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Microsoft

Activision Blizzard

Microsoft Corporation is reportedly planning to pull out Activision Blizzard from the United Kingdom, which has previously blocked its acquisition deal with the Santa Monica, California-headquartered video game

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Microsoft Reportedly Removing Activision Blizzard From UK to Fight Acquisition Roadblock

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EconoTimes

Recommendation

No change in the last quarter. (This description is provided by the company.) Activision Blizzard, Inc. connects and engages the world through epic entertainment. A member of the Fortune 500 and S&P 500, Activision Blizzard is a leading interactive ...

Truist Securities Reiterates Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Buy Recommendation

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft

A former World of Warcraft developer has claimed he was fired from Blizzard Entertainment for writing "corporate greed" dialogue.

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World of Warcraft dev says Blizzard fired him for writing “corporate greed” goblin dialogue

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Dexerto.com

Bring Back...

Activision Blizzard has a massive catalog of franchises that it's sitting on, but Microsoft could fix that once its acquisition gets approved.

Microsoft Could Bring Back These Classic Activision Blizzard Series

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Game Rant

Nintendo

This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with

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The law is whatever Nintendo says it is | This Week in Business

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GamesIndustry

Diablo III

Early access

Early access for “Diablo IV” began Thursday night — but the rollout of the highly anticipated action role-playing video game didn’t come without speedbumps, notably for PlayStation users. While the

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Some 'Diablo IV' players report invalid license error message after early access launch

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Harassment in the United Kingdom

The transparency report is part of Activision Blizzard’s bid to win back the faith of shareholders after numerous lawsuits were brought against it alleging, among other things, a “frat boy culture” and rampant harassment towards women.

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Chief Executive Officer

Activision Blizzard reports 29 incidents of harassment following CEO’s denial of a ‘systemic issue’

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Dot Esports

Candy Crush Saga

Winner

Activision Blizzard ATVI recently announced the winner of the Candy Crush All Star Tournament 2023. Jay, aged 51, beat millions of players in an intense showdown during the live final of Candy Crush Saga's All Star championship in London.

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Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Reveals Candy Crush Event Winner

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Zacks.com on MSN.com

Microsoft is now free to close the Activision Blizzard acquisition, albeit with some major caveats that are likely to prevent it from doing so. Prior to Beijing's clearance, the $68.7 billion deal ...

Microsoft Now Free to Close Activision Blizzard Acquisition, With Caveats

Get the most recent info and news about Activision Blizzard on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

Activision Blizzard, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops and distributes content and services on video game consoles, personal computers (PC), and mobile devices in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Activision Publishing, Inc.; Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.; and King Digital Entertainment. It develops, publishes, and sells interactive software products and entertainment content for the console and PC platforms through retail and digital channels, including subscription, full-game, and in-game sales, as well as by licensing software to third-party or related-party companies; and offer downloadable content. The company also maintains a proprietary online gaming service, Battle.net that facilitates the creation of user generated content, digital distribution, and online social connectivity in its games; and develops and publishes interactive entertainment content and services primarily on mobile platforms, such as Android and iOS, as well as distributes its content and services on the PC platform primarily through Facebook. In addition, it operate esports leagues and offer digital advertising content; and provides warehousing, logistics, and sales distribution services to third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software, as well as manufacturers of interactive entertainment hardware products. The company's key product franchises include Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Candy Crush. It serves retailers and distributors, including mass-market retailers, first party digital storefronts, consumer electronics stores, discount warehouses, and game specialty stores through third-party distribution and licensing arrangements. Activision Blizzard, Inc. was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Microsoft, one of the biggest tech giants, announced in January last year that it would acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. Activision Blizzard is the holding company that owns one of the most popular game publishers, Activision, which is the creator of top games like Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft and Overwatch. The acquisition - if succeeded, will be the biggest takeover of one company by another in gaming history - is opposed by many governments as they believe that the purchase of Activision will give Microsoft too much power over the gaming industry. The American, UK and Canadian governments have expressed concerns over this deal. Activision is known for making one of the best games played by millions of people, and the company earns billions through in-game purchases. If Microsoft purchases Activision, it can make the future Activision games exclusive to Xbox, which can significantly hurt the market of its competitor Sony. Citing these issues, the UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA) has . CMA said it was concerned that the acquisition would offer reduced innovation and fewer choices for gamers in the fast-growing cloud gaming business. blocked the deal in the UK Microsoft and Activision hit out at the decision and said they would appeal. “The CMA’s report contradicts the ambitions of the UK to become an attractive country to build technology businesses,” a spokesperson for Activision said. CMA replied, “We will work aggressively with Microsoft to reverse this on appeal.” Brad Smith, vice chairman and president of Microsoft, said, “The CMA’s decision rejects a pragmatic path to address competition concerns and discourages technology innovation and investment in the United Kingdom.” The company was still committed to the acquisition, he added. Microsoft needs approval from regulatory bodies in the United States, European Union and UK to complete the deal. CMA is the first to block the deal, and its decision can impact the decision of other regulatory bodies in the US and European Union. The UK body said it was not concerned that the deal would distort competition in the console gaming market. The UK is concerned for its people as the country is going through economic instability. It fears that Microsoft could raise the prices of popular titles. Activision Blizzard is based in the US, but it has subsidiaries in Europe and the UK, so Microsoft needs the approval of the regulatory body of the United States along with the bodies in Europe and the UK to complete the acquisition. Microsoft needs the deal to be approved by the regulatory bodies of either the UK or European Union to make its case in the US, where both companies are headquartered. Microsoft has been investing heavily in cloud gaming - seeing its potential in the future - recently. Microsoft sells the subscription service Game Pass which allows players to play the games hosted on servers elsewhere. The players do not need to buy the game as they can stream any game with a monthly subscription, just like Netflix. Microsoft needs a vast catalogue of games for its subscribers. Unfortunately, it does not make high-quality popular games like its rival Sony which is the creator of popular titles like God of War, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima and many more. So, Microsoft needs a game studio that can make these high-quality titles, and one of the best in the market is Activision which Microsoft had been planning to acquire for a long time. Microsoft’s rival Sony is expressing concerns that in the future, Microsoft will not allow the popular Activision games on Sony’s PlayStation. also owns Mojang, the creator of , GitHub, Nuance, Skype and LinkedIn. Microsoft Minecraft Also published here

