The metaverse is presented by some as the future of the internet, a 3D virtual world where everyone can interact using masks, sensors and other accessories capable of plunging humans into a universe parallel to the physical world.

Microsoft alludes to this twice in its press release on the takeover of Activision, emphasizing in particular, with a quote from its boss Satya Nadella, that the video game sector will play "a key role in the development of metaverse platforms ".

Some experts point out that the metaverse remains for the moment a rather vague concept, and that it cannot justify itself a mega-operation like the takeover of Activision.

"We'll see how this all evolves into the metaverse, but it's not yet," said journalist Tom Ffiske, editor of virtual and augmented reality publication Immersive Wire.

Rather, Microsoft's decision should be seen as "a strategic move within the gaming industry," he said.

But others believe that Microsoft is actually making a double-trigger bet, which allows it both to consolidate its position in the video game market, and to place its pawns on what will perhaps be a new revolution. digital.

Microsoft would only be following Facebook, which changed its name to Meta last year in honor of this new technology paradise.

The logo of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in Menlo Park, California, on October 28, 2021 NOAH BERGER AFP / Archives

The designs between the two giants diverge, however.

Instead, Facebook has spoken of a concept in which interactions take place in a single space.

Microsoft painted a more splintered view of the metaverse.

“When we think about what the metaverse could be, we believe that there will not be a single, centralized metaverse,” Satya Nadella told reporters after the announcement of the Activision takeover.

In fact, explains Theo Tzanidis, a professor of digital marketing at the University of West Scotland, everyone starts from what they are.

Other still discreet giants

Facebook wants to boost technology with an already existing platform, that of its social network and its almost 3 billion users.

Microsoft, for its part, will rather have to "buy in bulk" pieces of existing intellectual property to bring them together in a coherent way, using its "cloud" infrastructure (dematerialized computing) and business services.

"I would not be surprised if a silent collaboration emerges" within Microsoft, believes Theo Tzanidis.

For the moment, the other giants of Silicon Valley have not revealed their strategies on the metaverse.

Google, Amazon and Apple have kept their distance, in public at least.

The logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft on a mobile phone and computer screen, on December 18, 2020 in London JUSTIN TALLIS AFP/Archives

For Tom Ffiske, Amazon is known for carefully planning its moves, and may well, in fact, already be working on the subject, waiting for the right moment to announce its intentions.

And Scott Kessler, an analyst at US research firm Third Bridge, suspects that Microsoft has been planning its takeover while rivals are mired in legal and regulatory challenges around the world.

Which leaves for now, in the battle to define the metaverse, two giants and many small companies specializing in one aspect of the future virtual world.

Tom Ffiske, for example, points to the developer of 3D solutions Unity and the video game studio Epic.

Behind the many debates, he notes, "engineers are quietly building the foundations" of what the metaverse will be like tomorrow.

© 2022 AFP