Since last year, the popularity of the meta-universe concept has attracted many companies to enter the game, and related concept stocks have shown a trend of rising all the way, even if some look less "Meta", as long as they are stained with related labels, they can quickly attract market attention. But what is not in line with the heat is that the nature of the metaverse is rarely paid attention to and discussed.
Recently, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview that "the metaverse is essentially a game, which can put people, places, and things into a physics engine and then relate to each other." Nadella's remarks quickly sparked a discussion in Zhihu, and at one point it was ranked 9th on the hot search list.
Under this topic, netizens are divided into two factions, support and opposition, the former occupies the majority, thinking that from the perspective of the current stage of technical power and metaverse product form, it is not inappropriate to say that the metacosm is a game; while the latter believes that the metacosm is classified as a small game pattern, the game only occupies a very small part of the real metaverse, and its essence is actually interaction.
Interestingly, Microsoft recently announced that it will acquire the veteran game manufacturer Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and it is difficult not to let netizens question its remarks.
"If the metaverse isn't a game, what is it?"
In March last year, the listing of roblox, the "first stock of the meta-universe", officially ignited the boom in the meta-universe, and the company that started with a sandbox game jumped more than 10 times from the original $4 billion valuation to $40 billion with the concept of the meta-universe, which caused the market to be amazed.
Judging from the subsequent development, the metaverse products in the market almost all appear in the form of games. In other words, games have defaulted to the best cuts for major manufacturers to enter the metaverse, and the current conception of the metaverse is mostly based on the game.
For example, when Tencent invests in the meta-universe, the direction is mainly focused on the software and hardware related to games. At the beginning of January this year, Tencent planned to acquire the game mobile phone manufacturer Black Shark for 2.6-2.7 billion yuan, which may be merged into PCG's VR hardware. At the same time, the meta-universe product "Super QQ Show", led by Yao Xiaoguang, then president of the Tianmei Studio Group under the IEG (Tencent Interactive Entertainment Business Group), has also recently conducted internal testing, and the content is still mainly based on game social. Rival ByteDance has long been rumored to have acquired VR equipment company Pico for 5 billion yuan.
In foreign countries, most of the power meta-universes are also game companies. GameLook reported in January this year that South Korean mobile game company Com2Us launched the meta-universe platform "Com2Verse", the highlight of which is to reproduce a huge integrated mirror world, where players can work and play, quite a "part-time simulator" flavor.
Products like Com2Verse were not uncommon last year, and Facebook's parent company, Meta, launched its first metaverse game platform, Horizon Worlds, two years after intensive research and development, and built a lot of game content into it, including shooting, sandbox construction, etc.
Gameplay is undoubtedly an important reason for the attraction of the metaverse, and looking back, the metaverse has been inseparable from the game itself before and after its birth. Therefore, it is no wonder that the netizens who are the first to comment on the topic said bluntly, "If the metaverse is not a game, then what is it?" ”
In addition, some netizens praised Nadella for "having a conscience" and not cutting leeks without the whole concept of being mysterious and mysterious.
Some people even think that "the metaverse is essentially a game" is a common sense that does not need to be said, and more discussion has a "realistic version of the emperor's new clothes" flavor.
Of course, there is no shortage of opposition. Some people think that light in the meta-universe product entertainment social naturally classified as a social game platform, but if people's digital life, production, etc. are connected to the meta-universe in the future, the situation may change dramatically.
Gaming, the next generation of Internet platforms?
GameLook noted that some netizens in the topic discussion board believe that Nadella's remarks are actually "paving the way" for Microsoft's recent $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, so that they can fight for more voice in the metaverse field.
In fact, GameLook, after reading the entire Financial Times story, found that Nadella did talk about the relationship between the statement that "the metaverse is essentially a game" and the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
In the report, Nadella mentioned that the acquisition not only expands Microsoft's vertical integration in the gaming field, providing more content for its Xbox console and PC game distribution system, but also pushes Microsoft into the metacosm, that is, the immersive, virtual, interactive world that big technology companies are competing to build.
In Nadella's view, games can create the next generation of Internet platforms - the physical Internet, and solve a problem in today's game circle, that is, players can not be in it when playing games. But now, manufacturers are expected to solve this problem through hardware and software technologies. When players can actually enter the game, just like people can meet in a real conference room, the meaning and technology contained in it will be reflected in different environments.
As early as last November, at ignite, Microsoft announced that it would make its Microsoft Teams an important part of the "Metaverse" project, and at the same time merged the MR platform Mesh into Teams. In addition, Nadella said that the Xbox game platform will also join the "meta-universe" in the future.
In an interview with Bloomberg after the meeting, Nadella did not hide his views on the relationship between the game and the metaverse, believing that Xbox has become the home of the "metaverse" of some platform games.
"Actually, a lot of the games we have right now are a metaverse in their own right. Halo, for example, is actually a metaverse. Minecraft and Flight Simulator are also metaverses. In a sense, these games are 2D today, can you take them to a complete 3D world? We will certainly do that. ”
Over the past few years, Microsoft has been working to connect games with reality. At the 2015 E3 Game Show, Microsoft broke the fourth wall and expanded Minecraft to reality through the AR headset HoloLens.
In 2019, Microsoft launched "Minecraft: Earth" on mobile phones, trying to narrow the distance between the game and reality, but helplessly had the mountain of "Pokemon Go!" sitting on, coupled with the flaws in the game design, resulting in the suspension of "Minecraft: Earth" in June last year.
Despite many setbacks, Microsoft is very committed to the concept of "games are the next generation of Internet platforms", and the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the best embodiment of this. In Nadella's view, the metacosm as a next-generation Internet platform, the method established at the system level is to make the game more "accessible", basically, people, things, and things are digitized, and there is an interconnection with player information.
"If [this association] is put in retail or construction, it's like you've created your own digital twin." If you try to visualize a factory, it's also derived from games. It's just that you're not simulating a game, you're simulating how a factory works. ”
····· End ·····
GameLook Daily Game Industry Report
Global vision / depth is material