Microsoft's  Activision Blizzard Acquisition Just Got Blocked by The UK

It has been over a year since announced a some-what unexpected decision to buy Activision Blizzard Inc. — the maker of , , and — for a whopping . This would be one of the biggest, if not biggest, acquisitions in the video gaming industry. And yet, the Windows maker is to actually buying the company because of regulatory hurdles and resistance from gamers and video game makers, specifically Sony. Microsoft World of Warcraft Call of Duty Diablo $68.7 billion in cash the no closer other Until this past week. Microsoft finally got a break on two fronts in its quest to purchase Activision Blizzard Inc., one in the and another in the UK, which may give it some hope in being able to complete the acquisition. U.S. The company was facing a consumer antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. by gamers concerned that the acquisition would lead to "higher prices, less innovation, less creativity, less consumer choice, decreased output, and other potential anticompetitive effects." Unfortunately for them, the judge overseeing the case ruled that said gamers did not provide enough evidence of how that might happen, the lawsuit out. Ouch! throwing However, the biggest win may have come from the UK, where the country's competition authority took a U-turn on whether the purchase would hurt competition. Having that the transaction could result in higher prices, fewer choices and less innovation — particularly in the console market — the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) now believes none of that is possible since doing so would only hurt Microsoft. initially suggested "We have now provisionally concluded that the merger will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in console gaming services because the cost to Microsoft of withholding Call of Duty from PlayStation would outweigh any gains from taking such action," Martin Coleman, who is reviewing the acquisition on behalf of the U.K.'s competition authority, said in a . He was referring to concerns that Microsoft would make the games exclusive to its console (the Xbox) following the acquisition and bar Sony's PlayStation from having access to them in the future. statement Call of Duty Coleman's comment makes sense! is the best-selling first-person shooter video game in the world, and limiting past, current, and future titles from appearing on Sony's PlayStation — which, to be clear, 70% of the global console market —  would only hurt Microsoft. Call of Duty captures For now, investors are with what they have, with Activision Blizzard Inc.'s stock price shooting up on Friday: happy Microsoft is still not out of the weeds, though, since the CMA may change its position again ahead of a final decision expected on April 26. Of concern is also Microsoft's dominance in the "cloud gaming market," i.e. the Xbox Game Pass, which gives gamers to high-quality games in exchange for a nominal fee every month. "Our provisional view that this deal raises concerns in the cloud gaming market is not affected by today’s announcement. Our investigation remains on course for completion by the end of April," Coleman said. access The CMA still believes the deal could harm competition there, perhaps because Microsoft could refuse to allow Call of Duty to appear on Sony's Game Pass competitor PS Plus. Microsoft has, of course, denied such claims and instead suggested entering a deal with Sony that would guarantee that games would appear on its competitor's platforms for a 10-year period — sufficient time for Sony to develop its own shooter, . Call of Duty should they deem it necessary to do so Elsewhere, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is still seeking to the merger over concerns that the Xbox maker would "would gain control of top video game franchises, enabling it to harm competition in high-performance gaming consoles and subscription services by denying or degrading rivals’ access to its popular content." block Microsoft continues steaming ahead. The company ranked #71 on HackerNoon's this week. Tech Company Rankings 👋 You’re reading HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday! here In Other News.. 📰 Elon Musk thinks , which ranked #17 this week, is less than half of what he paid for the social media company. Twitter worth Microsoft does not want its competitors to its internet-search data to train their own AI products. use CEO Tim Cook is China, and can't stop saying nice things about the country 🥲. Apple ranked #7 this week. Apple visiting Intel co-founder Gordon Moore has . 😞 passed away And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon Featured image created using Stable Diffusion 2.1 using the following prompt: “Microsoft's XBox playing on a large screen TV”

Microsoft Inches Closer to Buying Activision Blizzard

Building the metaverse ain’t easy. But someone has to do it. Why not Microsoft? On January 18, Microsoft an all-cash deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, the game development and interactive entertainment content publisher. This is a big move for Microsoft. The deal, if it succeeds, would give Microsoft a stronger foundation to build a metaverse that extends across multiple digital worlds. announced The promise of the metaverse is that human beings can use avatars to jump from one immersive environment to the next. Microsoft already owns one of those environments, Minecraft. Activision Blizzard gives Microsoft access to more of them through games such as Overwatch and Call of Duty. In a press release, Microsoft said, “This acquisition will accelerate the growth in Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse.” In a call with investors, CEO Satya Nadella said: Our vision is for a river of entertainment where the content and commerce flow freely, driving a renaissance across the entire industry to make games more inclusive and accessible to all. And together with Activision Blizzard, that’s what we will be able to deliver. Removing these barriers will only become more important as the digital and physical worlds come together and the metaverse platforms develops. When we think about our vision for what a metaverse can be, we believe there won’t be a single, centralized metaverse and there shouldn’t be. We need to support many metaverse platforms, as well as a robust ecosystem of content, commerce and applications. In gaming, we see the metaverse as a collection of communities and individual identities anchored in strong content franchises, accessible on every device. And bringing fantastic entertainment together with new technologies, communities and business models is exactly what this transaction is about. His point was that no company will dominate these immersive worlds, but that many software makers will create many different virtual worlds in the future. All that said, though, Microsoft wants to be one of the companies . building and connecting those virtual worlds Microsoft has already made strong inroads into building the business-to-business metaverse by making it possible for digital twins to operate in or virtual representations of real-world places such as factory floors. For example, Anheuser-Busch InBev has used Microsoft’s to create a digital model of their breweries and supply chain. In 2022, Microsoft intends to make virtual communications more of a metaverse-like experience by introducing (a collaborative platform for virtual experiences) to Microsoft Teams. Azure Digital Twins Mesh Consider now how Microsoft could build: A consumer-oriented metaverse (the focus of the Activision Blizzard deal). A business-to-business metaverse (e.g., Azure Digital Twins). Virtual communication and learning (Mesh for Teams), which applies to business-to-business, business-to-employee, and any learning scenario (such as higher education). To pull all this off, Microsoft would need to provide connected content and experiences. We know the company is loading up on content (in particular, gaming content) in the business-to-consumer space. A real proving ground will occur when Microsoft attempts to make Teams a better experience with Mesh – and success here is by no means assured. For Microsoft to truly build a connected metaverse, the company may need to change its practices. For instance, Microsoft sometimes makes its games exclusive to its own devices, such as its Xbox console. Metaverse builders connect, though. They don’t create wedges. In the near term, Microsoft will be busy helping Activision become a better company, beginning with Activision’s culture. Activision is facing a reckoning right now after ongoing reports of sexual misconduct and harassment among the company’s executives led to the . Microsoft needs to proceed carefully and in a mindful manner here. During an investor conference call, Nadell said, “The culture of our organization is my number one priority.” He added that “it’s critical for Activision Blizzard to drive forward on its” commitments to improve its workplace culture. Now Microsoft will be accountable for ensuring that Activision brings real cultural change. dismissal of dozens of employees on January 17 Keep an eye on Microsoft. Note: I invest in Microsoft

Microsoft Makes a Bold Move to Build the Metaverse With the Activision Blizzard Deal

It looks like isn't the only company at their offices. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is also rolling in dough. Microsoft popping champagne A from TechCrunch indicates OpenAI has raised $300 million in venture funding, including from billionaire (and longtime Elon Musk friend) Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Sequoia Capital, which Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX, a decision they came to . Other VC investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and K2 Global. new report famously backed regret later According to the report, the latest round of funding values OpenAI at between $27 billion and $29 billion, which would mean it's now more valuable than (~$24.6B), (~$22B), Snap Inc. (~$14B), and even (~$7.1B). eBay Roblox Dropbox Inc. VC funds usually like betting on promising ventures, and OpenAI is a no brainer. At its current valuation, it's only a matter of time before it joins the likes of tech titans. We're talking , , , big. Amazon Meta Google OpenAI is famously backed by Microsoft, which entered a $10 billion strategic partnership with the company soon after the launch of ChatGPT. But it wasn't the first time Microsoft invested in OpenAI; their association actually began in , when Microsoft made an initial investment in the budding startup. 2019 A about OpenAI is that one of its founders is /SpaceX/ -CEO Elon Musk who not only recently urged the company to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, but also announced plans to launch his own generative AI called . little known fact Twitter Tesla TruthGPT At this point in time, there's nothing that indicates that TruthGPT will surpass the success of ChatGPT, but hey, that's not going to stop Musk. That said, it's hard not to feel bad for Musk who left OpenAI in 2018 due to… let's say, with the OpenAI management. In the years since, OpenAI has transformed into a force to be reckoned with, and had Musk still been with the company, he likely would have been billions richer than he already is at the moment. creative differences Meta still full-steam ahead on the Metaverse (Kinda!) 🚂 Ah, the metaverse. They say Zuckerberg's fate with the metaverse is written in the web3, let's just hope it's not a verse about getting ! Zucked While Microsoft, , and are duking it out in the AI space, Zuckerberg has had his eyes on the metaverse for years. That bet has largely paid off, with Zuckerberg losing more and more of his net worth by the day. Amazon Google not But the biggest losers of Zuckerberg's ambition have been employees, thousands of whom have been laid off back to back as the middle-aged CEO balances investor demands with his ambitions. For now, investors are taking a sigh of relief after the company posted better than expected financial results. Meta Meta, the parent of , , and WhatsApp, a first-quarter revenue of $28.10 billion, of $27.66 billion and up 3% year-over-year. Despite the revenue beat, Meta’s net income company-wide was down 24% year-over-year, from $7.47 billion to $5.71 billion. Facebook Instagram reported beating expectations Still, investors believe the company is headed in the right direction, especially considering that Zuckerberg is changing his tune on the metaverse to (who would've thought 🙄). Still, Zuckerberg hasn't given up on the metaverse yet. focus more on AI "A narrative has developed that we’re somehow moving away from focusing on the metaverse vision, so I just want to say up front that that’s not accurate," Zuckerberg was following the release of the company's earnings release. "We’ve been focusing on AI and the metaverse, and we will continue to." quoted as saying But it's not all rosy for Zuckerberg; the company's biggest stakeholder — its employees — questioned his leadership during an hour-long town hall meeting recently. According to (which is owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos btw.), employees the CEO why they should have confidence in his leadership, especially considering the thousands Meta has had to lay off Zuckerberg flew too close to the sun. The Washington Post asked because Now, morale is low, particularly given that Meta is expected to of another 4,000 employees in the near future as part of the it announced in March. Whether Meta can navigate these turbulent times, only time will tell. For now, its earnings have bought it a lifeline. let go 10,000 cuts Meta ranked #25 on HackerNoon's this week. Facebook was in the #1 spot, while Instagram was trending on #35. Tech Company Rankings 👋 You’re reading of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. part 2 Part 1 here complete In Other News.. 📰 Microsoft is for despite facing a setback in the UK. still vying Activision-Blizzard Geoffrey Hinton, the 'Godfather of AI', recently to speak about the dangers of artificial intelligence. quit Google Mastercard will expand its cryptocurrency payment card programme by seeking more partnerships with crypto firms, Reuters . reported The European Union is likely to reach a this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence law. political agreement And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon Featured image generated using Kadinsky 2 with the following prompt: “stock chart going up”

