CES 2022 attendee photographs every weird use of 'metaverse'

A picture outside of CES 2022 convention centre showing a building with Metaverse City branding
(Image credit: Nima Zeighami)

"One of my oldest friends recently told me that from now on I’d be his ‘Metaverse Guy’. This was horrifying to me because despite hearing people say ‘like the metaverse’ for years, I still had no idea what exactly it meant in the real world. One trip to CES made it super clear to me: it doesn’t mean anything. It’s an empty buzzword that can mean anything the marketer wants."

That's what Nima Zeighami tells me following his enormous Twitter thread photographing every mention of the word 'metaverse' at CES 2022. He travelled to the major tech show this year to meet people, experience the latest tech, and help with his role of technical product manager for immersive products—focusing in AR/AR/Lightfield tech—and what he found was a whole lot of 'metaverses'.

MCity doesn't sound as fun as it should, though. First you've got to go through land registration, then what, virtual tax? A virtual economic collapse? No, couldn't happen.

So what does a metaverse boil down to, ultimately? I've visited a music festival in VR, a social event with areas to explore and a shared social experience, and I've massively enjoyed it, too. Clearly there is far more to do in VR and AR than just gaming, and social applications are a good use of the tech. But do these have to be labelled as a metaverse? Is VR Chat a metaverse? Is Second Life a metaverse? Do we need the term metaverse at all, or were we getting along just fine before it was ever popularised with terms such as 'VR', 'AR', and 'the Internet'?

"Everyone thinks the metaverse and VR are somehow tied together," Zeighami says. "I think if there was a true 'metaverse', all sorts of devices would be able to connect to it at different times. Phones, laptops, VR headsets, AR headsets, 3D displays, etc. And it would have to be open and fully interoperable. You know, the same way that the Internet is."

I think 'metaverse' is just a new marketing buzzword for the Internet.

"I think 'metaverse' is just a new marketing buzzword for the Internet. There’s no value to using a new word since VR, AR, and 3D already work (nearly) perfectly on the current Internet. I think the people being marketed to simply don’t know that," Zeighami says.

That's the same conclusion our own Wes Fenlon came to when he didn't mince his words on the metaverse late last year.

Within that definition comes shades of grey: some companies have seemingly leaned entirely into the concept of an actual 'metaverse', throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks, while others may actually have some interesting tech that's been slathered in 'metaverse' from top to bottom. We're used to hardware companies spitballing concepts left and right for attention at CES 2022, so you can hardly blame anyone for trying—but let's call a spade a spade.

One such company in the Zeighami's thread is UnlinkVR, a company that specialises in laser-powered wire-free virtual reality. Is that a metaverse device? No! It's a VR device. Does it sound like a decent idea? Hell yeah, I'd give it a go.

Virtual reality

(Image credit: Valve)

Best VR headset: which kit should you choose?
Best graphics card: you need serious GPU power for VR
Best gaming laptop: don't get tied to your desktop in VR

The point is, this is not necessarily a strong indictment of the companies that use the term lavishly, or their 'metaverse' product. Though some do look a little out there. More so it's an indictment of the wildly misused and misunderstood term itself. 

A chunk of these CES 2022 booths are advertising to build VR apps, experiences, and interactive models. That's cool, it's just not a magical interconnected wonderland where people go shopping in a virtual supermarket to buy food for their virtual house and clothes for their virtual kids, and where they watch virtual movies and play virtual games with their virtual friends wearing skins made in Fortnite. It's fine that it's not that, VR/AR/3D experiences are great, I've been saying that for years, but they can definitely be better, be more inviting, more engaging.

But major tech shows, such as CES, do love a buzzword after all, don't they? 

Jacob Ridley
Managing Editor, Hardware

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. He joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor before becoming managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll now find him reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.

Read more
A Meta Quest 3S, alongside a Quest 3 and Quest 2, on a stack of PC Gamer magazine.
I'm still waiting for a high-end VR headset good enough to make me ditch my Quest 3
Mark Zuckerberg pretends the metaverse is cool
The metaverse could be a 'legendary misadventure,' Meta executive says, if Reality Labs doesn't turn things around in 2025
A digitally generated image of abstract AI chat speech bubbles overlaying a blue digital surface.
We need a better name for AI, or we risk talking past each other until actually intelligent AGI comes home mooing
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., wears Orion augmented reality (AR) glasses during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. Meta Platforms Inc. debuted its first pair of augmented reality glasses, devices that show a combined view of the digital and physical worlds, a key step in Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's goal of one day offering a hands-free alternative to the smartphone.
Meta's Orion AR glasses still have no 'killer use case' but want devices to hang out on your face, on your wrist, and now in your pocket too
Wilderness with trees
PUBG creator Brendan Greene swears his infinite, mega-ambitious digital universe isn't like all the others: 'I want to build a metaverse because I don't think anyone else is'
The best VR headsets from Meta on a grey background with the PC Gamer Recommends badge in the upper right corner.
Best VR headset in 2025: my top picks for stunning virtual reality experiences
Latest in Hardware
A Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice on a desk and installed in a gaming PC.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice SFF review
A late afternoon view shows two young women walking past a wall-sized anime mural along Chuo-dori (Central Avenue) in the Akihabara district (known as Electric Town for its maze of electronics stores, but currently considered an almost sacred destination by members of Japan's otaku culture, drawn to Akihabara's video game centers, maid cafes, anime shops, and manga comics), located in Chiyoda Ward in central Tokyo, Japan.
OpenAI's GPT-4o model gets image generation update for all of your anime-style selfie needs
A Nacon Rig Streamstar M2 microphone on white gravel, shot in 3/4 profile
Nacon Rig M2 Streamstar review
1X Technologies humanoid robot, the Neo Gamma, standing alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang is wearing an ERL-made studded leather jacket.
Humanoid robot Neo Gamma gifts Nvidia CEO a studded leather jacket and may even be able to one day wash up a cup without dropping it
Razer Blade 16 (2025) gaming laptop
Nvidia RTX 5090 mobile tested: The needle hasn't moved on performance but this is the first time I'd consider ditching my desktop for a gaming laptop
A woman wearing a VR headset with dramatic, colourful lighting across the background
'World’s smallest LEDs' could lead to accurately lit screens with 127,000 pixels per inch and much more immersive VR
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'