Metaverse forecast to be deployed in 700 cities by 2030

Despite very few implementations today, technology intelligence firm ABI Research expects around 700 cities to have deployed some form of metaverse infrastructure by 2030.

The analysis finds that these deployments will often be extensions of existing urban digital twins.

Dominique Bonte, Vice President, Verticals & End Markets at ABI Research, said: “Though the metaverse is undeniably overhyped and steeped in vagueness, the urban context offers interesting value-generating use cases and applications, ranging from seamless interaction of citizens with e-government services, virtual tourism, smart infrastructure design, planning and development, and urban workforce enablement and enhancement.

“This is especially important in complex urban environments which are challenging to design, maintain, explore, and engage with.”

He said that benefits for city governments include “gaining political capital through enhanced citizen engagement and participation” and significant cost savings related to more efficient and effective urban infrastructure design, operations, and maintenance.

The research says that “the urban metaverse will also play a critical role in making cities net zero and circular”.

Bonte explained that the underlying digital twins layered with augmented and virtual reality could enable advanced modelling, simulation and analysis for use cases such as assessing the carbon storage capacity of green infrastructure, tracking carbon outputs, and managing carbon credit systems.

First movers

There are some early movers in the city space, including Seoul, which has launched its own municipal metaverse.

Tampere, Finland has set out ambitions for the metaverse and recently launched a ‘metaverse vision’ for 2040, in collaboration with The Metaverse Institute.

Tampere’s Executive Director, Teppo Rantanen, told Cities Today: “We think it’s something where we will be able to combine virtual reality and the ‘real reality’ in a way that helps our citizens to live their lives better and find that everything works better in a city.

“There are a number of things happening right now and we think that rather than looking at some isolated tests, we should be looking at the holistic view. We are on a journey.”

Rantanen believes cities have an important and proactive role to play in the ethics of the metaverse, building on the work some have done around AI and data.

“We should be the ones who are beginning to look at understanding what the metaverse really means for our people and for our citizens,” he said.

ABI also highlighted the Rome Advanced District (ROAD) project, which focuses on the development of new energy supply chains.

The research firm said that urban metaverse technologies are centred around generating immersive 3D experiences by combining digital twins; augmented, virtual and mixed realities; avatars; AI; cloud computing; and mobile devices.

With companies in these fields such as Disney, Unity and Electronic Arts on its doorstep, the City of Orlando in Florida is pitching itself as the physical centre for metaverse development, led by the Orlando Economic Partnership. Mayor Buddy Dyer said he supports the initiative and even gave his December 2022 State of Downtown address ‘in the metaverse’ via EngageXR’s platform.

Dead on arrival?

Some reports have suggested that enthusiasm and investment in the metaverse are already waning, even from Meta which in 2021 changed its name from Facebook to focus on the concept.

In March, Elizabeth Haas, Senior Advisor and leader of the Metaverse Collaborative at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, argued that much of the analysis overestimates the importance of Meta and underestimates the long-term commitments of major firms “across sectors that see the value of the metaverse”.

She added that while R&D budgets will suffer in difficult macro environments, she doesn’t believe confidence in the importance of the metaverse itself has been weakened or that top companies have stopped experimenting.

“I am bullish – the ecosystem is already robust with gaming and social media,” she said.

A report published last year by the National League of Cities (NLC) also urged cities to play a role in helping to shape the metaverse.

Lena Geraghty, Director of Sustainability and Innovation at the NLC, told Cities Today at the time: “The metaverse is definitely the new buzzword in a long list of emerging technology buzzwords, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile for city leaders to get familiar and comfortable about what it could mean for their communities.

“The metaverse has real potential to improve city services and the lives of residents if deployed well. For that to happen, city leaders need to be at the forefront of the conversation.”