OpenAI raises $300M, Now More Valuable than eBay, Roblox, & Snap 

Satya Nadella is probably having a blast right now. Just one quarter in from the start of the year, and only a handful of months since OpenAI's spectacular success with ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is already turning Microsoft's fortunes around (not that the company wasn't wildly successful already). The Redmond, Wash.-based company gave investors a first look this past week at how well AI is helping push up its bottom line, and boy it did not disappoint. The Windows maker it generated $52.9 billion in revenue during the first three months of the year, a cool $3.5 billion more than it had generated in the same quarter of 2022, while net income was up by an extra $1.5 billion year over year to $18.3 billion. said And it was all to AI. thanks The timing couldn't have been better, since experts believed Microsoft would go through a downturn as a result of declining Windows OS sales due to sagging PC sales. But CEO Nadella was like, hell naw. Soon after realizing the potential of OpenAI's GPT, the company knew it had lightning in a bottle and quickly began rolling out GPT capabilities across a suite of its products, including Azure, Dynamics 365, and even ! Bing In fact, Nadella came loaded with examples of customers using its AI-powered suite of tools during the company's earnings call discussing Microsoft's financial results. The Microsoft CEO casually name dropped tech mainstays , Snap, and , but then also disclosed the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Shell, and Unilever — indicating that businesses from a were harnessing the power of AI to streamline their workflows and improve efficiency. Nvidia Shopify wide variety of industries No wonder then that Microsoft's stock reversed a declining trend in its price and crossed the $300/share threshold after the earnings release. The last time the company's stock price was hovering over $300/share was in 2021. Moving forward, Nadella said Microsoft would focus on three priorities (emphasis ours): "First, helping customers use the breadth and depth of the Microsoft Cloud to get the most value out of their digital spend. And, third, driving operating leverage, aligning our cost structure with our revenue growth. Second, investing to lead in the new AI wave across our solution areas, and expanding our [total addressable market]. While AI isn't what Microsoft is traditionally known for, there really isn't anything the company won't touch with this technology. That's why it was quick to with a in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, causing competitor to . swoop in $10 billion investment Google panic Well, how did Google fare financially over the same period? Not so bad, apparently! Google-parent Alphabet saw a of $1.8 billion in revenue year over year to $69.8 billion during the quarter ended March, though profit was down $1.4 billion year over year to $15.1 billion. The results were though, and was accompanied by news that the company would buy back $70 billion worth of shares (always a plus for investors!). modest uptick better than expected Nonetheless, Google is nowhere near as prominent as Microsoft in the AI ecosystem, and if the is to be believed, Samsung phones may out with ChatGPT-powered Bing instead of Google as the default search engine. We're sure going to sit well with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai's . New York Times soon begin shipping that's dissidents For this week, Microsoft ranked #75 on HackerNoon's , while Google was trending on the #4 spot. Tech Company Rankings 👋 You’re reading of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. goes live tomorrow. Hate waiting? No problemo! Just subscribe to receive the newsletter a day early in your inbox. part 1 Part 2 here complete In Other News.. 📰 Microsoft is for despite facing a setback in the UK. still vying Activision-Blizzard Geoffrey Hinton, the 'Godfather of AI', recently to speak about the dangers of artificial intelligence. quit Google Mastercard will expand its cryptocurrency payment card programme by seeking more partnerships with crypto firms, Reuters . reported The European Union is likely to reach a this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence law. political agreement And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon Featured image generated using Kadinsky 2 with the following prompt: “microsoft, CEO Satya Nadella, counting dollars, in his office”

AI Turns Microsoft's Fortunes Around 💰💰💰

More recently, Microsoft has informed the public that it is going to buy Activision Blizzard for quite a large sum - 70 billion dollars. As you know, Blizzard is a company in the gaming industry, which is known for many of its products in the gaming market (Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, for example). Recently, they have experienced hard times: the number of users does not satisfy, new series of games are not released, and the sequel is being transferred and transferred. Many games are still "alive" only because they are played by fans. Let's take a closer look at this today. What Changes to Expect From Blizzard: Microsoft has stated that some Activision Blizzard content will come to Game Pass, although they plan to support it on other platforms. If we talk about management: Bobby Kotick will continue to work as a general detector, albeit under the leadership of Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming. This is rather strange because such a decision could adversely affect the work of both companies. All because of an unpleasant incident with Kotik, more precisely, because of his accusation of sexual harassment inside Activision Blizzard. More than two thousand employees of the company signed a petition calling for his resignation after that. The Wall Street Journal reports that he will leave the corporation in mid-2023, when the deal expires. By the way, because of this scandal, the company lived through a decrease in capitalization (2021). But that's another conversation. As Kotik himself states, the next step should be to combine VR and AR technologies that are used in the real and virtual world and connect them together. This unification should happen between Activision Blizzard projects, which will allow them to interact within their own metaverse. The directions of VR and AR are now quite well known and in demand, which means that this decision can be considered successful in advance. Consider the cooperation of Microsoft with other well-known companies (Sony, for example), we can say that them cooperation together can both improve sales and worsen their performance. If there is no agreement between them, Sony may lose a large number of potential customers, losing the ability to install the latest games on its console. However, there is no need to worry yet. Mobile Games, the Impact of This Situation on Them: Almost every person now has a smartphone, Internet access, and access to both offline and online games, which is very convenient for gaming companies. And this means that we should expect the strengthening of the positions of these same games in the market and among mobile applications. If only because many of them are generated for mobile devices, for consoles, and for computers. It's good for companies, isn't it? It's like an , where news is not about one cryptocurrency, but about all possible ones at once and on one site. ICOholder The expansion always brings more engagement, and, accordingly, more customers. They trust and use with pleasure, leaving positive feedback, which is good. Against the backdrop of the development of the gaming industry, it is also possible to cooperate with advanced Chinese companies that adapt to each other and bring even more profit to both parties. What About the Approval of the Deal? A mandatory procedure before the transaction is its approval by the US anti-monopoly authorities. If it does not take place, Microsoft will have to pay 3 billion dollars to Blizzard - "compensation" money. And since the probability of this is small, it is already possible to wait in anticipation for new products from the company. What Is Microsoft Counting On? Perhaps this move will allow Microsoft to expand the company's gaming industry, as it did with the well-known and popular game Minecraft, which they bought 8 years ago for $2.5 billion. There is one more option. Of course, it can be taken in different ways, as right and wrong, but still it is this: by buying Activision, Microsoft will receive some advantage in terms of using the metaverse. Recently, this topic has been very relevant, and all kinds of brands are interested in it (and not only gaming, but also brands of clothing, shoes, and so on). The games purchased by the company will fit perfectly into the digital universe, in which there is simply an unimaginable number of possibilities. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, expressed her intentions regarding this issue: "Video games are very dynamic and interesting now on all platforms, and they can serve the development of the metaverse, its platforms..." By the way, this seems to be beneficial not only for Microsoft, but also for Meta. How? If deals like this happen, Meta will be able to justify its expansions. Conclusion: Therefore, we can say that Blizzard would be nice to try something new. Perhaps this can help increase their profits, thereby improving their financial situation. This can attract more people to the company, introduce them to quality products. This decision can be beneficial for both parties. It depends only on them whether it will bring them profit or if it will turn out to be a failure. According to Kotik, the possibility of creating a metaverse, as well as the implementation of plans with Microsoft, will become possible. It will be especially easier to achieve what you want with the help of artificial intelligence, numerous analyzes, machine learning, and cloud computing. In general, you should expect the unusual from a well-known company. The development of the games industry in the metaverse will not be long in coming. The future is already today, so it’s even hard for us to imagine what awaits us in a couple of years. Remember yourself a few years ago; did you think that you would be reading something like this? Nothing stands still. So, you can draw your own conclusions.

