The biggest game news of 2022 is undoubtedly the case of Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which has become the world's third-largest game company. This news has caused a violent shock around the world, and to this day, many players and media still discuss this event and speculate about the many impacts of the official completion of the acquisition on the game industry today.
As a game company that works closely with Microsoft and Blizzard, NetEase is naturally "implicated" in it. On the evening of February 24, in the conference call after the release of NetEase's quarterly financial report, investors asked NetEase President Ding Lei how to view the specific matters of "Microsoft's acquisition of Blizzard". And Ding Lei also made it clear that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have been very close partners of NetEase for a long time in the past, and NetEase congratulates Microsoft on the completion of the merger and acquisition transaction with Activision Blizzard, and is willing to cooperate more closely with Microsoft and Activision Blizzard in other business aspects.
Ding Lei frankly said that NetEase hopes to work closely with Microsoft and Activision Blizzard in other business aspects, which refers to a very clear concept, that is, the concept of "metaverse" that is very sought after nowadays - after all, although Activision Blizzard has many top game IP such as "Call of Duty" and "World of Warcraft", the core reason why Microsoft can so eagerly spend huge money to acquire is the huge meta-universe related technology accumulated by Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard is a large manufacturer with great technical strength in the game industry, its studio and its affiliates in 126 countries and regions around the world, a total of more than 1100 patent applications, of which invention patents account for nearly 90%, concentrated in video games, virtual worlds, interactive, virtual reality and other related technology fields, of which the meta-universe related patents have reached more than 560 pieces, is a world-class technology reserve factory. According to Microsoft's statement, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard will help accelerate the growth of the company's gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud, and will also provide the cornerstone for the meta-universe.
Microsoft's emphasis on the metaverse is clear, and NetEase itself is the most complete game manufacturer in the domestic metaverse technology precipitation, coupled with the fact that the two have cooperated very closely before, it is only natural that there will be more cooperation for the metacosm after that. In a recent conference call with investors, Ding Lei revealed that "at all levels of technology and planning, NetEase is ready. And said that its martial arts online game "Against the Water Cold" has been tried to function in the prototype of the meta-universe, and this will also be an important thrust for the cooperation between Microsoft and NetEase.
"Against the Cold Water" itself is the most expressive and immersive game in China, and in 2020, it is the first to realize the application of "virtual reality". At that time, NetEase was preparing for the International Distributed AI Conference, in order to solve the problem of inconvenient transportation caused by the epidemic, NetEase took a different approach and decided to build the field in "Against the Cold Water". In order to make the meeting experience more realistic and convenient, NetEase's technical team has broken through many technical difficulties in just a few months.
The use of cloud gaming technology, coupled with the support of a variety of technical solutions, allowed the conference to finally achieve the functions of out-of-the-box web page, in-game playback PPT, and more than 300 people online at the same time in each venue scene. The perfect blend of virtual and reality allows the real user to experience an immersive meeting experience through a cheaper virtual world. Since then, NetEase has further optimized the AI immersive conference experience and accumulated a large number of technical reserves enhanced with metaverse virtual reality.
For the metaverse, games are only a rudimentary application of the metaverse concept, but they are the most important cornerstone at present. So, what do you think of NetEase President Ding Lei's "overtures" to Microsoft?