Key take outs from SXSW 2023

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Key take outs from SXSW 2023

With more grandiose metaverse projects largely receding behind recessionary anxieties, SXSW 2023 (Austin, March 10-19) saw entertainment experts and institutions including Epic Games, Lego and Coachella discuss engagement strategies with immediate wins. Core debates centred on virtual native audiences’ preferences and practices – from gaming’s transmedia connections to humanity in the metaverse and at phygital events.

Here are our top take outs:

Gaming Goes Transmedia: Entertainment Crossovers

As Gen Z and Alpha’s favourite pastime, gaming accounts for the lion’s share of revenue in the global entertainment sector – a cultural clout paving the way for savvy transmedia integrations. HBO and Netflix are embracing adaptations, Sony Interactive is stepping up its social creator game, and music streamers are looking into building gaming-centric artist incubators.

Humanity in the Metaverse

Virtual natives are coming of age in well-established games like Roblox, which are often their primary online social space. Within these proto-metaverses, people connect through their own avatars. Many speakers discussed how creating digital bodies as diverse and versatile as our physical ones will be key in fostering belonging in future brand engagement.

Phygital Events: Online Communities at IRL Celebrations

In her 2023 Emerging Tech Trend Report, American futurist Amy Webb revealed that revenue for live events and theme parks in 2022 outpaced pre-pandemic levels. It prompted discussions from groups like Coachella about the value of engaging virtual natives and knitting together gigs and festivals with the online communities they nurture all year round.

Gaming Goes Transmedia: Entertainment Crossovers

As Gen Z and Alpha’s favourite pastime, gaming accounts for the lion’s share of revenue in the global entertainment sector (see Key Stats) – a cultural clout paving the way for savvy transmedia integrations. HBO and Netflix are embracing adaptations, Sony Interactive is stepping up its social creator game, and music streamers are looking into building gaming-centric artist incubators.

Riot Games’ Cross-Pollinating Narratives: In January 2023, gaming storytelling climbed into the mainstream when HBO’s adaptation of Californian studio Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us game became the prestige broadcaster’s second most-viewed show premiere ever (behind House of the Dragon).

Tomorrow’s most immersive story worlds will originate in gaming’s interactive landscapes. Take US giant Riot Games’ League of Legends, already the most-watched esports title in the world. It has expanded beyond gaming with projects like Netflix’s Emmy-award-winning animated series Arcane (season two is expected in late 2023) “to let our players share this world with people who don’t play”, as Riot Games’ director of social, entertainment, Cindy Tang, explained.

Sony Enlists Celeb Playmakers as Culture Curators: In early March, Sony PlayStation reshaped its approach to cultural tastemaking with the PlayStation Playmakers programme, a network of celebrity brand ambassadors who are also passionate gamers. Day one included basketball icon LeBron James (who inaugurated the partnership with his own PlayStation accessories), comedian King Bach, country musician Jimmie Allen (all American), and Brazilian YouTuber Julio Cocielo.

“These stars also have great stories to tell about gaming,” said Kosi Egbuta, PlayStation’s global celebrity, athlete and influencer partnerships director.

It’s time to broaden our understanding of what gaming is and the role other media play in building its worlds.

2K Games’ Music Incubator: In-game soundtracks often become cultural touchstones for player communities. During a panel on Artist & Music Discovery in Gaming, German streaming platform SoundCloud and US developer 2K Games discussed 2K Beats: The Search, a campaign to support upcoming artists. According to Shauna Alexander, SoundCloud’s vice-president of global partnerships, it was based on research revealing that 30% of Gen Zers discover new music via video games, and 70% of its users identify as gamers. The initiative invites musicians to upload their songs via SoundCloud for a chance to be featured in basketball title NBA 2K’s seasonal soundtracks.

Following over 10,000 submissions to 2K Beats: The Search, 2K Games’ new scheme NBA 2K Producer Series sees established music producers like Canada’s WondaGurl upload beats and invite aspiring rap vocalists to perform their best rhymes on top. Participating producers will pick their favourites for distribution across 2K’s gaming and social channels, as well as possible inclusion in future game soundtracks.

Humanity in the Metaverse

Embodiment in the Betterverse: Building Inclusive Virtual Worlds

“Reality is relative – virtual lives are an extension of the self.” Catherine D Henry, SVP, Web3 & Metaverse Strategy, MediaMonks

Virtual Lives, Real Sentiments: “The phenomenon of contemporary online gaming boils down to people wanting to spend time with other people,” said Brooklyn-based gaming researcher and investor Joost van Dreunen.

A touching example of this happened on March 17, when American actor Lance Reddick, who had voiced a central character in online multiplayer title Destiny 2, died suddenly. To pay their respects and console each other, players visited the in-game residence of Reddick’s character en masse, hugging or simply sitting silently side by side all around the virtual site.