What Changes Will Blizzard Undergo Under the Leadership of Microsoft?

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Introducing AGI into human society will be like introducing a new species of spiders -- intelligent spiders with the capacity to plan and adapt. 🧑‍💻 What happened in your world this week?It's been said that , , . Feeling stuck? We got you covered ⬇️⬇️⬇️ We hope you enjoy this worth of free reading material. Feel free to forward this email to a nerdy friend who'll love you for it.See you on Planet Internet! With love,
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The Noonification: Oh AGI, Can You Feel Me? (3/29/2023)

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been a topic of interest for most techies over the past few years. But more recently, this nascent space started gaining popularity across other industries, with several Hollywood celebrities and gaming publishers joining the bandwagon. Last year alone, the NFT market over $24.7 billion in trading volume amidst a tough macro outlook and systemic risks that rocked the digital asset industry. generated What's even more interesting to observe is the shift from speculative NFT use cases to a more utility-focused ecosystem. NFTs have undergone a significant evolution from the early days of CryptoKitties to Beeple's record-breaking $69 million digital art sale, and now big brands are making a debut into the space. So, do NFTs really have a chance of bridging the gap between traditional industries and on-chain economies? Perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to jump into any conclusions, but based on the fundamental value of this novel technology, it is not surprising that there is an increased appetite for NFTs. Collins dictionary announced NFT as the word of the year back in 2021, and while the momentum slowed down last year, January has started on a high note. The NFT market saw a 38% increase in trading volume, totaling $946 million, and a 42% increase in sales count, reaching 9.5 million, compared to December 2022. NFTs Transforming Industries in the Digital Age Since the launch of the internet in the early 1980s, the world has become a global hub where people can interact within milliseconds regardless of their geographical locations. But more importantly, the digital age is now ushering in a new era of technologies, popularly touted as the . fourth industrial revolution (4IR) In this new paradigm, NFT innovations are emerging as a game-changer, thanks to their unique infrastructure which allows users to integrate real-world assets with the blockchain. NFTs are revolutionizing the way individuals and organizations conduct business, from creating digital art and collectibles to trading and investing in financial assets. This technology also has implications for the world of gaming, with NFTs used for in-game purchases, digital asset ownership, and even as rewards for winning tournaments. That said, let's dive into a few detailed examples where the transformative power of NFTs is already being put to work. The Gaming Industry According to the latest analytics from Statista, the US video gaming industry recorded a market capitalization of $97.67 billion, setting a new all-time high. While this industry already enjoys a significant market share of the digital ecosystem, NFTs are now introducing endless possibilities in the gaming realm. Most notably, the play-to-earn (p2e) model where players have an opportunity to enjoy the gaming experience as they earn a passive income. The p2e model is the reason why NFT-oriented games like Axie Infinity became so popular at the height of the pandemic; players in low-income countries such as The Philippines were making more than the average wage by playing this game. Today, the NFT market has morphed into a more advanced ecosystem, attracting traditional game publishers such as Atari, which recently launched a suite of experiences on The Sandbox metaverse. Microsoft is also eyeing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard although the process has been met with by U.S regulators. In an earlier keynote address, the company’s CEO Satya Nadella, compares the metaverse to the internet evolution in the early 90s. He goes on to add that this technology will greatly improve the gaming experience, resistance “It’s no longer just playing a game with friends. You can be in the game with them.” NFTs in Art and Entertainment First it was Beeple’s $69 million digital art sale, then came the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Cryptopunk NFTs, which were purchased by popular celebrities such as Steve Aoki, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg. It is safe to say that the NFT wave caught on pretty fast with the art and entertainment industry. As of writing, a good number of production companies and artists are looking into how they can leverage this technology to increase their revenue. The decentralized nature of NFT marketplaces eliminates middlemen who have for long been the main beneficiaries while the artist receives peanuts in form of royalties. Out of approximately 8 million artists on Spotify, only 42,100 artists (0.53%) make over $10K. But with NFTs, it is now possible for an artist to put up an auction on a decentralized marketplace and sell their art for millions without having to give up the lion’s share of the revenue. As for entertainment, NFTs are creating an opportunity for celebrities to interact directly with their fanbase. For instance, a celebrity can create an NFT collection that gives specialized levels of access, allowing fans to interact with them based on the value of the collectible they hold. It is also noteworthy that musicians now have an opportunity to record their albums as NFTs and sell them without going through an intermediary. Financial Markets Integration Financial markets have long operated in silos, with most market instruments being limited to specific jurisdictions, locking out potential investors. However, with the advent of NFTs, there is an opportunity to create borderless markets through asset tokenization. This is the process of integrating off-chain assets, such as stocks, treasury bonds, and commodities like gold, with the blockchain. Top-tier global fund managers, including VanEck and consultancy firm BCG, that the tokenization market will grow into a trillion-dollar ecosystem within the next decade. Although the integration in this niche is not yet as advanced as the aforementioned industries, the financial market ecosystem has rarely shied away from innovative technologies, and NFTs offer an avenue to increase liquidity. estimate Even more interesting, it is now possible for anyone to gain a deeper understanding of the financial markets through gamified experiences such as the one offered by . The gaming suite features a new genre of metaverse-oriented games dubbed ‘Financial Entertainment’, where players can access video games that provide a combination of financial literacy and immersive gaming experiences. This type of play-to-learn experience is both engaging and informative. Tradelite Solutions NFTs and the Sports World The sports arena is another industry where NFTs are changing the game, both for professional athletes and the fans. If you are an avid supporter of a particular team, you probably own physical memorabilia or understand the value of it. Think of the famous Mickey Mantle baseball card which sold for a whopping last year. NFTs present a similar opportunity but, in this case, it is a virtual collection with a unique entry on the blockchain. $12.6 million With NFT memorabilia, it is much easier to sell through decentralized marketplaces or even display it on the metaverse as part of a larger collection. I know you might be thinking, "How does one guarantee its safety if it can be viewed online by anyone?" That's where the verifiability aspect of the blockchain comes in; NFT memorabilia stored on-chain shows exactly who owns the digital asset and the chain of transfer if it has switched hands over the years. Besides fan engagement, NFTs are becoming a popular ticketing tool for sporting events. The immutable nature of the blockchain makes it hard for malicious players to create duplicate tickets. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has previously that the club is considering issuing NFTs for their game tickets. said “With the [Mavericks], we’re trying to find a good option for turning our tickets into NFTs. We want to be able to find ways so that not only can our consumers, our fans, buy tickets and resell them, but we continue to make a royalty on them.” A Glimpse Into the Future The NFT market has withstood the test of time, thriving in the 2021 bull market and weathering the current crypto winter. But at this point, it is no longer about speculating and making a few quick bucks; the main question is what exactly NFTs bring to the table. As I have broken down in this piece, NFTs are introducing a new frontier for creative commerce in native industries whose modus operandi has basically remained the same over the past two decades. That being the case, it is more likely than not that we will have more sectors adopting NFTs in a massive way. Already, the fashion industry is slowly joining the club, with major brands like Nike “phygital” collections: NFTs tied to physical assets. A trend that will likely be replicated by other players in the industry. In summary, NFTs are gradually changing how we interact and do business, bit by bit. launching

