Starbucks Sets up Virtual Coffee Shops on Roblox — Just Don’t Call It a Metaverse
Roblox and Starbucks have shifted away from metaverse terminology. | Credit: Stephen Chernin / Getty Images.
Key Takeaways
- Starbucks has opened four virtual coffee shops on Roblox.
- The company’s previous metaverse experiment, Starbucks Odyssey, was wound down earlier this year.
- Roblox has moved to distance itself from the term Metaverse.
The metaverse concept was always difficult to define. The generally accepted definition is that it involves virtual reality (VR) and digital worlds. But with its glory days as tech’s hottest buzzword now behind it, the term metaverse is being phased out by the very same platforms that helped popularize the idea.
Roblox perfectly encapsulates this trend. Once the poster child for metaverse buzz, Roblox has moved to distance itself from the word, as have brands like Starbucks that it works with.
Virtual Coffee Shops
Coffee shops and Cafss have been a staple of virtual worlds for years. Being a model environment for the kind of laid-back sociality such digital realms are meant to embody. Proto-metaverses like Second Life and Habbo Hotel were full of them.
In the VR era, coffee shops have popped up on platforms like Roblox, The Sandbox, and Decentraland.
Back in 2022, the world’s largest coffee chain jumped on two of the biggest technology bandwagons of the day with Starbucks Odyssey, “a new experience powered by Web3 technology” that would integrate NFTs and “immersive coffee experiences.”
Of course, Starbucks Odyssey wasn’t the only project that blended NFTs and virtual environments. The union of Web3 and metaverse technologies is a core component of The Sandbox and Decentraland. However, for Starbucks, the initiative failed to attract customers, and in March this year, it was shuttered for good. But now, the company is back with another attempt.
Starbucks on Roblox
For its second attempt at immersive reality, Starbucks has teamed up with Dubit–a metaverse-building company that helps brands launch virtual experiences on various platforms.
The new Roblox-based coffee shops have many of the same features as Starbucks Odyssey, including immersive retail experiences and a combination of online and offline rewards.
The biggest difference is in how the new venture is described. Considering Roblox doesn’t support NFTs, it is hardly surprising that ‘Web3’ is out. In place of NFTs, virtual prizes take the form of Roblox UGC (User Generated Content) items. But what about the metaverse?
Roblox Distances Itself From the Metaverse
Announcing the new partnership with Starbucks, Dubit CEO Matthew Warneford invited Roblox users to “Come visit and enjoy a virtual coffee in our virtual third place.”
A virtual third space sounds a lot like Starbucks Odyssey. But Warneford didn’t mention the metaverse at all.
This quiet killing of a buzzword that defined immersive experiences just two years ago can also be reflected in Roblox’s own shift away from the term.
In an interview last year, Roblox Head of Sport Tian Pei explained that the platform is deemphasizing metaverse language to distinguish itself from the crowd. “We’re not talking about the metaverse,” she said, “we’re talking about UGC.”
For Roblox’s brand partners, UGC is about being able to customize virtual experiences without being associated with the metaverse. The distinction is important because, thanks to The Sandbox and Decentraland, the public has come to associate NFTs with Metaverses, even though platforms like Roblox never embraced blockchain or user ownership in the same way.
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