Gaming tech to serve as biggest driving force for metaverse

A new S&P Global Market Intelligence report has found that gaming technology will be the biggest contributor to aiding the metaverse's evolution.

This is because AR and VR hardware allows users to engage in virtual world in and outside of work.

The newly published 2023 Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) Industry Outlook is part of S&P Global Market Intelligence's Big Picture 2023 Outlook Report Series.

Noted in the new report are the implications of the metaverse in gaming and the enterprise, with data centre sustainability becoming an increasingly troubling energy crisis, as well as the rise of fintech as a service.

Further, S&P's report looks at video streaming competition and broadband transformation as disruptive forces in 2023.

"The foundational shift of the global economy to a digital footing, a shift that has been underway for over a decade and accelerated during the pandemic, continues," says Eric Hanselman, Chief Research Analyst for TMT, S&P Global Market Intelligence.

"This is creating enormous opportunities for new value creation and disruption."

The report highlights that AR and VR device adoption will undergo steady growth over the next five years as big tech companies underline the hardware's potential as a conduit to the metaverse.

At the end of 2021, S&P Global Market Intelligence estimates there were 28.5 million AR and VR headsets installed globally throughout consumer and commercial settings. It forecasts that base to grow to 73.6 million by 2026.

In addition, the global energy crisis could push data centre operators to test and install new equipment faster than expected.

While hyperscale data centres garner attention due to their size, S&P Global Market Intelligence's models indicate that cloud deployments can be up to 80% more efficient than typical enterprise IT deployments.

Moreover, the fintech as a service sector is building traction in attracting venture capital, with private startups in this sector raising over $5 billion since the beginning of 2021.

The report also finds rising inflation and the cost of living crises to be a contender, potentially forcing consumers to cut back on their streaming subscriptions, which in turn could prompt the group chasing Netflix and Disney to focus on profitability over scale.

Additionally, by 2030, the amount of residential households paying for TV content is anticipated to slip to 51.2% globally, down from 57.7% in 2021.

Lastly, the number of fixed broadband subscribers globally is forecast to hit 1.13 billion by 2023, exceeding the 1.09 billion traditional pay TV subscribers for the first time.