The spatial internet future

And what games and brands need to do

The Apple Vision Pro is being heralded as the inflection point that the VR/AR/XR market has been waiting for, before the device has hit a single consumer’s eyeballs. Given Apple’s propensity for changing the world with new device categories, this might be a viable prediction (NB: the iPod came out 22 years ago this month). But even before the Vision Pro, and even separate from the more immersive experience that VR/AR bring, the spatial web has been a looming category and, with or without Apple, its time might be nigh. 

What’s the spatial web? I think Gabriel Rene sums it up nicely here: The power of the Spatial Web initially comes from its ability to describe the world in the language that the world speaks to us in — geometry. 

It’s a concept that means that spaces, assets, and people can interact more seamlessly, in a more naturalistic way, than the 2D web. Consider one of the current standards of the internet right now: the infinite scroll. You wind up on a homepage and it has you continue scrolling down to reveal more about the brand or product. That’s kind of weird. In the real world, your journey of discovery would be moving forward in a space, not you staying static while something slides down in front of your face. In the real world, you can turn your head and see what’s behind you as a reminder of what you passed. On the web, you have to scroll back up, losing the “peripheral” view of what’s in front and on the sides of you. It just leaves a lot of visual real estate, calls to action, and information under utilized or hidden.   

Obviously, gaming has had 3D spaces for 43 years, but the goal of the spatial web goes a bit further in integrating 3D content into the physical world in a way that recognizes and responds to the space you’re in. For example, I would want to view an AR browser window “on top of” my desk, while in the background I could see a subway train schedule balanced on the couch arm. In this way, I’m using the 3D space as a proxy for what is important to me (work is upfront, subway schedule in the back). This is compared to what we have now: maybe the subway schedule is taking up space on the same screen, or otherwise it’s hidden as a window behind the main window. Kind of inefficient. 

Regardless of how it’s used, the spatial internet is already pushing the boundaries of technology in ways that are meaningful to gaming and brands right now. Add in the benefits of the blockchain, and we could be on the cusp of a major new categories and way of navigating our blended digital/physical world. 

Gaming and the spatial web

For games, some of the technology underlying the spatial web lets more powerful graphics exist inside the browser. This has been the long-promised idea behind game/pixel streaming, a segment that gamers have so far rejected as unnecessary. But with the early phases of the spatial internet, we’ll need the ability for graphics-intensive games to exist inside of lightweight applications without bogging down the amount of information that a device like the Vision Pro will need to process every second. The benefit? In the meantime, with these required innovations comes the opportunity for games to leverage in-browser gaming; if not for full gameplay, at least for the most robust and playable game ads ever. For example, imagine scrolling along a website and then being instantly inside a visually stunning 3D game, playing the first 10 minutes of a new title. Even without an extended reality/immersive space, this would be compelling. 

Like game streaming, however, taking gaming into a fully interactive, immersive 3D space a la VR has also had trouble gaining traction amongst gamers who 1) didn’t want to buy an extra, expensive device; 2) didn’t like wearing a heavy and sweaty headset for extended periods of gameplay; 3) felt that the games they most wanted to play weren’t VR capable anyway. There was also the fact that VR closed off the rest of a players’ world—no ability to see their phones and easily multitask in between rounds, or reach for a drink or snack without taking the headset off. Contrary to many developers’ beliefs, it seems that progressively more immersive (at the sake of spatial awareness) gaming may not be what players want. The spatial web, however, is inherently about a two-way interaction between physical and digital. 

Another Apple innovation, AR in the iPhone, allowed for games like Pokemon Go, which has been a perennial favorite and top performer. It’s clear that players enjoy the idea of integrating the real world with their gameplay, maybe more-so than cutting off the real world for the sake of gaming. The Vision Pro and the spatial web will let all of this happen in the same space: a browser or game client to your left, your text messages to the right, maybe all of it overlaid on your living room. 

It could be that the spatial web is rallying a confluence of innovations from lightweight but robust game streaming to AR in a way that might make for the killer app we’ve all been waiting for. For game developers, the nice thing is that there may not be huge changes required just yet. If I can turn to and play a game in a browser (or perhaps game client) window while simultaneously interacting with other windows and items, that could be novel and enjoyable enough. Where developers go from there, however, is endless. Net new gameplay that integrates a player’s physical space, other windows, and more. For example, I could imagine a hidden object game where the clues could just as easily be behind a physical item in my room (like a picture frame) as they could a digital window in my view (like a browser frame) that I discover throughout and in the midst of the work day. 

Interaction with assets

Now, if the spatial web is recognizing and adapting to the space that I’m in, it’s natural to expect it to recognize and adapt to who I am as a consumer: what I like, what I own, what I do. Spoiler, this is where the blockchain comes in. 

A device like the Vision Pro, and the interactions I have across multiple media within it, requires a comprehensive understanding of my digital assets, accounts, and footprint. If I’ll have the ability to see and interact with multiple digital ecosystems at once, it’s a given that I’ll want to be able to leverage assets and accounts in one space and virtually “throw” or carry them into another. For example, if I’ve bought a Taylor Swift concert ticket, I may want to “pick up and insert” that ticket to access an early streaming release of her tour documentary on Netflix, Minority Report style. To say nothing of the grand goals of interoperability, where I may take my virtual avatar as he walks around Fortnite in one screen and literally move him into a 3D chat room somewhere else. Same identity, same outfit, same character, different environment. 

It’s simply not scalable or ergonomically pleasant to expect this to happen with tedious private server account connections, browser cookies, or any traditional web2 infrastructure. It just won’t happen. Using web3, the spatial web unlocks the ability for assets and identity to navigate the collective physical and digital spaces without barriers. 

For creators of physical collectibles or goods, this is inherently helpful. Having an on-chain “digital twin” of a physical item means that I could, for example, pick up a plastic toy in my room that has a recognized digital equivalent and then leverage that item in virtual worlds easily and instantly. 

Brands in the spatial web

For brands, the spatial web is an opportunity to do what all brands want: gain entry into our homes and be present in as many IRL and virtual spaces as possible. Brands have already used AR and VR for many applications, like virtually “feeling” what a first-class seat on an airline is like, or digitally placing a couch in my living room before I buy it. The spatial web, particularly with web3, continues to extend the reach of their knowledge of and access to us beyond the browser or social platform. This infinitely connected world also lets brands serve ads and offers that transcend single ecosystems. 

But because the spatial web is a two-way road, it also lets users take their physical and digital spaces, assets, and selves, into branded ecosystems to be rewarded. It’s another reminder that brands more than ever need to think like game developers. The bar has been raised so that it’s no longer ok for a brand to passively look at a cookie and tailor a website to me solely based on my browsing beforehand, or merely serve an ad or shoot me an email. The spatial web means that I can more seamlessly enter worlds (and have worlds enter my physical surroundings) that are hyper tailored to me and my space. What could this mean? A brand could recognize the midcentury modern aesthetic of my home, notice that in the Sims I prefer to buy frameless art rather than framed, and offer me a virtual overlay of a Mad Men-style unframed canvas that I can test on my walls. 

Regardless of whether Apple cracks another new consumer category with the Vision Pro (which, at its launch price and unit availability, it’s unlikely to do in the short term), the spatial web is quickly becoming less of a buzzy futurism concept and more of a viable platform shift that requires planning. For game developers and brands in particular, the opportunity to use entirely new interactive modalities and the larger interconnected web3 base, is large. Even before tackling this using new devices, innovators can look to some of the in-browser applications and begin to test and delight users at scale.