Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard was a big deal. In fact, it was such a big deal that regulators stopped the deal due to concerns it would throttle innovation and lead to less choice for gamers.
Nonetheless, despite the initial hurdles, the $69 billion deal was closed just days ago, growing Microsoft’s gaming business and providing the “building blocks of the metaverse,” as CEO Satya Nadella said when it was announced in 2022.
Yet, since then, leaked documents and public comments hint that the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, is less than enthusiastic about the metaverse. In an interview with Bloomberg, he questioned what it even is, stating his view that gamers have already been in it for 30 years.
Spencer also said he was “cautious” about play-to-earn games and called the metaverse a “poorly built videogame,” adding, “that’s just not where I want to spend most of my time.”
Clearly, the Microsoft Gaming CEO feels differently about the metaverse than Nadella, who gushed about the steps toward that the Activision acquisition took.
What is the metaverse, actually?
Most people would agree with Spencer; the metaverse is an ill-defined concept, and it’s less than inspiring in its current iterations. What started as a buzzword that got Mark Zuckerberg so excited, he renamed his company to pivot in its direction seems to have fizzled out. What we’re left with is a loose connection between virtual reality (VR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital objects, and a few other related concepts.
Yet, the metaverse is real; it just hasn’t been built properly yet. Just as Microsoft and other giant corporations tried to develop walled gardens to control the internet, they are trying, and once again failing, to do the same for the metaverse.
In reality, just like the internet, The metaverse will be built on a stable, open protocol like the BSV blockchain. Corporations will, of course, have a presence in it, but they won’t control it. After all, a team of corporate designers and coders can never match the creativity and effort of humanity combined. BSV blockchain provides a blank slate on which anyone can draw with the added benefits of monetization through micropayments instead of the digital pollution of ads.
With BSV blockchain underpinning the metaverse, creators will be paid in real-time for access to their digital worlds via Bitcoin micropayments, digital twins of real-world locations like football stadiums and concert halls will exist, and digital items like NFTs and other tokens can be traded, exchanged, and more importantly, owned.
Perhaps, the reason Spencer is so uninspired by the metaverse is that he hasn’t understood its true potential and has only seen the limited, controlled early prototypes created by the corporation he works for. He hasn’t seen anything yet, but neither have any of us.
Metaverse is going to change the world as we know it: Dereck Hoogenkamp
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