This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Dmytro Spilka
The metaverse is set to become the buzzword of 2022 as more companies continue to scramble to accommodate the emerging technology that promises to change our lives forever. Facebook rebranded itself to Meta in a bid to ready itself for the transformative technology — a sign of how highly the company regards the metaverse. However, in looking at how blue chips are scrambling to accommodate the metaverse, we’re in danger of ignoring the key role that video game companies will play in making the next digital frontier a reality.
We’re already seeing major tech firms look to the world of gaming with the metaverse in mind. Recently, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella claiming that the deal “will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms.”
The metaverse is set to offer individuals a unified and interoperable virtual experience in which we will be able to communicate with one another within a digital world through advanced human-computer interaction (HCI) hardware and software.
The implications of this emerging technology are vast, but it’s likely to disrupt the world of VR gameplay before we begin to go shopping and attend business meetings with virtual reality headsets.
At present, VR gameplay is available as standalone applications which can be installed on a desktop PC, smartphones, or on VR headsets to experience more immersive renderings of video games. This 3D universe allows users to view 360-degree landscapes and interact with the world around them through a digitally rendered sense of perception.
However, the metaverse takes this idea and massively expands it. Through the metaverse, multiple VR games can be interconnected with other VR applications or online spaces — paving the way for one single and wholly interoperable environment for users.
This will enable players to navigate in and out of gaming applications, interact with other players across different spaces, and share their progress seamlessly — all without having to take off their virtual reality headset.
(Image: Korea JoonAng Daily)
As we can see from the data above, the push to accommodate the metaverse is set to be an extremely lucrative one for the companies that emerge as early market leaders. With an estimated $1.5 trillion market size by 2030, the metaverse will be a transformative technology that will change Wall Street just as much as it’s set to change society.
With this in mind, let’s take a deeper look at how the metaverse may become a seismic influence on video game stocks:
Becoming the Disney of Video Games
Microsoft’s deal to acquire Activision in January 2022 comes as the latest in a long line of video game company purchases. Prior to the acquisition, Microsoft had already previously bought 23 game studios including the producers of popular titles like Minecraft, Fallout and Gears of War. Now, with Activision, Microsoft also has industry-leading favourites like Call of Duty, Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo — it also has the famous smartphone title, Candy Crush.
For the perception of scale, Activision’s games were amassing 119 million monthly active users collectively.
Microsoft’s behaviour appears to be part of a conscious effort to match the success that Disney experienced in its purchases of studios like Pixar. The company will hope that it can play a leading role in the future development of metaverse ready titles and emulate the success of Disney’s prolific performance with Pixar, and latterly Marvel.
“The metaverse as we believe it will be a collection of communities that are anchored by franchises that we’ll start with, whether it’s a Call of Duty or World of Warcraft or Candy Crush, those franchises that have hundreds of millions of players are going to be the basis for what we think will be as large vast virtual world”, Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO, told CNBC.
The Metaverse’s Influence on Wall Street
Although the arrival of the metaverse is likely to take place in the distant future, its impact can already be felt across Wall Street as companies scramble to ready themselves for a transformative future.
Whilst the freshly rebranded Meta is the most notable stock to have already acted to embrace the metaverse, countless video game stocks will also be influenced by the emerging technology in the near future.
“Video game makers such as Roblox, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard and Take Two Interactive, which has GTA Online and is probably one of the biggest meta-universes in the moment, can also be noted,” said Maxim Manturov, head of investment advice at Freedom Finance Europe.
“The meta-universe offers companies many practical benefits beyond the usual teleconferencing services. Not to mention, even some of the biggest names in the tech world are now turning to this burgeoning industry.”
For investors, the video game industry may be an undervalued space at present for metaverse investing, which seems counterintuitive considering the potential that the industry holds in becoming trendsetters as the landscape develops.
With this in mind, it may be worth looking into video game stocks that offer products that may evolve to become compatible in the metaverse. Microsoft may be moving quickly to position itself as an industry leader, but there are plenty of investment opportunities across immersive gaming experiences that remain untapped.
Video Game Stocks Battle it Out to Become the Stars of the Metaverse was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Dmytro Spilka
Dmytro Spilka | Sciencx (2022-03-02T14:10:48+00:00) Video Game Stocks Battle it Out to Become the Stars of the Metaverse. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2022/03/02/video-game-stocks-battle-it-out-to-become-the-stars-of-the-metaverse/
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