Microsoft potentially has an unending list of use cases for the metaverse. Its acquisition of Activision will make sure it leads in the most important aspect of it – gaming.
With a single announcement, Microsoft has propelled itself to the top ranks of not only the gaming industry but also metaverse, deemed as the future of online socialisation by many. It has even made its intentions clear, the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard will serve to be the „building blocks for the metaverse.“ Not to be fooled by this, Activision has not made any major breakthroughs in the metaverse space. What it still manages to bring to the table, is its billion-dollar franchises with about 400 million monthly active players spread across 190 countries. These will surely help Microsoft spread its wings across mobile, PC, console, and even cloud gaming. But to understand the metaverse tangent of the acquisition, one will have to delve deeper into what Activision really offers with these titles, and more importantly, what it is capable of nurturing them into, in the near future. To think of it, metaverse is really just a concept that may hold different meanings to different people. The fundamental idea is to have people who may reside in different parts of the world, come together in a 3D virtual space to socialise. Now from this, you may envision roaming around a city in a different part of the world, watching an opera virtually, attending a team meeting as seen in sci-fi movies or quite simply, hanging out with your friends in a room. The crux here is that you will be doing all this without ever leaving your chair. As of today, games are the closest thing we know to this definition. Many argue that what metaverse promises, we already have in various forms of online games. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games that made Fortnite, referred to the game as a metaverse in the company’s court war against Apple last year.
