How much does it cost to build Metaverse?

The concept of metaverse has been creating quite a buzz in society, but what is this buzz about? As per a recent Precedence Research report, the market for metaverse was worth $40 billion and will touch an estimated 1,607.12 billion USD by 2030. It shows a Compound Annual Growth Rate(CAGR) of 50.74% from 2022 to 2030.

For people still unaware of the metaverse, it is an amalgamation of the real and virtual worlds. Think of it as a superset of virtual ecosystems similar to sci-fi cinema, where the characters transcend into the virtual realm. Let’s take the case of a virtual office. Metaverse offers digital office rooms and conference halls where the employee-owned avatar will sit, attend official meetings and make all the required gestures for a life-like office interaction. The concept of the metaverse is just not limited to the office space, but it is also useful for social interactions like virtual casual parties, game meetups, club gatherings and a lot more.

That is how interesting and immersive a metaverse can be, empowering people to conduct all sorts of interactions in a virtual ecosystem. Now the question is, what does it take to build a metaverse; how much labor and funds does metaverse development require? Without further ado, let’s understand the metaverse and how much it costs to build it in a better way.

• What do you understand by a metaverse?
• What role does blockchain play in a metaverse?
• What are the benefits of a metaverse?
• What are the technical elements of a decentralized Metaverse?
• How much does it cost to develop a metaverse virtual world?

What do you understand by a metaverse?

Metaverse is an interactive virtual space built by converging enhanced virtual and digital realms. The growth of the Internet makes the metaverse dynamic, and Text-based messaging has given way to video-based social interaction. And right now, we’re moving into an era when social relationships are made through the metaverse. This virtual world aims to provide a very immersive, cutting-edge online interface that is very immersive and allows us to engage in various activities rather than just seeing them.

Because it depends on several different technologies and trends to operate, a metaverse is an example of a combinatorial invention. Augmented reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs), an AR cloud, adaptable work methods, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and Spatial technologies are some of the technological advancements that contribute to the ecosystem of the metaverse.

To comprehend the concept behind a metaverse, consider it the next evolution of the Internet, which began as distinct online communities and bulletin boards. These eventually evolved into sites in a shared virtual environment. There is a lot of buzz surrounding the metaverse, most of it driven by technology businesses asserting themselves as metaverse companies or building metaverses to supplement or enhance peoples’ physical and digital worlds. Additionally, activities that are now carried out in separate metaverses can also be merged into a single metaverse.

Now that we are well versed with what a metaverse is let’s briefly understand how blockchain integration empowers the metaverse to be decentralized.

What role does blockchain play in a metaverse?

Blockchain is crucial as the backbone of the metaverse, especially if the goal is to create a decentralized metaverse or an open environment that a single firm doesn’t own. The metaverse will be a multi-layered environment, and several technologies will be used. Blockchain technology helps address areas like digital proof of ownership, collectability of digital assets (like NFTs), governance, transfer of value through cryptos, interoperability, and more to create a decentralized metaverse.

The idea behind the metaverse is to offer a variety of interconnected virtual worlds that users may enter utilizing AR or XR technology. Consider the multiverse games as an example. Users now need a trustworthy currency to fuel their actions within the metaverse as they spend more time in metaverse game worlds, travel across virtual spaces, own digital identities and in-game assets, and engage in gaming activities. A distributed ledger system and smart contracts are also required for the users to automate their transactions and maintain the transaction records. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are perfect for addressing these metaverse requirements because they maintain strict security.

However, the metaverse is a collection of various 3D objects and virtual places. Therefore, tailored interoperable blockchains are very important for the efficient functioning of a fully decentralized metaverse. A decentralized metaverse has the following features:

• Decentralized data transmission for permanent, real-time connections is made possible by a high bandwidth decentralized network of computers that hosts the metaverse beyond the authority of a single organization or centralized body.
• Public and interoperable media standards are needed to enable 3D applications, including text, photos, music, video, 3D landscapes, 3D objects, 3D sequences, and vectors.
• Standards for open programming languages include HTML, JavaScript, WebXR, WebAssembly, WebGPU Shader Language, and others.
• XR Smart glasses, Omni treadmills, haptic gloves, VR headsets, industrial cameras, and scanning sensors are examples of Extended Reality (XR) devices that can be used to engage within the metaverse.
• Blockchain and smart contracts enable censorship-proof, permissionless, and transparent transactions.
• High Computational capacity for data processing, artificial intelligence, projection, etc.
• Simulations in three dimensions of real-world ecosystems.
• Payment gateways that facilitate cryptocurrency and fiat money trades and payments.

What are the benefits of a metaverse?

