From Sifted.eu, February 9:
Sweden is among the countries betting big on the metaverse. According to Dealroom, following the UK and France, Sweden has pumped the most money into the tech out of European countries over the past decade.
But what the metaverse actually is — or what it might become — is still very much up in the air. Nevertheless a growing cohort of companies are betting on the tech to transform their business operations and keep them at the forefront of innovation.
From H&M’s promotion of sustainability in the metaverse to PostNord training staff virtually and Mercobank mulling 3D banking, Swedes across every sector are dipping their toes in. Sifted chatted to the experts to get a better idea of the catalysts, possibilities and hurdles to overcome.
A match made in the multiverse?
For Katarina Brud, director of MobilityXlab, a mobility and connectivity collaboration hub, Sweden’s thirst for the metaverse is natural in the pursuit of innovation.“It’s in Sweden’s nature to be innovative and collaborative. As a result of that, we’re early adopters of new tech and innovations”
“It’s in Sweden’s nature to be innovative and collaborative,” she says. “As a result of that, we’re early adopters of new tech and innovations.”
This is echoed by Benoit Gendron, CEO and cofounder of LatenceTech, a 5G monitoring platform. Swedish startups, Gendron says, are “born global” — and knowing the market in their home country is limited, their thinking is “global from the get-go”.
Daniel Wilén, managing director at Arctic Game, Northern Sweden’s game industry cluster, adds that Sweden has specific experience.
“We have a tremendous technical background but also a creative background, which is what the metaverse is a combination of,” he says. “And Sweden has players in every part of the ecosystem”.
Is gaming first?
For Jasmeet Sethi, head of Ericsson’s ConsumerLab, the metaverse’s first frontier is obvious: gaming.“There’s no doubt that gaming as a sector is the first reference point and early version of the metaverse,” he tells Sifted. “From a tech point of view that sector is a little bit ahead, and that’s where Sweden has had a lot of experience over the last decade.”....
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Possibly (soon-to-be) related at the Los Angeles Times, December 27, 2022:
Why is a Swedish billionaire buying up California’s video gaming empire?
KARLSTAD, Sweden — Like so many on-screen action heroes, she was elbowed aside when newer stars appeared and started grabbing more viewers with bigger weapons, better special effects and more elaborate adventures.
That’s when Lars Wingefors spied an opportunity and swooped in.
Earlier this year, the little-known Swedish billionaire bought the rights to British archaeologist Lara Croft and the vehicle that turned her into a household name. After debuting 26 years ago, “Tomb Raider” went on to become one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, spawning lucrative spinoffs and movies starring Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander, before faltering as bigger games and mobile apps appeared and gaming moved away from its core teenage male audience to young girls, college students and families.
Wingefors’ company, Embracer, purchased “Tomb Raider” from San Mateo-based Crystal Dynamics, along with the rights to dozens of other game titles and development studios belonging to its parent company in May for $300 million — spare change in the $220-billion worldwide gaming industry. The goal? To buy relatively cheap, remake, relaunch and profit big.
In a matter of years, Embracer has snapped up hundreds of game companies, publishers and intellectual property rights from Los Angeles to Mumbai, allowing Wingefors, its co-founder and chief executive, to quietly build Europe’s biggest gaming group. Today, Embracer is a $5.7-billion publicly traded company headquartered here in Karlstad, Sweden — Wingefors’ sleepy hometown of 65,000 people, about 160 miles west of Stockholm — and owns more video game studios than any other corporation in the world....
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