NFTs and Traditional Industries: A New Frontier for Creative Commerce

NFT e industrias tradicionales: una nueva frontera para el comercio creativo

NFT et industries traditionnelles : une nouvelle frontière pour le commerce créatif

एनएफटी और पारंपरिक उद्योग: क्रिएटिव कॉमर्स के लिए एक नया फ्रंटियर

NFT と従来の産業: クリエイティブ コマースの新たなフロンティア

NFTs e indústrias tradicionais: uma nova fronteira para o comércio criativo

NFT và các ngành công nghiệp truyền thống: Biên giới mới cho thương mại sáng tạo

NFT 和传统产业：创意商业的新前沿

We once quipped that all anyone ever wanted to do over the internet was to . Didn't matter whether that was something you actually wanted or needed or even if it was something useful — as long as you were on the internet, you were a potential customer. sell you stuff And nothing proves that point more than an by this past week to begin charging users for a so-called subscription bundle. Yes, Papa Zuck wants to ride the by asking users to pay at least $11.99 per month to receive the coveted (?) verified badge on and that indicates you are who you say you are and not somebody . announcement Meta subscription-as-a-service train Facebook Instagram pretending to be George W. Bush $11.99 also gets you a slew of other benefits, including "help when you need it" with "access to a real person for common account issues," which presumably means that non-paying users will be relegated to a merry-go-round of automated messages that leaves them more confused than ever. So why now? Well, 2022 really wasn't kind to Meta or its founder Mark Zuckerberg, with both in their worth because of an insistence on a technology (aka the "metaverse") that is yet to gain widespread appeal. Despite laying off (with more expected in the ), Meta — which owns , , and (among others) — is on the hook for improving profitability and sales after it burned through billions in getting people to give a damn about VR (and by extension the metaverse) with nothing to show for it. losing billions 11,000 employees near future Facebook Whatsapp Instagram Whether this experiment — which will initially be rolled out in Australia and New Zealand later this week — will bear fruit is yet to be seen. Though the last time a billionaire offered users the ability to purchase the verified check mark on their social media website, it turned out . 🙄 as well as you'd expect Instagram ranked #1 in this week's while Facebook was trending on the #2 spot. Tech Company Rankings 👋 You’re reading HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday! here Microsoft Seeks Dominance in AI, But Also Gaming.. 🏌️ 's latest plan to monetize the internet has less to do with selling subscriptions and more with monopolizing its in artificial intelligence (though we wouldn't just yet.) Microsoft new-found relevance rule out subscriptions Ever since ChatGPT was released to the public at large, users have been with what the chatbot can do — prompting Microsoft to bake that technology within its search engine Bing. Well, sadly for the more freaky ones out there, Microsoft has now decided to the number of times users can interact with the Bing chatbot because it simply wasn't capable of and spewed nonsense like wanting to steal nuclear secrets. going nuts limit prolonged conversations In the background, however, Microsoft is already selling the idea of AI-powered Bing to advertisers so that when users ask something like "what are the best hotels in Mexico?", the chatbot could display hotel ads, Reuters . reports Meanwhile, the company is , trying to convince antitrust regulators in the EU to please, please, please let them acquire Activision-Blizzard — the producer of hits such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft — so that the video game industry becomes more "competitive." (lol) hard at work is having none of it and wants regulators to block the deal. Sony Microsoft was trending on the #46 spot this week. Amazon Asks Employees to Return to the Office 🏃 , one of the largest employers in the U.S., an advisory to employees asking that they commute to the office at least three times a week. In a note explaining the decision, the e-commerce giant's CEO, Andy Jassy, said that learning and collaborating were a lot easier when employees worked in person, and teams bonded a lot better when they were face-to-face with each other. Amazon issued More power to Amazon, I guess.. The company was trending on the #38 spot this week. In Other News.. 📰 China's has taken heed of Meta's and decided it wants with VR and the metaverse. Tencent Holdings failures nothing to do Investors are of due to regulatory scrutiny. pulling out Binance in droves Elon Musk's fired some employees that happened to be unionizing at its Buffalo, New York facility. It said its decision by the unionizing efforts. Tesla was not prompted An Indian firm is taking work-life balance seriously, to ensure that employees leave the office after their shifts are over. taking steps And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon

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The term “Metaverse” was used so frequently during 2022 that everyone should have heard it, even if they don’t know what it means. The hype around the metaverse arguably peaked following the end of 2021 as Mark Zuckerberg announced plans on rebranding “Facebook” to “ ” and allocating for investments in the metaverse. Meta $10 billion dollars **The Metaverse Explained in Simple Terms \ The metaverse is a virtual world that exists online, where people can interact with each other and with digital content in real-time. It is similar to a video game, but instead of being limited to a specific game or environment, the metaverse is a vast and constantly evolving space that can be accessed through the internet. In the metaverse, people can connect with each other from anywhere in the world, and engage in activities such as socializing, shopping, playing games, and even participating in virtual events and gatherings. Ideally, the metaverse has the potential to become a new virtual ecosystem for human interaction, allowing people to connect and communicate in ways that were previously not possible. Disrupting the Status Quo Although still a nascent innovation, everyone seems focused on building the metaverse and establishing a presence in it - and for good reason. In June, this year, McKinsey & Company published a in which they predicted that the metaverse economy could reach $5 trillion by 2030 - stating it was too big for companies to ignore. Brain Insights, on the other hand, that the global metaverse market is expected to reach USD 993.86 billion by 2030, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 43.20% from 2022 to 2030. report predicted Unlike traditional video games which are built on Web2 platforms, most metaverse-based games are powered by emerging technologies such as blockchain, augmented reality, and virtual reality. But more importantly, this new gaming ecosystem leverages decentralized marketplaces, enabling gamers to own and trade in-game items. The creation of decentralized games in the metaverse has introduced new gaming realities such as the “play-to-earn” and “move-to-earn” models. Play-to-earn (P2E) Play-to-Earn (P2E) is a blockchain-based gaming model that incentivizes players to participate in a specific game. The main idea of this model is to propel a gaming culture where players can enjoy immersive experiences while generating a passive income in the form of native reward tokens. However, in most cases, one is required to purchase an NFT to be able to play a particular P2E game. For instance, in the popular game Axie Infinity, a player has to buy at least 3 Axie NFTs. With these digital creatures, gamers can engage in various gameplays such as battling other Axies, breeding and creating virtual kingdoms. In return, the players are rewarded with a native token dubbed ‘Smooth Love Potion (SLP)’ which can be liquidated for other digital assets or fiat currencies. Move-to-earn Similar to P2E, move-to-earn is a business model that runs on blockchain and rewards gamers for meeting targets and unlocking new levels. This time, exercises are incorporated into role-playing games because the aim is for players to move their bodies. So, real-world fitness influences their adventures in virtual worlds. Players can unlock new levels or superpowers for their avatars by remaining active. Additionally, the users can enter into 1-on-1 contests against family, friends, or random people from around the world to complete predetermined tasks. Then, the winner collects the prize, usually an NFT or crypto they can trade for fiat on NFT marketplaces. M2E platforms like Stepn and Genopets combine GPS, with NFTs, blockchain, and GameFi technology to track movements and issue rewards. A Perfect Fit for the Gaming Industry As previously mentioned, the whole concept of the metaverse is geared towards making interactions more immersive and fun - just like in video games. No wonder the close relation to the traditional gaming industry. This year alone, decentralized metaverse games garnered lots of attention from users, accounting for almost half of the on-chain activity. There was also an increased interest by traditional game publishers; Atari recently launched its Web3 gaming arm ‘Atari.X’ on The Sandbox metaverse. Meanwhile, Microsoft is still in the hot pursuit of acquiring U.S. game publisher Activision Blizzard, making the company a prime candidate to bet big on in the Web3 gaming space for the years to come. What’s more fascinating is that besides game publishers, other established brands are also joining the metaverse gamification hype. Most notably, already launched an NFT collection on the Decentraland metaverse while fashion brand acquired a virtual piece of land on The Sandbox and also partnered with Punk Comics to debut their own NFT collection. Coca-Cola Adidas The Top 5 Games in the Metaverse Here are short notes on some incredible blockchain-based games that provide an overview of what gaming looks like in the metaverse today: Splinterlands Splinterlands is a digital collectible card game built on the Hive blockchain. Players can collect cards, build decks, and battle other players in the game. The gameplay is based on a fantasy-style world with multiple levels and rewards, and a unique turn-based battle system. In addition, the game also features an NFT marketplace where players can purchase, sell, and trade cards with other players. Splinterlands is currently one of the leading blockchain DApps, with over 279,000 unique users within the past month, according to DAppRadar. Benji Bananas Benji Bananas is an action-adventure game developed by Animoca Brands, currently available on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchain networks. The game follows the titular character Benji, a brave and adventurous monkey, as he navigates through a tropical jungle filled with obstacles, enemies, and hidden secrets. Players must help Benji swing, jump, and roll his way through the jungle, collecting as many bananas as possible along the way. Earlier this year, Animoca brands transformed Benji Bananas into a play-to-earn game following the release of Bored Ape Yacht Club's Ape token. The game has since grown to become one of the most played metaverse games, with over 500,000 unique active wallets (UAWs) in the past month. The Sandbox The Sandbox is a decentralized metaverse ecosystem where players create and share virtual worlds built from simple yet powerful voxel-based building blocks. Players can explore, create, and monetize their creations, using in-game tools to craft unique and imaginative 3D landscapes, as well as design custom character avatars, create interactive stories, and earn in-game rewards for their contribution. The Sandbox also features an NFT marketplace where players can trade a wide range of in-game items, including land parcels and digital art. It is also noteworthy that the virtual land on The Sandbox is limited to 166,464 parcels, with the current floor price hovering around 1 ETH (slightly above $1,200 as per the prevailing market prices). Decentraland Decentraland was launched two years ago. It’s a metaverse platform - just like Sandbox. In this virtual world, a player can leverage the native MANA token to create personas, and buy a place or more advanced gaming gear. There are over 90,000 land pieces on Decentraland and every lot can be rented out including the structures on it. Players can also generate additional income by trading their in-game items, planning concerts, and even setting up events where virtual artwork will be sold. As of writing, Decentraland’s native token MANA enjoys a market of over $500 million, although the value has been on a steady decline following the bear market turmoil. Axie Infinity Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based game on the Ethereum network featuring collectible creatures called Axies. Players can breed, battle, and sell Axies to build their team and earn rewards in the form of Smooth Love Potion tokens (SLP), which can be liquidated for fiat or other crypto assets. The game also includes a marketplace where players can buy and sell their digital items, allowing them to create custom landscapes and battle arenas. This metaverse-based game became popular during the covid 19 lockdown period, with players from developing countries such as The Philippines earning a living from the in-game rewards. Setting the Stage for the Next Era of Virtual Gaming It is difficult to predict with certainty how the metaverse will change the gaming industry over the next five years, as it depends on a variety of factors such as the development and adoption of new technologies, market trends, and the creative direction of game developers. However, it is likely that the metaverse will continue to evolve and become increasingly integrated with the gaming industry and other industries, potentially leading to new forms of gaming experiences and business models. For example, the metaverse could potentially enable new types of multiplayer gaming experiences that are more immersive and interactive, as well as the development of virtual economies and in-game marketplaces. It could also potentially allow for the creation of virtual events and experiences that can be accessed by a global audience. Overall, the metaverse has the potential to significantly transform the gaming industry and the way we interact with and experience games. However, it is important to keep in mind that the development of the metaverse is a complex and ongoing process, and it will likely take some time before we see its full potential realized.

