Meet Matthew Warneford, CEO and Co-Founder at Metaverse Gaming Studio: Dubit

Dubit was founded by a group of ambitious teenagers over 20 years ago. At the time, the internet was pretty boring and mostly made by adults. We wanted to make a place for teenagers to hang out, so we launched the first virtual world for teenagers.

Our world had customisable avatars, 3D spaces, games, blogs, and chat spaces. These are all the things we think about as part of the metaverse today. Luckily for us, it really took off; gained popularity, won a bunch of awards, and this was at a time when the internet was much smaller and slower.
 
 

 

What does the metaverse mean to you?

 
Let’s start by saying what the metaverse is not:

• Blockchain, VR or NFTs. Those technologies might be involved, but they’re not required for the metaverse.
• Games. There are games in the metaverse, but it’s not specifically a gaming destination. It’s a social space with music events, fashion shows, places to hang out, places to learn, and yes… games are a part of it. 

I often think the best way to think of the metaverse is as a “3D internet”. It’s not a perfect analogy, but there are many similarities. The metaverse is made up of 3D environments that are explored with an avatar. Like the internet, anyone can make a website and anyone can make a 3D environment in the metaverse. 

3D environments made by different creators can link together seamlessly. The internet is the same, any website can link to any other website, and (critically) there is no need to visit an app store before going to the linked website. This same seamless movement between 3D spaces is a requirement of the metaverse.  

My avatar is always me. Games expect us to play as the titular hero, whether Sonic, Mario, or Lara Croft. In the metaverse my avatar is me, and does not change when I visit a new 3D environment. To stretch the internet analogy, I don’t change identity when moving between Reddit and the BBC’s website.

The metaverse needs an economy that rewards creators. Similar to how internet entrepreneurs make life-changing, money-building websites, metaverse creators also need the means to generate income from their creators. Financial gain has driven innovation throughout time.
 

How do you fit into the wider metaverse?

 
We think it’s pretty likely the metaverse will have one billion monthly users in the next three to four years, and those users will be split between Web2 metaverses, like Roblox and Fortnite, and the emerging Web3 metaverses, like Decentraland and The Sandbox. 

This poses a tremendous opportunity for brands to reach and engage with an audience that is increasingly abandoning TV. Indeed, under 35s are watching 50-60% less TV than a decade ago. So, we help these brands create incredible metaverse experiences and reach the audiences that they can’t reach with TV. 

How do we do this?

The process is split into three working parts, including: the Production team who build the metaverse experiences for brands, the Platform team who provide brands with the tech to build their own experiences faster and allowing them to deploy these cross-metaverse in the future, and the Acquisition team who have built a scalable technology platform to drive millions of targeted players into branded experiences.
 

What can we hope to see from Dubit in the future?

 
Hopefully much more of the same. This year, we’ve given the BRIT Awards, Grammys, UEFA and Viacom their metaverse debuts with exciting virtual experiences on Roblox. Our pipeline for the rest of the year is brimming with brand projects that will be launching well into 2022 and beyond.

The best part is that our technology that powers these world-class campaigns will soon be made available for other studios to use. We’re very excited to reveal what we’ve been building!