Metaverse as an immersive world has got traction only in recent times. But as a gaming and PlayStation company, Gamitronics has tinkered with this world way back in 2014, working with big-tech companies like Microsoft to virtualize their physical spaces and to create employee avatars. Rajat Ojha, the CEO of Gamitronics and PartyNite, in a web interview with Analytics Insight, discusses what Metaverse will mean for the digital native generation in defining their online experience and its definite influence in transforming physical realities. Check out what the veteran of the video gaming and simulation industry has to say about his gaming companies and the Metaverse.

1.With what mission and objectives, PartyNite was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company

It's an interesting question because how many see it as Metaverse i.e. immersive world? We had been doing this since 2014 when we started working with a leading bank and then Microsoft to recreate their physical spaces, the key stakeholder avatars, and brought their employees/partners to that space. However, the metaverse definition evolved and hence the most accepted form of metaverse (immersive world with decentralization and creator's economy). We started working in Jan 2020 right before the pandemic. We not only saw but participated in events and birthday parties in games like Fortnite, Animal Crossing, Minecraft, etc, and felt like having dedicated spaces for parties. The pandemic happened and further ensured our vision about the future where Gen-Z being digital native, is becoming more and more global, spending more time inside the virtual world doing virtual things. Initially, it was just a hangout place where you can host parties, invite your friends, sing songs, design costumes, and meet strangers and become their friends or followers but the vision continued to expand, and now not just that, we have a thriving community, we have our own city where brands are coming and activating themselves so there's always something more for the community to experience and engage. With blockchain, an entire layer of trust is built which brands and users are using for sophisticated purposes as well.

2.How is PartyNite contributing to the AI/Big Data Analytics/Robotics industry?

PartyNite is a metaverse, a metaverse where you can track not only what you do, but also what you don't do and imagine the impact of the same on big data analytics. PartyNite goes beyond anything in the physical world with a unidirectional approach to events. For example, a real-world car launch will have limited space for people. CEO/designers show up and talk about the vehicle, the vehicle is brought onto the stage and a handful of people get to get their hands on it. On Youtube, there's no limit to the number of people but everything else is the same as the physical world. In PartyNite, there's no limit to people. When the concert happens, the CEO/designers show up and talk about the vehicle, and the vehicle is brought on the stage. Now, you can customize the vehicle the way you like it making your experience very personal and the brands can profile the users based on their choices and other info.

3.Mention some of the major challenges the company has faced till now.

The biggest challenge in the metaverse industry, in general, is achieving the scale both in terms of what you can offer in the persistent world and also how many users can be on the platform without crashing it. We witnessed a crash in our first event and had to do a few things immediately to bring it back but we fixed it once and for all now. There are many other challenges especially about creating awareness as there are so many definitions and so much abuse going around in the metaverse where anything in the immersive world is touted as the metaverse. So, educating the brands is equally a big challenge but we are happy to see that brands are very well aware now and raising their bars, constantly figuring out the best possible use cases.

4.What is your biggest USP that differentiates your platform from other metaverse platforms?

We are not just about an immersive world, we are a blockchain-based platform with playable NFTs instead of just regular images as NFTs. You participate in our world and more participation means more value for your playable NFTs. Another big USP is the real-time minting of NFTs which is an essential building block of our creator's economy. A few more layers are being added in the next few months which will completely differentiate PartyNite from every other metaverse out there.

5.How do you see the Metaverse industry in the future ahead?

Simply put, we see it as the operating system for Gen Alpha who are digital natives.

6.What does your technology and business roadmap look like for the rest of the year?

The current focus is to onboard as many brands as possible which will give enough possibilities for the community to come and engage on the platform. The audience won't come or engage or stay if there's not enough being offered on the platform. When we reach this phase, we will open land sales and construction tools to the audience. We are also working "secretly" on something to hook our audience to the platform for the next five years.

7.How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company's technology innovations?

It's a two-way process. We built PartyNite in a very modular fashion where most of the real-world things are created as separate modules. We introduce those tools to our customers and brainstorm about their pain points and intentions to be on the metaverse and work very closely with them on the storytelling part to fix those pain points. With the given toolset, we can recreate anything within a matter of days. Our background in the video game industry helps us immensely in creating stickiness which every brand wants.

8.What is your leadership mantra?

Don't work on anything that exists, always figure out what the future will look like and work towards making that happen. Also, don't speak about what you want to achieve rather work with the team to see it becoming the reality.