The Metaverse vs the Billion-Dollar Gaming Industry

The four biggest growth and mobile marketing trends to look out for in 2023 are driven by an uncertain economy, more consolidation through acquisition, and the continued emphasis on privacy within the mobile ecosystem. Marketers can expect (yet, again) another turbulent year ahead, but it will include significant opportunities. 1. Connected TV has reached a Crucial Tipping Point 2022 was a year to remember for . Mergers and consolidation dominated the headlines as the major streaming services poured billions into expanding their content libraries. Perhaps unsurprisingly, subscription-based OTT models began to cede ground to ad-supported models in 2022, as well. Even and announced ad-supported models. Could these new models in combination with larger macroeconomic factors impacting the CTV space mean 2023 will finally be the tipping point year for connected platforms and mobile marketing? Connected TV Netflix Disney+ With streaming services getting more ad-friendly, marketers are finally poised to see ad inventory scale to a degree only hinted at previously. The past 5 years have been a kind of steady building period for connected platforms. Increased consolidation, inflationary pressures, and streaming services’ newfound willingness to experiment with alternative revenue models mean there is now legitimate hope for mobile marketers to unlock a massive amount of new inventory in 2023! Helping matters is the fact that brands are also finally in a place where they can measure their potential ad spend on connected platforms. There has historically been a disconnect between the more analog/linear versions of TV advertising and ad measurement. CTV campaigns are being held to an outcome standard more than ever before. Most companies now utilizing CTV inventory expect the sort of measurement capabilities usually reserved for the online landscape. These new performance measurement capabilities will only lead to more ad dollars moving into CTV allowing the space to finally achieve its long-promised potential. 2. Mobile Gaming: More growth but also more ‘interesting’ It’s anticipated that In 2023 the global number of players for the first time in history. As a result ad dollars will continue to flow into in record numbers to reach these huge potential audiences. Yet, mobile marketers will have to deal with a more complicated landscape in 2023 and, yet, one which could ultimately lift the space even higher. will surpass the three-billion mark mobile gaming IAB its Intrinsic In-Game (IIG) Measurement Guidelines to establish updated measurement guidelines for ads that appear within gameplay. Although in-game ad tech has in recent years, measurement practices have not. It’s been over a decade since they last were updated. recently released improved at a rapid pace These new standards have in-game ad companies looking for ways to comply but also feeling bullish about their products. As with CTV, the expectation is that with better measurement, increased transparency and more accountability will come more brands, marketers, and ad dollars into the space. There will be challenges, though, such as addressing viewability and other unique challenges specific to gaming environments. What happens when in-game objects obscure ads, or,  how do you measure indirect ad sightlines in 3D/virtual environments? The hope is that the updated measurement standards will go a long way toward providing much-needed guardrails. We’ll also see an influx of new Ad Tech operators into the space to help address these new measurement guidelines. Either way, these standards will undoubtedly provide their own new set of challenges (and opportunities) for mobile marketers. As buyers become more confident with in-game advertising standards, though, spending will only increase. 3. The secondary effects of more walled gardens 2022 was a year marked by mergers and consolidation in mobile. This past January we witnessed Sony’s , Take-Two’s , Microsoft’s massive , later in the year. Those four deals alone eclipsed (in what had already been a record year for the industry!) 2023 will likely see more M&A activity but we should also begin to feel the repercussions of all this consolidation, as well. $3.6 billion purchase of Bungie $12.7 billion deal for mobile giant Zynga $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Unity’s acquired Iron Source the total M&A activity for 2021 One of the major secondary effects of all the M&A activity will be the continued increase in walled gardens within the mobile marketing ecosystem. Those left outside in 2022 will look to build strategic alliances and work to acquire mid-level players in 2023 to create their own private data networks so as to compete with the oligopoly that is Apple, Google, and Facebook — which will also likely remain acquisitive during 2023. Even with the proliferation of all these walled gardens, there’s still going to be a need and opportunity for smaller, independent DSPs. They tend to allow for connection across multiple ecosystems and can offer incentives to clients — such as data ownership and portability — that will make them more appealing to brands. provides a glimpse into what these types of independent Ad Tech companies can do when they strategically link up. OpenAP has already signed on over 800 media agencies including Viacom and Turner. OpenAP We should see in 2023 a proliferation of these types of independent networks that offer competitive or superior solutions – particularly if they can focus on areas of opportunity and need, such as cross-device targeting, next-level measurement, and attribution. 4. Don’t forget about the economy Even with recent data suggesting we may have seen peak inflation and that we may soon return to a normalized economy, inflation will still be with us for most if not all of 2023. The mobile ecosystem will not be immune to inflationary pressures. 2022 saw the average price of an in-app purchase (IAP) jump 40% year-over-year in the U.S. on the iOS App Store and 9% on the Google Play store. As inflation rises so does the value of retargeting. IAP prices began rising before inflation, indicating publishers could be reacting to the spike in acquisition costs following ATT. For marketers planning their budgets for 2023, the increase in IAP costs presents a unique opportunity to invest in mobile app retargeting to drive additional sales and cut down on acquisition costs. 2023 certainly has all the makings of being an uneven, bumpy year. There will be crucial changes in the digital and mobile marketing field as brands and vendors adapt and adjust. But there are many positive trends to look forward to in the growth and mobile marketing space. The ever-increasing numbers and demand for mobile consumers mean the advertising in 2023 will continue with significant growth across the space. prominence of mobile Also published . here

