ChainCatcher news, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China recently jointly issued the "Action Plan for Steady Growth in the Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry 2023-2024," proposing the implementation of the "Action Plan for the Integration and Development of Virtual Reality and Industry Applications (2022-2026)." It aims to seize the strategic window period, enhance the core technological innovation capabilities of the virtual reality industry, and continuously enrich virtual reality smart terminal products. The plan deepens the organic integration of virtual reality with industrial production, cultural tourism, and integrated media, conducts a collection of typical virtual reality application cases and industry matchmaking activities, and promotes the in-depth and practical development of the virtual reality industry.

ChainCatcher news, Wu Jincheng, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, stated during the "2023 Shanghai Livelihood Interview" program that in order to enhance citizens' sense of gain and experience, this year they will collaborate with relevant departments to focus on creating super scenes in the metaverse. For example, "Yuan" on the Suzhou River, constructing a digital twin scene around the waterfront landscape of the Suzhou River, moving over 20 excellent historical buildings along the 21-kilometer stretch of the Suzhou River "to" the cloud, and synchronously presenting real-world information based on various sensors along the riverbank, achieving real-time rendering of the metaverse space and interaction between the virtual and the real. In addition, Shanghai will also build super scenes in the metaverse such as a metaverse smart hospital, the Qiantan East Body Metaverse, and Zhangjiang Digital Twin Future City. (source link)

ChainCatcher news, according to informed sources, a U.S. court has approved Meta Platforms (META.O) to acquire the virtual reality startup Within Unlimited. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, denied the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) request for a preliminary injunction in a sealed ruling. However, the judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing Meta from completing the transaction within a week, allowing the FTC time to decide whether to appeal.According to previous reports, last July, the FTC sued Meta, claiming that the acquisition of Within would give Meta a competitive advantage and help it establish a monopoly in the virtual reality market. (Jin10)

ChainCatcher news, Binance's official blog released a summary of the AMA held on January 14. In response to the question "Is there a plan to build a Binance metaverse? Will it be powered by BNB?", Zhao Changpeng stated that if Binance were to build a metaverse, it would definitely be supported by BNB. However, since they are (not yet) game builders and do not have a game development team, he would prefer to invest in other virtual reality or metaverse games.Binance's product head Mayur Kamat mentioned that there may be more "metaverses supported by Binance" this year. (source link)

ChainCatcher news, Web3 and virtual reality game developer Thirdverse announced the completion of a $15 million funding round, led by MZ Web3 Fund. The company's total funding amount has now reached $33 million.Other institutions that have previously invested in Thirdverse include 8DAO, B Dash Ventures, Double Jump.tokyo, Fenbushi Capital, Flick Shot, Holdem Capital, Kusabi, OKCoinJapan, Yield Guild Games, and OKX Ventures.It is reported that Thirdverse plans to release at least 10 Web3 games by 2023 and is currently recruiting more game developers to expand its development team. (source link)

ChainCatcher news, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Radio and Television Administration, and the General Administration of Sport of China issued the "Action Plan for the Integration and Development of Virtual Reality and Industry Applications (2022-2026)." The development goals include, by 2026, the continuous improvement of the industrial ecosystem. The overall scale of China's virtual reality industry will exceed 350 billion yuan, with virtual reality terminal sales exceeding 25 million units, cultivating 100 backbone enterprises with strong innovation capabilities and industry influence, creating 10 regional influential clusters that lead the development of the virtual reality ecosystem, and establishing 10 public service platforms for the industry.The plan points out that, focusing on key sub-fields such as near-eye displays, rendering processing, perceptual interaction, network transmission, content production, compression coding, and security and trustworthiness, it aims to enhance the intrinsic capabilities of "virtual reality +", strengthen the deep integration of virtual reality with new generation information technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and digital twins, and overlay the empowering capabilities of "virtual reality +". (source link)

Chain Catcher News, at the 2022 World Artificial Intelligence Conference themed forum ------ Exploration. Industry Metaverse Forum, the "White Paper on Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC)" co-authored by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and JD Exploration Research Institute was officially released. At the forum, the preparation work for the "Virtual Reality and Metaverse Industry Alliance (XRMA)" led by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology was initiated, which has currently attracted nearly 200 units including Huawei, Baidu, Qualcomm, Telecom Research Institute, SenseTime, and others, covering key aspects of the metaverse ecosystem such as virtual humans, immersive audio and video, key components, infrastructure, business platforms, and innovative applications. (Daily Economic News)