The US Needs To Stop Playing Games To Grow in The Metaverse

• 1 Worldly governments are leveraging digital twins to solve complex problems.
• 2 People could be spending more time in the metaverse by 2030.

A new report suggests the United States should nurture their extended reality (XR) development or they stand a chance of falling behind globally in promoting it. XR is an immersive technology consisting of mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). All of them are an integral part of the metaverse.

Time to Move On

XR Association, a metaverse trade group, discusses in their report dubbed “Reality Check: Why the U.S. Government Should Nurture XR Development”, the importance of these technologies in driving economic growth. United States allies have already moved beyond its basic utility, gaming.

The technology is likely to become a multi-billion market by the decade’s end. Some US agencies foresee the benefits of the metaverse technology. The report writes, “It has also been designated a critical technology by both the National Science and Technology Council and the Department of Defense (DoD) because of its importance to national security and the economy.”

Despite the government’s acknowledgment of XR’s significance, the nation is still behind the curve. According to the study, “the United States has thus far not developed a strategy or institutional structure to nurture the XR sector. This failure puts the U.S. at a significant disadvantage and stands in contrast to other nations.”

Findings of the report assert that the government’s devised strategy for betterment using technology inspires actions from public and private sector investors. Countries like the U.K., China, South Korea, and more are already leveraging the technology to grow.

“The U.S. can learn from what other governments are doing to support innovation, protect users from harm, and build trust and predictability as the technology changes over time,” the study suggests. It also adds that the White House and Congress are collaborating on technological advancements to “build trust and provide predictability.”

Worldly governments are leveraging digital twins, virtual replicas of something existing in the real world, to solve complex problems. XR Association recommends the Congress to “empower U.S. government agencies to model how digital twins can be leveraged by the government to serve the public interest.”

According to KPMG International, one of the Big Four accounting firms, people could be spending more time in the metaverse by 2030. The company writes, “People will be applying for jobs, earning a living, meeting with friends, shopping, even getting married using the virtual capabilities of the metaverse.”

Nearly 400 Million users are using metaverse today, and half of them are aged 13 years old or below.