What happened to the metaverse?

Neil Stephenson introduced the metaverse as a concept in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, where he depicted it as a digital realm where users, represented by avatars, engage in a simulated reality. Fast-forward more than 30 years, and the concept is often associated with platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, Meta’s Horizon Worlds, and the Sandbox. However, these typically represent individual, proprietary experiences rather than the unified virtual world that was originally envisioned.

The metaverse and its related technology have surely evolved, but why has it not quite lived up to the hope many had placed in it? This is the topic I explore in my latest article for Destination CRM, available here.