Last year was full of milestones for the metaverse. The world's biggest companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft started publicly outlining their ideas for the metaverse and how we will interact with it. They were quickly backed by brands like Disney, Nike, and Adidas that started making big investments in the space.
2021 was also the biggest year for Ready Player Me and our avatar platform. Over 1,000 companies joined us on the mission to build an open metaverse—a big jump from 25 customers back in January 2021. We spent the year improving our avatar creator, adding new features, creating new tools for developers, and growing our library of customization options.
We have big plans for 2022. With a $13M capital from our recent Series A, we are looking to grow our team from 30 to over 70. We are also working on a new set of tools for creating custom content and monetization. But before we look into what's coming, let's look back at the last year.
Ready Player Me Hub and new compatible apps and games
We always thought about the metaverse as a network of thousands of virtual worlds rather than just one app or game. Our goal with Ready Player Me is to connect these worlds. We took a big step in that direction with the release of the Ready Player Me Hub. It lets you manage your avatars and import them to compatible applications, including:
- VRChat – the biggest social VR platform available on PC and Quest;
- Somnium Space – open, social, and persistent metaverse platform powered by blockchain;
- Animaze – stream or chat with your friends as an avatar;
- Summit Scramble – world's first immersive cross-platform web game;
- Mona – your personal virtual art gallery;
- DeepMotion – create 3D animations for your avatar without expensive mockup suits;
- Koji – add a 3D avatar to your Instagram or other social media accounts;
- House of Math – learn math with avatars
We are looking to launch thousands of new integrations this year, including Spatial, HiberWorld, and LMK. Stay tuned!
Express yourself in the metaverse with new outfits, hairstyles, and more
Our art team has been working hard on bringing new customization options for your avatars every week. We added hundreds of new outfits, hairstyles, masks, and other assets. We also added an option to tweak the shape of your avatar's face, nose, eyes, and lips.
We also got to partner with many amazing brands and artists to offer you even more free customization options, including:
- FeWo shoes, MetaJacket, and Cyber Sneakers from RTFKT (now owned by Nike)
- 3D Hashmasks offered by Maddie's
- Stillsuits from the Dune movie
- The official London marathon outfits from New Balance
- Hoodies from SideQuest
We also released the first premium collections on our platform: Charli Cohen's KaleidoDrip and Head5, co-created with deadmau5. We have more exciting projects like this coming soon!
New features for developers
Last year, we added plenty of new features and integration options for developers using the Ready Player Me avatars in their apps and games.
- Revamped documentation and GitHub repository with integration examples;
- Render API, which lets you create 2D images of avatars for profile pictures;
- Unreal Engine 4 Avatar SDK, joining the existing Unity Avatar SDK;
- WebView avatar creator for Unity mobile apps on Android and iOS;
- Shortcodes, which work great for VR apps;
- Optional language picker for the avatar creator with support for 11 languages;
- Optional texture atlasing;
- Improved selfie-based predictions for eyebrows and glasses.
More highlights from 2021 and plans for 2022
That's not all for 2021! Our website got a complete makeover. We launched the Ready For The Metaverse podcast, where we have already interviewed co-founders of SideQuest, LIV, and YUR. And our Discord grew to over 7,000 members.
We are excited about 2022 and the things we have been working on. Here's a sneak peek:
- Custom content creation tools that will let you add your own customization assets to Ready Player Me;
- Improved avatars with additional styles and body types;
- Monetization tools for developers based on in-game asset sales and NFTs;
- Improvements to our cross-app experience for end-users;
- Our first-ever NFT drops, including avatars for CryptoPunks owners.
We will be sharing more details on some of the things soon. Follow us on Twitter to be the first one to know.
Join us on the mission of building an open metaverse
We couldn’t be more excited about what’s coming this year. As always, we are open to working with companies who want to join us in creating the metaverse. If you want to add our avatars to your app or game, become our Partner today.
