A theoretical metaverse could do a lot of things, but the one thing that made the metaverse economically attractive was essentially becoming a new virtual space

A theoretical metaverse could do a lot of things, but the one thing that made the metaverse economically attractive was essentially becoming a new virtual space for brands to sell. And the excitement for Meta specifically was that they'd get to collect tolls on this new virtual space via hardware and owning the largest properties. The latter hasn't panned out, but we're seeing the former happen more and more: it's just not as centralized as fantasy versions were. Fortnite is probably the most successful metaverse at this point, but you see things like Call of Duty placing limited release EVs from GM and famous anime characters being sold as DLC. Now Prime Video has characters showing up Mortal Kombat as paid extra content, and you're sure to see more and more of these crossovers as brands start to accept the legitimacy of fully immersing their brands in virtual worlds instead of settling for the typical "in-game billboard reference".