This week, real-time 3D (RT3D) content creation platform and software development firm Epic Games announced that it will be partnering with video game developers Harmonix to create interactive music experiences for Metaverse platform Fortnite.
Founded 26 years ago, Harmonix is famed for its successful line up of music-rhythm games and accompanying hardware, including the massively popular Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises.
Now, the partnership with Epic enables Harmonix to translate its previous success with interactive music experiences and introduce that into Epic’s growing consumer-grade Metaverse platform, Fortnite.
Fortnite is an online multiplayer video game that sky-rocketed to success, thanks to its unique large-scale peer-to-peer gameplay. Due to Fortnite’s success, many firms are using the digital space to increase brand awareness among younger audiences.
News comes after, global popstar Ariana Grande held five separate digital live shows on Fortnite as part of the platform’s ‘Rift Tour’ concert series. This was part of Fortnite’s transition into a Metaverse platform that can accommodate more diverse use cases.
“Music is already bringing millions of people together in Fortnite,” said Alain Tascan, Vice President of Game Development at Epic Games. The VP added that:
“Together with the Harmonix team we will transform how players experience music, going from passive listeners to active participants.”
Furthermore similar social gaming platforms such as Robolox are working with popular artists like Lil Nas X and Zara Larsson to become a viable Metaverse platform.
Virtual Concerts
The announcement comes amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which saw many event organisers turn to Metaverse platforms to host live events.
Earlier this month, Justin Bieber partnered with Wave to host a browser-based virtual reality (VR) concert experience to promote the megastars upcoming real-life ‘Justice World Tour.’
Found in 2016, Wave is a browser-based VR platform that enables music fans to connect with Metaverse-enhanced communication abilities.
In addition, Australian music festival Splendour in the Grass partnered with VR events firm Sansar to faithfully reconstruct the annual event for fans.
The event hosted The Killers, Khalid, Chvrches, Charli XCX, and Grimes, who preformed as “Grimes Metaverse (Super Beta)” a digitised version of the popstar.
This year, Taiwanese tech firm and headset manufacturer HTC VIVE also took the virtual stage by introducing the beta release of Beatday an in-house VR events platform with integrated NFT and eCommmerce opportunities.
Epic Plans for an Enterprise-Grade Metaverse
At SIGGRAPH 2021, Epic Games announced that is had big plans to use ‘Unreal’ – its RT3D video game engine – to power enterprise-grade Metaverse solutions.
This news came after, the Cary-based firm fought in a heated multi-year legal battle with smart glasses manufactures Nreal.
According to Epic’s 2018 filling, the firm argued that the trademarks ‘Nreal’ and ‘Unreal’ were visually similar and could lead to confusion among mutual technology partners.
Although, earlier this year the US courts ordered Epic to pay all related court fees.
Despite this, Epic is marching forward with it Metaverse plans. Most recently, the firm entered a monumental partnership with Nvidia, Microsoft, and Cesium to create geospatial mapping and digital twins of key global locations.
In addition, Nividia included the Unreal engine software development kit (SDK) on its open ‘Omniverse‘ platform built for virtual collaboration.
