List is also a handy guide of companies not to trust in using your own information against you.