With the announcement of the acquisition of video game maker Aktivision Blizzard, the world's largest software company Microsoft is taking a big step into the metaverse, the future world of virtual and augmented reality, which could play a significant role not only in shaping the way people work and play, but also how communicate, Radio Free Europe reports the writing of world media.
Microsoft is buying Acrivision in a deal worth 75 billion dollars with the aim of expanding its reach in the gaming world with the largest acquisition in its history, the Financial Times points out, indicating that the video game sector now has a central place in the fight for dominance in digital entertainment.
Microsoft said that the purchase of Activision will strengthen its entry into the metaverse, a virtual world that, according to the British newspaper, the big tech companies are trying to build.
The largest software company in the world, with the purchase of Aktivižna, it will become the third largest game company, behind China's Tencent and Japan's Sony.
The news of Microsoft's purchase of Aktivision sharply raised the value of other leading video game publishers on expectations of new such deals in the sector: Elektronik arts, which makes, among other things, the soccer game Fifa, rose by more than five percent, while Jubisoft, the maker of Assassin's Creed , increased by eight percent.
Microsoft's plan to buy Active is based on the assessment that people will spend more and more time in the digital world, according to the New York Times.
Video games on almost every type of device, from consoles to smartphones, have gained even more popularity during the pandemic and, according to the paper, technology companies are flocking to the sector seeking a greater share of the attention and money of the three billion gamers worldwide.
Microsoft presented the acquisition deal as strengthening the company in the so-called metaverse, the emerging world of virtual and augmented reality.
The Metaverse has attracted huge investments and talents, although so far it has been more of a buzzword than a successful business, the New York Times assesses, recalling that Facebook renamed its parent company Meta at the end of last year to underline its commitment to development in that direction.
The focus on the futuristic metaverse, however, the paper said, obscures the significance of the deal in the present, as the acquisition helps Microsoft compete with Sony in the long-running battle for gamers' attention and wallets, and also helps the software giant maintain its edge over powerful new competitors in the gaming world. , such as Amazon and Google.
Video games already have a huge impact on corporate technology in areas such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, virtual markets and cryptocurrencies, and with the merger of Microsoft and Activision, analysts say, much more can be developed using innovations from the gaming sector. The Wall Street Journal.
Analysts estimate that by purchasing Aktivizhna, Microsoft is taking a big step into the metaverse in which users produce, buy and sell goods and online services within the framework of an independent digital economy.
Much of the technology expected to support the metaverse, including hardware and software, comes directly from the gaming world, analysts said, pointing to Activision products such as "Call of Duty," "Candy Crash" and "World of Warcraft." , which will now be part of Microsoft's Xbox offer, which already includes "Minecraft" and "Dum".
For corporate technology leaders, the metaverse offers a range of digital strategies in core business areas, such as remote job interviews in virtual environments, internal training simulations, 3-D demos, digital malls, and events to promote products and services, all interactively with user avatars like in video games.
According to some estimates, according to the Wall Street Journal, the metaverse economy will be worth $2030 trillion by 21,7, with a compound annual growth rate of 38,6 percent, as companies increasingly use a mix of augmented and virtual reality to reach customers through avatars, bots and other digital surrogates.
Microsoft bought Aktivision because video games are the new social media, the Washington Post says, and indicates that games are no longer just a place where kids go to blow off steam, but also a place to socialize.
If the 2010s were the decade of social media in the tech industry, there's reason to think the 2020s are the decade of gaming, the paper points out, adding that if the acquisition deal survives an antitrust investigation, Microsoft will be a titan of the gaming world, which in turn would give it could play a major role in shaping not only how people work and how they play, but also how they communicate online.
Video games have been a big industry since the 90s, but in recent years, with rapid developments in technology and innovation, they have become ubiquitous, from addictive time-killers on smartphones to console worlds that allow millions of players to interact in real time, underlines the Washington Post, adding that with the advent of the pandemic, the popularity of games increased, while people's work and lives were further pushed into cyberspace.
The better and more popular games are, the less they look like an entertainment medium and more like the future of the Internet, the paper said, noting that already two-thirds of US adults and three-quarters of children under 18 play video games on a weekly basis.
Worldwide, nearly 400 million people play Active games every month, which is more than the number of active users on Twitter and comparable to the 450 million users Vocap had when Facebook bought it for $19 billion in 2016.
However, it is not only the number of users that matters, the Washington Post points out, but also how these games are used. Games like "Fortnite" and "World of Warcraft" are increasingly serving not only as places to solve tasks and shoot bad guys, but also as places to hang out - "Fortnite" organized concerts watched by millions.
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