Here’s what happened in the Metaverse news this week.

Facebook Gaming buys Unit 2 games

Facebook Gaming announced the purchase of Unit 2 Games, the game studio behind Crayta, a Roblox-like game creation platform. According to Crayta’s website, the company wants to grow the game and the community with the help of Facebook, and hopes to bring its game to as many people as possible so that they can create, play and share games.

Coach partners with Arlene to present Signature City

American luxury brand, Coach and Arlene collaborated to create “Signature City,” an immersive shopping game experience that includes retro 3D designs, social interactions, product shopping and other interactive elements. “Signature City” was launched on TMall.

Khalid, the Killers, Grimes and Charli XCX to headline Splendor XR virtual music festival

music Festival XR Splendor The virtual edition allows users to create virtual characters, interact with other festival-goers, and walk around a simulation of the festival grounds. The event features live performances from big names such as Chvrches, Pink, The Killers and Grimes Metaverse (Super Beta). Scheduled for July 24-25, Splendor XR can be experienced on mobile devices, computers, or a virtual reality set for a full VR experience.

Neil Blomkamp’s New Film Includes Volumetric Video

Demonic, a supernatural horror film produced and directed by District 9 Director Neill Blomkamp incorporated volumetric video into the film. Blomkamp has teamed up with Volumetric camera systems, which participated in the production where dozens of different camera arrays captured over 400TB of footage. Some of the volumetric video can be seen at the start of the movie trailer and could signal some interesting things to come about how Hollywood will incorporate volumetric capture and video into future productions. Demonic will be released in August.

Voice’s new NFT residency seeks to empower creators

Voice, an NFT platform for emerging creators, announced a new NFT residency. Voice has collaborated with leaders in the arts and culture including Kimberly Drew, Alexander Gilkes, Misan Harriman, Brittany Kaiser, Chad Knight and Azu Nwagbogu. The goal is to join creators with real fans by bringing them together to create and connect. The NFT residency will collectively build and create NFTs on the theme “Raise our voice”.

NTWRK to launch live purchases from NFT

NTWRK, a mobile video shopping platform that combines entertainment and commerce, will introduce an NFT extension in its platform. According to the company, this expansion happened because NTWRK studied its audience, finding that 35% own a digital wallet or crypto holdings, and 10% have already purchased an NFT. NTWRK hopes to match digital NFTs with physical objects creating a value-added experience.

Hour One seeks to optimize the customer service experience

Hour one announced its partnership with ALICE Receptionist June 3. ALICE Receptionist, a visitor management solution technology, will use photo-realistic avatars and video technology to automate receptionist tasks, delivering an optimized customer service experience with multiple languages ​​and dialects suitable for different markets. The new avatars will also help businesses enforce Covid-19 health and safety policies for visitors entering an office or building.

Jerri Ellsworth’s Tilt Five advances

Tilt five, a California-based company that engages gamers in tabletop games and video games in shared 3D holographic environments has launched its Developer program. The goal of the program is to nurture skilled PC, mobile, and VR / AR game developers and bring games to the Tilt Five system. Anyone in the world can apply to the program with Windows or Android games, both single and multiplayer games, ideally completed or delivered games, and other requirements. Here’s a preview video the company shared this week to announce the program.

MLB moves from collectible cards to NFTs

Major League Baseball Launches NFTs With New Company, Digital candy, chaired by Fanatics President Michael Rubin. Candy Digital will launch baseball NFTs in the Ethereum Blockchain, where fans will be able to buy, collect, view, and trade MLB NFTs. On July 4, he will be available to bid the first MLB NFT: a Lou gehrig to collect, honoring his ‘Luckiest Man’ speech when he retired after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Auroboros innovates at London Fashion Week

Auroboros is a science / technology fashion house created for the physical and digital worlds to be presented at the DiscoveryLAB at London Fashion Week on June 12. The company will present a Biomimicry collection of 14 digital-only ready-to-wear pieces. Auroboros plans mixed reality experience with physical models wearing digital clothes and works with Institute of Digital Fashion to create billboard in London introducing augmented reality fitting experience using Snapchat technology .

Rick Ross Goes Cryptocurrency With World’s First Automotive NFT

Rapper Rick Ross teamed up with abstract artist and luxury car designer Rich B. Caliente to customize a 2021 Porsche 911 Carrera. NFT management company Slash Dot has launched the NFT which includes not only the digital asset but also the real world car. Porsche 911 NFT is auctioned off at the Bitcoin conference in Miami starting June 4, with part of the proceeds going to South Florida Irie Foundation which supports the health and social needs of children in South Florida.

Sotheby’s presents the digital copy of the London gallery to Decentraland

Sotheby’s announced on Friday that he was working with the Decentraland metaverse on a virtual gallery. The gallery is a digital replica of Sotheby’s London New Bond Street galleries. Michael Bouhanna, Sales Manager at Sotheby’s, said: “We see spaces like Decentraland as the next frontier in digital art where artists, collectors and viewers can engage with each other from anywhere in the world. the world and present a fundamentally rare and unique art, but accessible to all for viewing ”.

This edition of Metaverse Weekly was created with the help of Rob Crasco.