Connected TV, Mobile Gaming — Here Are Some Mobile Marketing Trends That Will Shape 2023 

Microsoft's acquisition history dates back to July 30, 1987, when it made its first acquisition. Forethought was a computer software company founded in 1983. The company developed a computer program best known as Microsoft PowerPoint today. Ten years later, Microsoft merged Hotmail into its MSN group of services after purchasing Hotmail.com for , at the time its largest acquisition. $500 million After that, Microsoft went on to acquire over . 225 companies From acquiring Hotmail.com on December 31, 1997, to moving to buy Activision Blizzard on January 2022, Microsoft seems to always make headlines each year with its buyout of companies, the company has purchased an average of a year. six companies Between 2005 and 2008, the company acquired more than ten businesses annually, with its 18 acquisitions in 2006 being the biggest in a single year. Today, Microsoft is on it again. The purchase of Activision is famed to be the biggest deal in video game history, no doubt Microsoft is paying so much for it. But why is the FTC on Microsoft's tail? “Because of the vote taken by the FTC commissioners earlier today, Microsoft is going to have a much harder time completing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.” - Joe Troyer, CEO & Head of Growth, DigitalTriggers The enforcement of civil antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection are the main responsibilities of the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency of the US government. According to information on the organization's , they have been doing that for over 100 years. website The organization has a reputation for battling Big Tech.  Almost the same lawsuit it has with Microsoft now was fought head-on with in the middle of last year. Facebook The FTC aims to prevent Microsoft's acquisition of Activision, according to the agency, by giving the tech behemoth ownership over Activision's most popular video game properties, the $69 billion merger might stifle Xbox competitors. The FTC's lawsuit asserts that the Xbox maker would obtain ownership of major video game properties, giving it the ability to hurt competition in high-performance gaming systems and subscription services by limiting or weakening rivals' access to its well-liked content. “The FTC’s decision not to approve the Microsoft buyout of Activision Blizzard is a significant setback for the company. However, the FTC’s analysis is only one factor that must be considered in any antitrust decision. The key question is whether the proposed acquisition would result in anticompetitive effects. Microsoft has presented a number of arguments in support of the proposed acquisition, and the FTC will now consider these arguments.” - Rick Costa, Houselectric.com The FTC  claims that some of the most well-known video games in the world are produced by Activision and that Microsoft might raise the cost of these games or make it more difficult, if not impossible, to play them on rival platforms. “Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.” - Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. Holly Vedova, However, Microsoft claims that the transaction will improve competition and benefits customers. https://twitter.com/BradSmi/status/1600939963377254400?embedable=true The US government agency will go on to give examples of how Microsoft has done in the past with its acquisition of brands and its promises of a better future. Pointing to Microsoft's history with Bethesda, a video game studio it acquired in the FTC said, “Microsoft decided to make several of Bethesda’s titles including Starfield and Redfall Microsoft exclusives despite assurances it had given to European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to withhold games from rival consoles.” 2021 for $7.5 billion Microsoft has had quite a reputation for making acquisitions and promises, the question is, how much of the FTC concern is justified? What Has Happened To Each Studio Microsoft Has Purchased? In 1999, studios launched in 1995 under the name FASA Interactive Technologies. FASA provided two MechAssault titles for the Xbox when Microsoft first entered the console market. The studio created MechCommander 1 and 2, MechWarrior 4, Mechassault 1 and 2, and other mech-focused games. In order to produce the action arcade flying game Crimson Skies in 2003, it momentarily broke away from walking armor and in 2007, . Microsft bought FASA Microsoft shut it down Remember Halo Wars? It was an offshoot of Microsoft's longest-running video game series, produced by Ensemble. The company was bought by and Halo Wars, which was under production throughout 2006 and 2007, was almost finished when Microsoft decided to shut the studio down. Microsoft in 2001 The list goes on and on. For game studios, being acquired by Microsoft should be advantageous. Now that they are connected to a significant player in the gaming industry, success seems to be assured, doesn't it? But now we see that a company might experience anything from hugely successful games to total oblivion if the experiences of past game development companies that Microsoft acquired give any hint. Somehow, it didn't seem like Microsoft was buying Mojang, the maker of Minecraft, for its own platforms when it paid $2.5 billion for the business in 2014. The popular video game Minecraft is playable on all major platforms, including smartphones. Microsoft has been quite clear that it is not interested in exclusives, and it still says so. previously “Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to __ __following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King.  Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however, they choose to play. @Nintendo ” @ATVI_AB - Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, But all of a sudden the strategy seems to be focusing on exclusive games. With Bethesda games like Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 , we can immediately question if the same thing should not be anticipated with Activision Blizzard’s catalog in the future. available only on Xbox Maybe FTC concerns are justified after all. “Ultimately the FTC blocked this acquisition because their mandate is to prevent monopolies, and I agree that it would not be ideal. It’s clear that Microsoft was interested in Activision Blizzard as a way to advance their metaverse efforts, however, the whole idea of the metaverse revolves around the concept of decentralization.” - Colin Fitzpatrick, CEO of Animal Concerts The most well-known and ambitious games from Activision Blizzard, like Call of Duty and Overwatch, have always been accessible on all major platforms, but that may suddenly change. If it does, that means that the upcoming Call of Duty game will be an Xbox exclusive and may not even be released on the PlayStation 5. Microsoft has indicated that it would not back out of the agreement and would fight in court to maintain the acquisition, and Bobby Kotick, Activision’s chief executive supports that motive. “I want to reinforce my confidence that this deal will close, the allegation that this deal is anti-competitive doesn’t align with the facts, and we believe we’ll win this challenge.” - , Vice Chair and President Microsoft. Bobby Kotick Lulu Cheng Meservey, executive vice president of corporate affairs and chief communication officer at Activision Blizzard also thinks FTC doesn’t have a business suing Microsoft. “The FTC’s job is to protect consumers, not competitors, this vote departs from precedent but the law hasn’t changed. Any claim the deal is anticompetitive ignores facts; the deal benefits gamers and the industry, especially given competition from abroad. We look forward to proving our case in court and closing our deal with Microsoft.” - , CCO, Activision Blizzard. Lulu Cheng Meservey Eventually, when (and if) the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is completed, we'll finally see how it all turns out. Is it likely that this deal will be successfully completed, or do you believe there may be obstacles or issues that could prevent it from being finalized?

