Improbable, a British company, wants to create enormous virtual worlds and change the MMOs. The developer’s dream is to transform the MMO shooter Destiny into a virtual world where millions of people can be online simultaneously.
“If one day 100 million or 1 billion people are in a virtual world together, then that world stops being a game and becomes its own country,” says CEO Herman Narula in an interview with Gamesindustry.
With the Spatial OS technology, Improbable aims to power such massive virtual worlds, where millions of individuals can coexist, experience, and embark on adventures. His dream is to work with Bungie and make Destiny something huge.
1 Billion Dollars in Worth – Massive Virtual Worlds are the Goal
It sounds like a pipe dream, but it’s far from it: Narula is no dreamer, but an entrepreneur, and his company is worth one billion US dollars.
Narula’s company Improbable received an investment of 502 million US dollars from a Japanese company, which acquired less than 50% of the shares with the money. According to market laws, his company is valued at over 1 billion US dollars, making it one of the hottest start-ups in Britain.
The deal brought Narula nationwide attention. We reported on the company’s technology “SpatialOS.” In principle, it involves representing vast virtual worlds by having many microservers work simultaneously to create this world, allowing a player to interact in this world without noticing when they switch from microserver to microserver. This would be seamless.
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If the technology works, it could even impact the real world. Such gigantic simulated worlds could also be used to simulate our real world and conduct “infrastructure simulations.” This type of thing is also practically possible and quite game-like. However, the founders of Improbable are passionate gamers, and so gaming is prioritized.
MMOs in the “Nuclear Winter” – Technology Disappoints Players
If MMOs and games utilize this technology, it would eliminate the technical limitations that MMOs currently face: Many games restrict the number of players in a world and the size of that world. With SpatialOS, enormous worlds with thousands of players simultaneously would be possible.
Narula’s mission is to end the “nuclear winter” in MMOs. This arose because technology set limits, while players had different expectations. They wanted a larger world with more people than the industry could deliver. The new technology could fulfill these desires.
A Living World in an MMO Needs Many Players
A living world cannot be created with instances and scripted content, says Narula. While that is important, for the world to come alive, players must fill it with their own gameplay systems.
Currently, Improbable is mainly working with medium-sized companies, helping them to create vast worlds. With large companies, it always takes time for them to decide to invest in a new technology.
The CEO Dreams of a Partnership with Bungie for Destiny
Narula is a big fan of the MMO shooter Destiny and dreams of the day and the things that a partnership with Bungie would bring: “That would be something absolutely worth implementing one day.”
But all this won’t happen anytime soon. Narula makes it clear: We are not there yet. We have a vision that we are executing. We believe in it. It will take time.
But apparently, this vision is already worth half a billion dollars to investors.
Live Healthier if You Want to Experience This Future!
Mein MMO says: At least we players have something to look forward to with such technology. Such “large worlds” with at least hundreds of players simultaneously were normal 15, 20 years ago: back then, the graphics were horrendous.
Today, the worlds have been ruthlessly trimmed down to boost graphics and performance. Destiny in a huge world with thousands of others at the same time – a universe that truly comes alive: that is a future many dream of. Good to know that someone is working exactly on that.
We should all pay attention to our health, behave, and occasionally eat some vegetables, hoping that we will experience this.
Read more about the technology, which games are already using it, and what they are planning here:
