Harsh reality crashes into the metaverse | News

Tens of thousands of people from the technology world descended on Las Vegas this week to see electric cars that double as gaming hubs, live-streaming ovens, even a self-driving pram.

Away from the intriguing offerings, however, one concept lurked in the background: the metaverse.

Steve Koenig, of the Consumer Technology Association, an American trade body that runs the CES conference, said this year there would finally be “substance forming around this trend of metaverse”.

He was careful to add a caveat. “Any dialogue around metaverse is very likely to be met with scepticism,” he said. “And that’s OK, because we’ve seen no shortage of marketing spin. The metaverse as a term is still a speculative one.”

As the largest annual tech conference came to an