Almost anything can now be delivered via an ‘as-a-Service’ approach, giving customers more flexibility and a consistent cash stream. Firms could someday use a similar strategy to install the Metaverse, resulting in Metaverse-as-a-Service, or MaaS.

Instead of acquiring a lifetime or perpetual license, Software as a Service, or SaaS, is a subscription-based model for using software platforms. The word was initially used in a 1985 file by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and it gained popularity during the cloud age.

The Metaverse’s Definition

The Metaverse is a network of interconnected 3D virtual worlds that allow users to participate in a social economy modeled after real life. You may buy and sell items on the spatial communications platform, earn money, create friends, build brands, and work with your colleagues.

The Metaverse is envisioned as a decentralized space built on blockchain technology controlled by no single entity. It aims to replicate the democratic nature of the actual world in a digital setting.

Author Neal Stephenson coined the term Metaverse in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. With the rise of multiplayer world-building games like Second Life, Minecraft, and Roblox, it progressively acquired prominence in the technology sector.

Decentraland took the concept a step further by developing a metaverse platform that allowed users to trade in MANA, the company’s own money, to buy real estate and digital items in virtual reality.

After rebranding as Meta Platforms in 2020 and announcing a $50 million investment in its development, Facebook increasingly touted Metaverse as a revolutionary tech force.

As more firms enter the Metaverse space, such as Microsoft, Samsung, NVIDIA, HTC, and others, soon markets will have a Metaverse-as-a-Service (MaaS) offering that allows companies to profit from the technology with lower hurdles to entry.

What Is MaaS?

MaaS is an enterprise solution that enables businesses to build and strengthen their presence in a 3D virtual environment to support collaboration, business operations, investments, cryptocurrency, and other related use cases.

Significantly, MaaS will not assist businesses in creating their Metaverse analogs to compete with Decentraland or Roblox. Instead, it will allow companies to benefit from the current Metaverse infrastructure, just like SaaS.

What is Metaverse “MaaS”

Although MaaS is still a new technology, it has already attracted several providers:

Metaverse is a Service Examples

Lovelace In October 2021, World Lovelace, a cryptocurrency and NFT platform, unveiled a MaaS solution. The startup already has its cryptocurrency token, LACE, and plans to offer MaaS services to help people adopt the Metaverse.

The company will assist businesses in evaluating and reimagining their virtual reality product and service capabilities to compete in all areas.

It provides a MaaS toolset that allows developers and users to produce and trade NFTs, run smart contracts, monetize VR gaming, and interface with other metaverse platforms, among other things.

MaaS should be a Propel

Propel is a blockchain solutions platform that provides Metaverse infrastructure plug-and-play technologies. Propel has stated that it would offer MaaS solutions for smart contracts, NFT utilities, and decentralized finance. The company is new. Thus complete specifics have yet to be published (DeFi).

It will provide enterprises with end-to-end tech stacks for developing blockchain-based apps such as Ethereum, Polkadot, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

The company is raising funds for its cryptocurrency token, $PEL, via an Initial Hot Cross Offering (IHO), which works similarly to Initial Currency Offerings (ICOs).

Touchcast

Touchcast is a Microsoft Azure Cloud-based 3D and VR event startup. It introduced MCity at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022, where it announced its MaaS service. Organizations can register for the a.metaverse domain, which will provide them access to a protected virtual reality arena where they can create metaverse campuses.

They can facilitate cooperation, hold events, establish virtual reality stores, hold instructional sessions, or leverage virtual real estate to support business growth in the Metaverse.

The platform is powered by NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, and Accenture’s services to give businesses a complete MaaS offering. Currently, MCity is in an invite-only beta stage.

MetaVerseBooks

MetaVerseBooks is a MaaS company that provides tools for creating virtual reality worlds, NFTs, and managing decentralized applications (dApps).

Companies can use the solution to improve their visibility on Microsoft’s XBOX Metaverse, iOS and Android-based platforms, and any Unity-based VR environment.

Its principal product allows businesses to manage NFT buyers and associated metadata. The Starter Edition of this MaaS solution costs USD 10,000.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Metaverse as a Service

• Using MaaS has several advantages:

Metaverse goods can be developed by companies with little or no digital experience or competence. Small and medium-sized firms can engage in the Metaverse economy without significant capital costs.

• It stimulates investment in a technology that is still in its infancy. 

Most platforms are still restricted to consumer use cases, and alternatives like Meta’s Horizons suite of apps or Microsoft Mesh have yet to be widely adopted. MaaS helps businesses invest and profit from technology with minimal risk in this environment.

MaaS could eventually promote industry standards, with a few corporations functioning as Metaverse ‘brokers’ to aid infrastructure development.

On the negative side, firms may be in danger of vendor lock-in. It will become increasingly difficult to move MaaS investments to another platform as the metaverse advances, especially if you lack the essential digital skills.