Cloud platform Oorbit partners with music metaverse firm Pixelynx

Pixelynx has invested in and partnered with interactive cloud platform Oorbit to create a cloud-based streaming metaverse for music and entertainment fans.

The two companies have partnered to create high-quality, streaming metaverse experiences using a browser. Oorbit provides the cloud streaming technology, and its usual business is to enable players to experience high-quality games, events, interactive media, marketplaces, and more from best-in-class content partners through browsers. Oorbit hosts more than 500 games now.

The partnership will aim to create new interactive experiences that can be accessed across connected devices. And in this new world, companies like Oorbit will be providing metaverse services, not web services.

Oorbit is a new type of cloud-based interactive platform with interoperable high-quality games and virtual worlds, said Ash Koosha, CEO and Oorbit cofounder, in an interview with GamesBeat.

“What we do is focused on changing and transforming the current sort of models on the web into something that people broadly call the metaverse,” said Ash Koosha, in an interview. “I think there is there’s space for a new web. And the technology we built is suited for this now.”

Until now, the company has used its cloud streaming technology to deliver entertainment such as games on the web.

“And it seems like it’s time to run something else on the web because the internet is much better and computers much better,” Ash Koosha said. “We see the metaverse as the next web, as a place for people to go similar to the web, [but the metaverse] currently lacks native infrastructure and native applications and protocols and standards.”

Fans will be able to engage with interactive music experiences from leading artists that have been created on the Pixelynx music metaverse platform.

“At Oorbit we strive to identify the best companies with top building skills and communities to pair with our platform,” said Ash Koosha. “We are very particular about who we work with and Pixelynx is working on some of the most exciting and groundbreaking sets of experiences for both musicians and consumers. We’re excited to see what they do next on Oorbit.”

Pixelynx has secured partnerships with a global network of artists, labels, IP holders and brands. The company was founded by iconic music visionaries and technologists Joel Zimmerman aka Deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin along with a number of music and gaming veterans from Activision, EA Sports and Microsoft.

“In testing the Oorbit platform we were instantly impressed with their approach to cloud gaming. The Oorbit team shares our vision of launching new formats that fans can access anywhere without the need for high-end devices. This partnership will help give artists a new canvas where they can design triple-A quality experiences using the Pixelynx platform and distribute them on the web using Oorbit cloud streaming technology,” said Inder Phull, CEO of Pixelynx, in a statement.

Pixelynx also invested in the latest fundraising round from Oorbit which features other prominent backers including Mark Cuban, HOF capital, Shima Capital, LD Capital, Visary Capital, Betaworks Ventures, Giphy’s Alex Chung and former Square Enix CEO Mike Fischer among others.

“Through Pixelynx’s experience in developing worlds and our partnership, we will be testing new content formats, delivery and scaling while keeping the user experience at the core of our focus,” said Pooya Koosha, CTO and Oorbit cofounder “Our goal is to achieve a cloud-native experience format that can cater to all new digital creators and communities of all sizes.”

Oorbit has basically built hosting servers for the metaverse, tapping into graphics processing units (GPUs) in datacenters to deliver real-time graphics for games and virtual worlds on a platform that is cheaper than other cloud platforms, Ash Koosha said. The company also built client technology.

“We were able to basically build the browser for the metaverse, and when we say browser, it’s almost like a menu to all worlds and destinations of the metaverse but also it is a browser,” Ash Koosha said. “And the reason we call it the browser is that the current browsers that are web browsers are not and should not be sufficient for the metaverse. The metaverse needs its unique, native browser that runs protocols and compute and APIs that are designed for the metaverse.”

In a demo, Ash Koosha showed me the browser running on Google Chrome. It was hosting different games that have been built by developers that Oorbit works with. It has built a standalone browser for the metaverse.

“Compute has to shift its focus from the old models to the new,” Ash Koosha said. “So that’s where we are. We’re the bridge where, for the first time, the old compute has to be repurposed. And server farms around the world have to be repurposed for the metaverse. And many companies will emerge that will be parallel to us doing that. But I think it’s time to accept that challenge that there’s a scarcity around compute and chips.”

Pixelynx is a new gaming venture that is based in London and Los Angeles. It is building a music metaverse that will transform the way artists connect and engage with their fans through gaming experiences. Its first mobile game, Elynxir, will be released later this year.

Oorbit said it is building the infrastructure for the metaverse and its ecosystem, making the future of digital entertainment accessible for all. Proprietary technology opens the door to limitless, high-quality interactive worlds where people can move seamlessly between streaming experiences with their unique digital identity with no downloads or extra hardware costs.

Web3?

Using Oorbit’s cloud platform, companies can create interoperable digital items that work across the different game or entertainment worlds. A piece of clothing designed by a fashion house can work in a game with characters who can wear the items.

“You can take an asset, for example, that was built by any fashion or clothing company and take it into different games or into a space based on a sort of fashion studio in LA,” Ash Koosha said.

Oorbit itself doesn’t make content. Rather, it makes hosting tools and the browser for consumers to use.

Ash Koosha believes that the economy of the metaverse will be different from the economy of the web, as decentralized technologies will bypass the big tech companies that have erected tolls for the Web2 applications. Distribution might happen, for instance, on smart TVs instead, and those TVs should be equipped with a metaverse browser, Ash Koosha said.

“We think that will be a large part of how we’re going to distribute. And it’s going to be a native metaverse browser for all TVs in the future. Also, we work heavily with network companies in the U.S. to get the compute closer to the edge on a hardware level, where the Wi-Fi is actually super close to the metaverse,” Ash Koosha said.

The browser will also have the ability to mint non-fungible tokens as needed.

“We provide the hosting and the browsing experience for the consumer,” Ash Koosha said. “The competition here long-term is Apple and Google. What they have been able to lock in is the App Store model, which we will change. Our monetization is completely different. And it benefits all sides. And it’s not built on hardware monopoly, obviously,” Ash Koosha said. “It’s a different approach for all developers and all consumers.”