- After Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the world’s biggest and most influential game publishers, other companies are fighting back, but on an entirely different turf.
- Epic Games, maker of the massively popular multiplayer first-person shooter Fortnite, has secured US$2 billion in funding from Sony and the group behind the Lego franchise to build out an avatar-filled Metaverse.
With the prices of cryptocurrencies sliding along with other assets, from oil to stocks, some of the largest game publishers are betting that the next battlefield won’t be on consoles, but in the Metaverse.
After Microsoft’s (-3.94%) acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the world’s biggest and most influential game publishers, other companies are fighting back, but on an entirely different turf.
Epic Games, maker of the massively popular multiplayer first-person shooter Fortnite, has secured US$2 billion in funding from Sony and the group behind the Lego franchise to build out an avatar-filled Metaverse.
The funding was provided by Sony (-2.94%), maker of the PlayStation and Kirkbi, the investment company behind the Lego Group.
Last week Lego Group and Epic Games had announced that they had formed a “long-term partnership” to create a Metaverse that would be specifically for children, without providing any further details, but shows just how serious game companies are about this new virtual realm.
The move may comes in response to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard (-0.76%), which CEO Satya Nadella has said would allow the software giant to gain a foothold in the Metaverse.
Metaverse and gaming are a natural fit – gamers already spend billions of dollars a year on virtual goods and in-game items, including unique suits of armor, weapons and other elements to enhance avatars and the Metaverse would provide a new forum for gamers to spend more.
A survey in 2020 by Vorhaus Advisors found that 63% of gamers said that they would spend more on virtual in-game items if they had real-world value and could be traded or sold – which the blockchain and GameFi tokens have enabled.
So-called “bridges” have also facilitated blockchain interoperability, allowing tokens on one chain to be spent or used on another and helping the GameFi ecosystem.
Epic Games, which makes Fortnite, has already created a successful virtual world, and the Unreal Engine software that underpins Fortnite could be adapted to a Metaverse where thousands of players could move between discrete digital spaces as 3D avatars.
