It’s genuinely happening, our legends and superstar heroes are coming back to life, only this time in the metaverse with a hyperrealistic VR concert hosted by Meta. In a breaking announcement, Facebook parent company Meta has revealed that a ‘hyperrealistic’ avatar of late rapper Notorious B.I.G. will take center stage at a VR concert to take place during the festive season in December.
The “celebratory news” comes at a controversial time after news broke that Meta laid off more than 11K employees in an effort to stay financially afloat while the company’s VR ventures continue to underperform. A bit of sugar-coating a severe public out lash, we cannot help but feel happy and sad at the same time and ponder if this is Meta’s attempt to bring users back to the struggling platform.
Hyperrealistic Avatar Notorious B.I.G. to “revive” underperforming VR ventures in a virtual metaverse concert
The upcoming concert will take place in Meta Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR platform meant to compete with rivals like AltspaceVR and VRChat. The platform has played host to live events in the past, but with this latest concert and the late superstar rapper as the headline will be the largest event yet to take place in a VR-landscape. The news is sure to outperform anything to date, but will it reconcile the errors made that lost Meta most of its credibility in VR competing market?
Despite being one of the early pioneers of VR as Oculus, Meta has made a series of missteps in the last year that have diminished many VR fans’ confidence in the company. From raising the price of the Meta Quest 2 headsets by $100, to what many see as a failed launch of the Meta Quest Pro, the company has managed to dull much of the enthusiasm that users had for the brand and new tech which, potentially, can harm the idea and susceptibility of VR in general.
In an attempt to rectify a decreasing reputation, The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s the limit: A VR Concert Experience event might be Meta’s last trick up its sleeve to drive social and pop-culture demand back to the company. As mentioned before, the event will premiere on Meta Horizon Worlds on December 16 and will feature the late rapper’s most-famous songs in an immersive environment created especially for the show.
Longtime collaborator Sean “Diddy” Combs will perform in the show with Biggie’s avatar alongside other rappers, but details on how they’ll combine the real and digital artists have yet to be revealed. Users interested in checking out the surreal event will be able to view the performance on Meta Quest headsets, and can now RSVP for the event at Oculus.com.
In a statement about the upcoming virtual concert, Biggie’s mother Violetta Wallace shared her excitement about the late rapper’s fans being able “to experience him in ways unattainable until now.” Besides the disappointment from gaming fans of Oculus headsets, for fans attending the Notorious B.I.G. concert could be a great way to belatedly celebrate what would have been the late rapper’s 50th birthday this year.
As we wait in anticipation to see if the execution of the immersive event would be as good as the concept itself we worry that the shift of attention of many VR fans to Sony’s upcoming headset would overcast this unique musical event that might be the savior Meta has been waiting for.
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