VICE launches specially designed virtual Metaverse offices

In a statement, Vice Media Group explained that it would begin to house employees in the offices to ‘serve as a launchpad for digital field research into the sociology of digital communities’.

VICE has already helped other brands find their footing in the Metaverse, which remains a relatively new and young marketplace. Given the company’s already well-established footing in this space, it makes sense to create a dedicated headquarters.

Web 3.0 – the next iteration of the internet – is predicted to push a particular emphasise on virtual reality spaces, where users can interact via avatars and digital buildings. As the unsettling, robotic Mark Zuckerberg outlined in a recent Meta announcement, more and more companies are investing in crypto, virtual worlds, and the Metaverse.

Take Nike, for example, who recently acquired RTFKT, a digital design studio, in order to produce trainers specifically for different online worlds. Trippy stuff.

VICE’s interest in the Metaverse should serve as an example of how mainstream this phenomena is becoming. It may seem like uncanny valley to many of us, but serious money can be made through NFTs, virtual spaces, and online digital branding that transcends the physical realm.

Before long we’ll likely see Metaverse assets crossover into real life products. Think NFT bonuses for specific physical items – like sneakers, foods, or trading cards – or specially created digital tokens inside video games. In fact, that last one is already in the works by some studios.

There are many potential concerns within this space, given its infancy, but we won’t have a well-rounded understanding of them for a while yet. For now, we’ll be sitting on the side-lines, morbidly curious as to the consequences.

Who knows, perhaps we’ll have a Metaverse Thred office before long. Crazier things have happened.