With this in mind, we recently surveyed a group of executives from leading gaming companies to gain their insights about the impact of and outlook for the metaverse. While many believe that the metaverse will eventually be pervasive throughout society, including in the business world and on social media, gaming has quickly become a first mover in this space. Video gaming is also on the verge of a major transformational shift due to the emergence of the metaverse - a shared, persistent, three-dimensional (3D) virtual realm where users interact with objects, the environment and each other through digital representations of themselves or avatars. Over the last five years in particular, it has experienced significant expansion as users worldwide play games of all types across a variety of platforms. Since its inception decades ago, the video gaming industry has grown with stunning speed. Gaming companies are entering a new dimension, no longer bound by place, time or physical reality.