No, it's a popular term that has gained a lot of usage in the last 2 years[0] coined in Snow Crash in 1992[1]. You might not have heard it but if you read a lot about tech or follow the right people on Twitter (often intersected with crypto and NFTs in particular) it would've been hard to miss it[2].
The concept dates back to at least the novel Snow Crash, if not earlier. Not sure if the term was coined back then too, but just do a quick search. The tech press and a lot of the industry have really been pushing it hard lately.
I'm pretty up to date on what trends and fads are happening in tech: this is the first I've heard of the term "metaverse".
> It's attracting attention - and money - from some of of tech's biggest names, such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Epic Games' Tim Sweeney.
Sounds like by "some" the mean "two". Or are Zuck & Sweeney just backing VR and as clueless about this new metaterminology as I am?
This reminds me of the attempt 2 years ago to rebrand AR&VR collectively as the even more confusing "XR".
It's just VR. Call it VR. And it's not a new trend, VR undergoing a resurgence for some time now.