A metaverse for kids: LEGO and Epic Games teamed up to create a safe virtual world

The two conglomerates established a commercial alliance to guarantee a digital space dedicated to the well-being of its youngest users

Source: Stephanie Zucarelli

Epic Games and The LEGO Group announced the beginning of the development of a metaverse for children with the aim ofcreate a digital space suitable for all audiences and with the necessary tools to build a safe place within virtuality.

Although for now the alliance was formed as a concept , the «digital family experience» has the objective of establishing elements of creative tools and playful dynamics to share with younger users.

This means that the developer of Fortnite and the LEGO company aims to monopolize children’s digital experiences. Although they have not yet gone into details, the official statement highlighted that their ideasThey will prioritize child welfare, the protection of children’s privacy and that they will provide children and adults with all the necessary tools to understand how to develop their virtual experience.

What does a “metaverse” mean for childhoods? Although the term metaverse is being used as a synonym for the digital universe, it is actually a generic way of namingspaces where users can interact with objects and people through virtuality.

According to the concept proposed by Meta (Mark Zuckerberg’s company)Added to this is the use of a Virtual Reality peripheral, an avatar that represents people within a digital place and the ability to possess elements that only exist digitally (such as NFTs).. To differentiate it from other proposals, a special emphasis is placed on the fact that the digital identity of people could take on a weight similar to the reality that we already know.

The metaverse is not something that has surprised the video game industry: on the contrary, people like Phil Spencer (CEO of Xbox) , have declared that virtual communities have already existed for a long time in gaming and that even many experiences have offered a virtual meeting space for years.

The case of the new alliance of Epic Games with The LEGO Group is an advance of two titans of the gaming industry to conquer the public that has already convinced with the video games they have released for years.

“The LEGO Group has captivated the imagination of children and adults through creative play for over a century and we are excited to come together to build a space where the metaverse is a place where the metaverse is fun, entertaining and dedicated to children and families,” said Tim . Sweeney , CEO and founder of Epic Games .

To understand the proposal in more depth, it is possible to thinkin the mechanics proposed by Fortnite , the free-to-play game from Epic Games. The game as a service has built a space where players have a collection of cosmetic packages (which can be purchased with digital currency or its equivalent in real money), communicate with the avatars of people from all over the world and can form communities of game with your friends.

In addition to the base game and the playful proposals that are presented there, the online multiplayer has enabled digital concerts by artists such as Marshmello, Travis Scott, Lil Nas X and Ariana Grande , where anyone can participate while watching an avatar created specifically for them. shows that only exist in digitality.

It is more than clear that there are still no rules in the metaverse since the meaning of a digital commons has not yet been unified .Epic Games and The LEGO Group seem to want to propose themselves as the main competition to the Roblox and Minecraft experiences, ensuring that they can provide sufficient tools to protect the privacy of childhoods in advance and the spaces that allow the development of players (or meta-childhoods?) so that they take control of their own digital identity.