But Microsoft doesn’t just seem to be calling this a win for its Xbox and subscription-basedGame Passservice.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also considers it ametaversemove.
Now, hold on.
Ever since Facebookrenamed itselflast fall toMeta, the metaverse has become an ever-accelerating overhyped catchphrase –for everything.
So, too, has a big wave of “gaming is a metaverse"takes.
(And, for sure, games are already where many peoplelive their virtual lives.)
Or is it more of what already has been happening in gaming, in content, everywhere?
It’s easy to scream at the “metaverse” label for this move: I am, too.
But there’s also something going on, underneath, that seems to suggest what’s playing out.
Massively (mobile) multiplayer worlds?
Epic calls Fortnite a metaverse.
Microsoft already has one metaverse in Minecraft, another in Altspace VR.
Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Gaming, pointed particularly to phones on that same call.
“Our vision of the metaverse is based on intersecting global communities rooted in strong franchises.
Is a metaverse a larger collection of connected devices that includes phones?
Or is that also just where gaming is already headed anyway?
Are subscription services doorways to the metaverse?
I’m actually asking this seriously.
Sony’s acquired many of itsbiggest game studios, including Insomniac.
Meta has bought up lots of the biggest VR game developers, including somedabbling in fitness.
It’s getting hard to keep track.
The idea of the metaverse pitched by everyone keeps promising to be open, cross-platform.
And then those things get absorbed, over time.
And then new things emerge.
Maybe this is the endless Circle of Content.
