Microsoft revealed on Tuesday that it would pay $68.7 billion for Activision Blizzard, a game company. With this, Microsoft will overtake Tencent and Sony as the world’s third-largest gaming firm by revenue. The acquisition is also considered a significant step forward for the metaverse.
Why is gaming seen as an entry for companies into the metaverse?
Metaverse is the next phase in the evolution of the internet for most software and social media giants throughout the world. Though there are several definitions for metaverse, the simplest explanation is that it is a virtual world where people’s avatars or online identities can interact.
This means that, rather than only watching or listening to content on the internet, people may be immersed in it, creating content in real-time for others while simultaneously experiencing it.
Games would be one of the first and most important applications of this. Games in which players can team up with others from all over the world over the internet, for example, will become more engaging. Rather than selecting from a list of pre-defined characters, players can create their own avatars that look just like them.
Furthermore, this can be scaled to create communities, commercial areas, shops, and malls where people’s avatars created in their games can explore or purchase items from the comfort of their own homes. However, for this to work, the metaverses created by various firms and social media conglomerates must be compatible.
The second major application will be in the live sports and entertainment industry. Both these industries have taken the first step towards a metaverse by using virtual and augmented reality-based headsets and devices for broadcasting sports events as well as music videos and movies.
Conclusion
Though the company offers games on its platform, it has so far concentrated on creating social media and workspaces that are consistent regardless of the user’s location.
Microsoft will be able to grow up its position in this field with Activision Blizzard on its side, according to an industry analyst, by extrapolating the learnings from the gaming platform for other users as well.
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