Bringing Virtual Worlds to Life
Digital Spaces in Flux
March 26, 2026
Virtual worlds are often grouped under the term “metaverse.” They are evolving into central infrastructures of digital transformation. Within them, physical and digital information merge to create new environments for work, learning, and development. Whether in product development, communication, or training, these spaces are fundamentally transforming processes and opening up new forms of value creation.
In addition, a specialized database of practical knowledge from XR and the metaverse is being created to serve as a structured knowledge base. It brings together practical insights, methods, and use cases, making them systematically accessible to businesses, research, and development.
This development is driven by technologies such as extended reality (XR), digital twins, game engines, VFX, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity. At the same time, barriers to entry are falling: High-performance XR hardware is becoming increasingly available and cost-effective to use.
Market Dynamics and Reality
The economic potential is considerable:
- up to 1–5 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide by 2030
- in Germany, a potential contribution of up to 66 billion euros to GDP
At the same time, many companies lack concrete, transferable use cases.
Source: Bitkom (2025), pp. 12–13
Making Practice Visible and Knowledge Accessible
This is where Bayern Innovativ comes in. The goal is to systematically document real-world applications from virtual worlds and make them accessible, across all industries and with a practical focus.
The platform brings together XR and metaverse projects from industry, medicine, education, design, communication, and culture. It demonstrates how these technologies are actually being used and what added value they generate:
- new business models and value creation strategies
- efficiency gains for small and medium-sized enterprises, for example in maintenance, training, or remote collaboration
- virtual product development and optimized processes
- accelerated innovation cycles through digital twins and collaborative environments
- new forms of experience, interaction, and communication
The cultural and creative industries play a key role in this: Many of the technologies used have their origins in gaming, 3D design, and VFX and are now being applied in industrial contexts.
Source: Goldmedia (2024), VFX, Animation, and Gaming Industry in Baden-Württemberg
Collaboration with the VDC Fellbach
For this platform, Bayern Innovativ uses the Business Case Register of the Virtual Dimension Center (VDC) Fellbach, an existing, curated database for XR applications. The database is being developed in close collaboration with the VDC Fellbach, whose Business Case Register represents a curated collection of real-world XR applications that is continuously maintained by expert communities.
Through its integration into the Bayern Innovativ platform, a growing, supraregional knowledge infrastructure for virtual worlds is emerging, featuring concrete, verifiable real-world use cases.
Get Involved and Gain Visibility
Have you implemented an XR or metaverse application?
Companies and creative professionals are invited to submit their own XR and metaverse applications.
Every registered business case contributes to a shared understanding of how virtual worlds are used today and the innovation potential they hold for the economy and the creative industries.