For video game enterprise pioneer Shurick Agapitov, the next revolution in media doesn’t necessarily lie in the metaverse, but in Internet sites that become interactive media sites for gaming and commerce.

Two of his video game characters came to life during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco last month.

The two figures that emerged from the virtual gaming sphere included Babka, a gaming grandma, and Nushi, the virtual cat Babka took with her on her time travels.

It was Nushi that stole the show when she appeared as a robotic quadruped in the South lobby at the Moscone Convention Center

Nushi was transformed into a robotic cat with the help of Salvatore Salamone, a renowned Hollywood creature artist notable for successful films like The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Avengers: Endgame.

Agapitov’s idea to bring the virtual characters to life is part of his vision to demonstrate the potential of interactive media and the expansion of gaming beyond the computer screen. Agapitov is the founder and CEO of two companies in the video game and Internet business, Xsolla and X.LA Foundation.  The first, Xsolla, was founded in 2005 as a gaming commerce site that allows video game producers to sell in-game items in exchange for a 5 percent portion of each sale. The in-game video items, such as digital costumes, enable video game users to enhance their video game experience when downloading video games.

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The Future of Online

Agapitov’s more recent venture is a video game creator monetization platform called X.LA Foundation. This platform rewards video game creators with a digital currency credit whenever someone visits their space. Agapitov expects this site to provide a platform for video game creators to produce Internet sites that provide a 3-D, interactive experience, for gaming, commerce, and other interactions, without necessarily having to use headsets or other specialized hardware as metaverse sites often require.

 “I envision the future through the Internet as a more spatial experience,” Agapitov told Design News in a recent interview. “In the future, you will be able to walk through the Internet. We want to be able to enable game developers to build Internet interactive media metasites to experience the digital world in 3D.”

Spencer Chin is a Senior Editor for Design News covering the electronics beat. He has many years of experience covering developments in components, semiconductors, subsystems, power, and other facets of electronics from both a business/supply-chain and technology perspective. He can be reached at [email protected].

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