More individuals are turning to virtual communities, and technological means of communication like video and web conferencing to network and communicate online. The metaverse offers a variety of real-world capabilities in a 3-D immersive world to enhance their current digital experience. The following are the main advantages that metaverse offers:

• Dealing with the issues of remote work
  Metaverse can solve all the problems with distant work. It gives managers access to a virtual setting where they may interact with workers (as represented by their avatars), read their nonverbal cues, and simulate in-person interactions. By managing the staff inside a virtual office, the company may also stop issues like time theft and goldbrick inside the office.
• Benefit monetization
  There is a surge of attention in the metaverse. Some are programming experts trying to harness the ecosystem to construct business-specific products, while others are searching for ways to earn money. Fortunately, the metaverse can suit both parties’ needs. Because the metaverse is open-source, anybody can develop a relevant project on top of the ecosystem. Similarly, anyone can become ordinary users in the ecosystem and produce and exchange NFTs to gain money.
• Providing a virtual tour experience
  Traveling is exciting, but not everybody can travel to their desired places, and that is where the metaverse comes in, allowing individuals to see locations electronically that they can’t visit physically. An enhanced virtual environment with a first-person experience is constructed using Metaverse, AR, and VR combined capabilities.
• Immersive online gaming
  Most metaverse games are now decentralized and include an integrated economic mechanism that supports play-to-earn gaming. Users in such games can purchase, sell, and exchange in-game assets in NFTs. Furthermore, the concept of avatars exploring the huge virtual universe is appealing to gamers.

What are the technical elements of a decentralized Metaverse?

Metaverse is frequently defined as a mix of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. However, metaverse development extends beyond these two fundamental technologies. Projects such as Axie Infinity and Decentraland are excellent examples of using common technologies to connect the physical and virtual worlds.

Blockchain is one of the several technologies that fuel the metaverse Blockchain technology that can make metaverse projects compliant with Web3, the next phase of the Internet, by providing a decentralized infrastructure and facilitating the creation of compelling use cases for its environment. Following are the technical elements of a decentralized metaverse:

• Decentralized storage database
• Data security with authorization keys
• Decentralized ecosystem
• Smart contracts
• Interoperable environment
• Non-fungible tokens
• Cryptocurrencies
• Self-identity authentication
• Frontend and backend development
• AR and VR technologies
• Artificial Intelligence development
• 3D reconstruction
• Internet of things

Now that we are well-versed with the fundamental elements of a decentralized metaverse, let’s look at an estimate of metaverse development cost in the next section.

How much does it cost to develop a metaverse virtual world?

Businesses are talking about metaverse’s numerous benefits. They are willing to spend on creating digitally enhanced immersive environments to stay updated with industry trends and effectively promote their products and services.

Regardless of industry, every firm should be aware of the many facets of the metaverse, as it is critical to understand its driving force in business ecosystems, its influence on users, and how it links our physical and digital worlds.

Understanding the technological components of metaverse development is also essential for investigating the many aspects of this shared, open, and permanent virtual environment from the aspect of estimating a generalized metaverse development cost. This cost is not static, as it can change per the platform’s features and users’ metaverse requirements. Platforms like Decentraland, Axie Infinity, STARL and Metavesal have varied development costs as they differ in functionality and utility.

After a generalized analysis of the metaverse Virtual World development cost, a fundamental blockchain-based metaverse ecosystem development requires the following:

• Decentralized database
• 3-4 full-stack developers well-versed in React.js and Node.js
• 1 UI/UX developer
• 1 UNITY/UNREAL/CRYENGINE developer
• 3 3D modellers(Blender, Max3DS developer)
• 1 decentralized wallet developer
• One decentralized dApp developer.

The above-mentioned generalized cost components are sufficient to develop a fully decentralized metaverse at an estimated 15-20k $/month, with approximately 5 virtual rooms and 20 users for the visiting rooms. This cost estimation varies based on metaverse features and user requirements changes.

Conclusion

The evolution of the metaverse has still not reached its full potential. Tech professionals are investigating methods and evaluating various technologies to create concepts that will provide the world with more interesting and practical metaverse initiatives.

Axie Infinity, Sandbox, and Decentraland are some well-known examples of modern live metaverse initiatives. These products’ creators use major metaverse technologies, including blockchain, cryptography, and NFTs.

According to leading tech futurists, the metaverse will be empowered by several new technologies in the future, supporting the creation of a variety of practical use cases that will increase the metaverse’s capacity to provide real-life functionality. Thus, the Metaverse development cost will also evolve and change with time depending on how people explore and implement the metaverse in their businesses and life.

Feel free to contact us if you are looking for metaverse development services or want to optimize an existing metaverse project. We are eager to learn further about your project requirements.