Ready Player Me, a site dedicated to simplifying virtual reality (VR) avatar creation using user photos that can be imported into various popular social VR apps, recently partnered with brands such as New Balance to bring those products to users’ virtual avatars. This is not their first brand deal as they have partnered with fashion designer RTFKT to offer users new wardrobe options for their avatars.
This partnership is Ready Player Me’s push to integrate and expand its avatar system into the VR ecosystem by creating an application hub this past July that simplifies connecting avatars to various applications. In an interview with VRScout, Timmu Tõke, CEO of Ready Player Me, described that his vision is to push social VR around the individual rather than the platform or metaverse itself. “Right now, big tech companies seek to take ownership of the metaverse, which we hear about on a daily basis. However, we are interested and believe in an ‘‘open metaverse’’, a more democratized version of the space where ownership becomes less relevant… We believe that avatars can be the connecting point for the metaverse and that they will make it more accessible.”
As social VR and/or the metaverse becomes the focal point for companies and users, it’s important that users can explore other platforms and not feel locked into any one platform. Users wanting to try out Ready Player Me’s avatar creation system can do so at their website for free and can even download their avatar for use on other platforms.
