Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Kronos, and 33 other companies have formed the Metaverse Standards Forum to help build an open metaverse.

Companies are racing to develop the metaverse, the next generation of virtual and augmented worlds. With so many companies working to develop the metaverse, however, some were concerned about the shape it would take, whether it would be a unified space or whether different companies would develop their own version.

The group makes clear its members believe the metaverse should be built on open standards:

Multiple industry leaders have stated that the potential of the metaverse will be best realized if it is built on a foundation of open standards.

“The metaverse will bring together diverse technologies, requiring a constellation of interoperability standards, created and maintained by many standards organizations,” said Neil Trevett, Khronos president. “The Metaverse Standards Forum is a unique venue for coordination between standards organizations and industry, with a mission to foster the pragmatic and timely standardization that will be essential to an open and inclusive metaverse.”

The Forum is open to any company, university, or standards organization, free of charge. Interestingly, neither Apple nor Google are founding members of the Forum.

Founding members include 0xSenses, Academy Software Foundation, Adobe, Alibaba, Autodesk, Avataar, Blackshark.ai, CalConnect, Cesium, Daly Realism, Disguise, the Enosema Foundation, Epic Games, the Express Language Foundation, Huawei, IKEA, John Peddie Research, Khronos, Lamina1, Maxon, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAR Cloud, the Open Geospatial Consortium, Otoy, Perey Research and Consulting, Qualcomm Technologies, Ribose, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Spatial Web Foundation, Unity, VerseMaker, Wayfair, the Web3D Consortium, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the XR Association.