Microsoft's planned $68.7 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard isn't just a weapon in the tech giant's battle for video game domination.
It's also about the metaverse — a buzzy topic at the moment, with brands from Disney to Walmart working to carve out their own niche in the digital space, which promises virtual worlds where people can eventually explore, work and play.
Gaming appears to be a particularly large part of Microsoft's metaverse plans. In a press release on Tuesday, the company wrote that buying the "Call of Duty" and "Warcraft" maker "will provide building blocks for the metaverse." Later in that press release, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was quoted as saying that gaming "will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms."
The move may have been a long time coming. Corporate metaverse interest seemingly exploded after Facebook, now called Meta, changed its name to reflect its bet on a virtually focused future. But Microsoft and Nadella were talking publicly about the idea's potential even before Mark Zuckerberg — and acquiring companies with large gaming communities to give them a leg up.
In 2020, Microsoft paid $7.5 billion for ZeniMax Media, the parent company of gaming studio Bethesda. And back in 2014, the tech giant paid $2.5 billion for Mojang, the maker of "Minecraft."
"As the virtual and physical worlds converge, the metaverse…is emerging as a first-class platform," Nadella said in April 2021 during a quarterly earnings call. Microsoft's gaming communities, like "Minecraft" and its then-140 million monthly users, could grow into huge commercial marketplaces "as games evolve into metaverse economies," he added.
That earnings call came about three months before Zuckerberg first revealed his plans for Facebook and the metaverse, teasing the company's eventual transformation into Meta in October.