“It’s not a virtual memory just because it is experienced in a virtual world.” Kristofer Crockett, Global Brand Director, LEGO

Interfacing with Metahumans: Focusing on the avatars needed to guide people in upcoming online spaces, in the session The Digital Humans are Ready for Their Close Up, American filmmaker Alton Glass (part of the team who created a virtual model of Martin Luther King Jr for Time magazine’s exhibition The March) talked about MetaHuman. The creation tool by Unreal Engine now makes it possible for anyone to create photo-realistic virtual humans, which can be animated and directed for film and interactive. Audiences are already receptive to virtual beings, especially in Asia-Pacific markets.

Nars Cosmetics’ Diverse Virtual Ambassadors: “Fashion and beauty brands have an outsized role in early metaverse experiments. This is an extension of what they do best,” Maghan McDowell, Vogue Business’s senior innovation editor, said in a panel on Humanity in the Metaverse. It explored how companies’ design choices can steer virtual experiences towards inclusion.

Critiquing TikTok’s Bold Glamour filter, which ‘perfects’ people’s faces in line with common western beauty standards, French label Nars Cosmetics’ recently introduced Power Players team of three virtual influencers. Named Maxine, Sissi and Chelsea, each has an individual look, personality and career. It features ethnic diversity and inclusion of a plus-sized body among the trio – an admittedly low bar to clear, but a considerable improvement on the fairly uniform beauty standards seen among current virtual influencers.

“Any role that requires interacting with a customer will have an AI avatar as a first touch point – just like companies now have social media accounts.” Futurist & Founder, WAYE

Neurodivergent Accessibility Guardrails: Kay Sargent, senior principal architect at New York firm HOK, stressed a dire need for metaverse design guidelines regarding creating accessible experiences. “We need to build spaces where people want to be, not tell them this is where they have to be,” she said, reminding attendees that virtual spaces are not barrier-free to everyone. For instance, they can present huge challenges to people with cognitive or neurological conditions, including (but not limited to) ADHD and epilepsy.

Phygital Events: Online Communities at IRL Celebrations

Coachella’s Virtual Brand Extension: During a panel on XR Innovation in live events, executives from Coachella and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine shared how last year, they used mixed reality (MR) production tools to build Coachellaverse, an immersive pre- and post-sales It was created to “extend the brand beyond the event”, as Coachella producer Eric Wagliardo put it. Remote fans had access to avatar fashion items and listen-along radio stations on social gaming platform Fortnite, and geolocated Instagram augmented reality (AR) filters generated over 100,000 uses in Los Angeles, Rio, Tokyo and London.

Those at the physical event could use the Coachella app with AR wayfinder features to navigate the festival grounds. And in 2022, tickets came with non-fungible-token (NFT) ‘seeds’ that blossomed into virtual flowers at the start of festival weekends. Some surprised owners with special flowers that unlocked VIP upgrades or tickets for the 2023 edition.

“Utility is essential. If your NFT could have been an email, don’t do a [...] NFT.” Rachel Noonan, Chief Strategy Officer, Forward Studio

AR Broadcasts Add & Diversify At-Home Value: Part of Coachella’s digital strategy is additional value for millions watching from home. To that end, it exclusively enhanced the YouTube livestream of Australian DJ Flume’s 2022 performance with AR graphics. AR cockatoos, palm trees and abstract floating objects formed a complex visual landscape, animated to react to and reflect upon the onstage performance in real time.

While these broadcasts are still enjoyed on standard 2D screens, adding digital (and optional) layers to live footage is a huge gain for businesses, according to Erik Beaumont, head of MR at Los Angeles agency The Famous Group. The firm was behind the National Football League’s 2020 Nickelodeon AR broadcast, which received over two million views across all channels. “XR [extended reality] creates a unique moment for a brand to present itself within the context of an entertainment environment,” he said.

Flume x Coachella, AR Concert

Gorillaz’ Geolocated AR Concert for Roaming Revellers: On December 17 and 18 last year, UK band Gorillaz (whose members only show up as virtual beings) hosted live AR concerts in New York City’s Times Square and London’s Piccadilly Circus. They appeared as building-sized avatars around the cityscapes on fans’ smartphone screens. The concert demonstrated how phygital events can insert magic into everyday locations.

Key take outs

Leverage Gaming’s Prosumer Communities

Social gaming platforms have given rise to bustling communities where people co-create their own interactive experiences. This crowdsourcing spirit makes gaming audiences a prime target for creative incubation. Take note of 2K Games and Soundcloud’s music discovery programmes, and use gaming’s multimedia needs as a platform to find, elevate and celebrate new talent.

Prioritise Accessibility Over Spectacle

If the metaverse isn’t designed to be inclusive to all, we will exclude those who might need it most. The unlimited possibilities of virtual creation are tempting, but don’t forget to keep people with cognitive and neurological needs front of mind.

Integrate Digital Identity & Physical Events

The friends, experiences and avatar outfits people are gathering online now matter as much to their sense of self as physical interactions. If you’re planning any live in-person events this year, add virtual companion spaces that include digital merch, broadcasts and social hangout zones to extend/expand the experience.

Thank you for reading.

Opinion, 7 min readLindie KramersApril 6, 2023IgnitionComment