The Story of Microsoft Buyouts: Why the FTC Won’t Let Them Acquire Activision

La historia de las adquisiciones de Microsoft: por qué la FTC no les permite adquirir Activision

L'histoire des rachats de Microsoft : pourquoi la FTC ne les laissera pas acquérir Activision

माइक्रोसॉफ्ट बायआउट्स की कहानी: एफटीसी उन्हें सक्रियता हासिल करने क्यों नहीं देगा

マイクロソフト買収の話: FTC が Activision の買収を許可しない理由

A história das aquisições da Microsoft: por que a FTC não permite que adquiram a Activision

Câu chuyện mua lại Microsoft: Tại sao FTC không để họ mua lại Activision

微软收购的故事：为什么 FTC 不会让他们收购 Activision

Without a doubt, Microsoft, a US-based technology company, is a leading international software company that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services. Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, Microsoft has been committed to providing the best technology worldwide. They are always looking for ways to improve their products and make them more user-friendly. After a series of Microsoft acquisitions, such as Activision Blizzard Inc, a big game-holding firm, Mojang, Hotmail, and GitHub, Microsoft has recently forayed into DIY designing. In a recent report by , the American technology company is prepared to leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence for easy designing. Is this another competition for a SaaS startup such as Canva? Let's see. Tech Crunch Microsoft Bundling: A Killer Business Strategy? Over the years, Microsoft has been known to bundle services in a suite of products at a lesser price. For example, "Office" software is a suite of other software such as Excel, Access, and PowerPoint. This business strategy is known as "bundling." Bundling is the practice of combining multiple products or services into one offering. It is a strategy that can help you increase sales, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. The idea behind bundling is that the customer will be more likely to buy something if they can get multiple things at a discount, even if they don't need or want them. Notably, Microsoft has been into this for decades. For instance, according to a in 1998, when Microsoft bundled its Internet Explorer with its Operating System Windows, the market share of Netscape Navigator decreased by 8.9% to 52.2%, while the market share of Internet Explorer increased by 9.6% to 45.6 percent. Notably, Netscape Navigator was one of the first web browsers for personal computers. It was released in December 1994 by Netscape Communications Corporation and became known as the best-known browser until Internet Explorer's release in 1995. New York Times report Bundling, for years, has been known to be a good business strategy. Besides simplifying the customer experience and decreasing marketing costs, bundling has also been known to be an agent of growth for average order value. For instance, a tech giant like Amazon uses an algorithm that bundles complementary items together in one listing. For example, when you want to buy a luxury shaving brush and a shave cream or oil, they get bundled in a shaving kit. See the picture below: Source: Amazon.com This strategy works best when the buyer is attracted to all of the products offered in the bundle but doesn't want to buy each individually. Large companies like Microsoft understand that the key to making bundling work is knowing their audience and understanding what types of bundles will appeal to them. Is Microsoft A Threat To PLG Startups? Over the years, Microsoft has been creating products that give others a run for their money, especially PLG startups. Product Led Growth (PLG) has been a popular topic in the marketing world recently. In fact, the reason is not far-fetched. The idea of focusing on your product or service to grow your business is rooted in the PLG philosophy. PLG has been the focal point of mission for most SaaS products. Equally important, the products' mission is to drive business growth through solution-based offers. This is why PLG products prioritize user experience because the failure or the success of a PLG product lies in the real value the end user gets. These products include Zoom, Dropbox, Calendly, Evernote, Figma, Loom, Slack, Shopify, Okta, Cloudfare, Webflow, Twilio, and others. Notably, because PLG SaaS products promote an experience of democracy, instant, and value, they have been the real deal in today's adoption of products. In fact, their market capitalization has, over the years, increased astronomically.  Below is a bar chart showing the growth of PLG companies over the years. Source: bvp.com Irrespective of the growth of PLG SaaS companies, Microsoft, a tech giant, has been giving some of them a challenge. For instance, Slack has been an indispensable member of the PLG class. Slack, an app that lets you communicate with your team in an efficient and organized way, was the fastest startup to grow from $1M to $100m over three years before Wiz broke the record in 18 months. Despite this unprecedented growth by Slack, Microsoft launched Teams, an app that does things similar to Slack, in 2017 to rival Slack. Teams' number of daily active users(DAUs) increased from 145 million users in 2021 to 270 million in 2022, according to . On the other hand, Slack, the pioneer in offering the services it now shares with Teams, boasts over 10 million daily active users. In fact, according to , Slack is projected to have 75 million monthly active users by 2025—a figure far from what Microsoft's Teams presently records. Statista Statista Further, Microsoft launched Microsoft Clarity, an analytics app that helps publishers analyze data and gain insights into users' interactions on their websites. Microsoft Clarity was launched in 2020, while Hotjar, another user behavior analytics app, started in 2014. With the momentum Microsoft Clarity is getting, it's become a challenge for Hotjar, which had been in business before the advent of its competitor. A tweet showing tweeps comparing Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity. Now, it appears to be Canva's time to share the brunt of the competition. For years, Canva, a drag-and-drop design tool that allows users to easily create great-looking designs without needing design skills, has been the deal for DIY designing. However, it appears Microsoft is ready to give it a challenge as it launches Designer, a design app that "represents an alternative to Canva," according to a report. Canva was valued at $40 billion as of September 2021, according to , and it presently boasts 100 million monthly active users. CNBC TechCrunch However, while the new Designer app by Microsoft appears to be a competition for Canva, Canva has, on the other hand, been a competitor for Microsoft Office. From introducing to edit documents to offering free presentation slides to compete with PowerPoint, it's been an atmosphere of competition between the two. Without a doubt, a bundling of Designer to the Office suite could lead to a potential decrease in Canva subscriptions. With integration with DALL-E, an AI software that turns texts into pictures, Designer is looking to leverage Artificial Intelligence in the competitive market it's set to join. Canva Docs Growth Marketing Strategies To Learn From Microsoft Bundling There are growth marketing strategies you can learn from Microsoft bundling as a business strategy. Here are some of them: Cross-Channel Marketing Cross-channel marketing is a growth marketing strategy where you sell your product or service in multiple channels. Cross-channel marketing can be incredibly effective because it makes it easier for customers to get several things they need in one purchase rather than making them go through the trouble of buying each thing separately. With Microsoft bundling, growth marketing enthusiasts can leverage the power of cross-channel marketing to increase marketing campaigns and profitability. Disruptive Marketing Disruptive marketing is a growth marketing strategy that takes a different approach to the old methods by initiating new ones. It's not about having a huge advertising budget or spending a lot of money on ads; it's about thinking creatively and creating something original that stands out from the competition. Bundling can be used in disruptive marketing by offering something new and different—something people didn't even know they wanted or needed. Indeed, bundling is an essential component of disruptive marketing because it allows you to offer your product at a lower cost while still making money. Conversion Rate Optimization Conversion rate optimization is a growth marketing strategy that ensures that people who arrive at your website can convert into customers. When it comes to conversion rate optimization, there's a lot you can do. If you're looking to improve your conversion rate, one of the best ways is through bundling. Bundling helps with this both by giving users more information about what you're offering and by allowing them to make a decision quickly, which makes it easier for them to move on if they don't find what they're looking for. Conclusion Ultimately, it's important to note that competition is a natural phenomenon in markets, and Microsoft, a tech giant always hungry for more success. Microsoft is indeed a worthy competitor from which strategies to thrive in business can be learned. Competition is a crucial component of quality markets. Without a doubt, when there's no competition, it becomes a limitation.

Microsoft: A Worthy Competitor Or A Killer Of Startups?

Living in this era of digitization used to seem impossible. However, technology has changed our perspective of the world around us while making our lives significantly easier. Modern technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks continue to provide efficient solutions for everyday problems. And now, things are advancing with revolutionary concepts, such as the Metaverse. Tech companies are shifting their concerns toward the metaverse. Well, the idea is not new compared to the recent hype. It is a confusing concept for most of us, but when examined in detail, the metaverse has the potential to reshape the internet. Before diving deeper into the virtual world, keep in mind that the Metaverse is not completely live. Large tech companies are keen to convert the idea into reality. The recent transformation of the social networking giant is a clear sign that Metaverse is the future. Facebook into Meta Metaverse: The Internet Just Got Real Metaverse is “a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users” The term “Metaverse” can be defined as a digital or virtual universe. The term was coined back in 1992 in a sci-fi novel, by Neal Stephenson. Later the gaming industry stepped up to adopt the concept with the launch of an online in 2003. Snow Crash game To understand the metaverse better let us compare the modern-day internet with this emerging virtual universe. The web is made up of a chain of countless servers, computers, and other electrical devices connected with each other. People can browse websites, communicate with one another, and can perform trading in products and services. Meanwhile, the metaverse does not compete with the internet but builds on top of it. People can mimic real-world scenarios using modern technologies such as and . Digital currencies and social media will also play an integral role in this transformation. Apart from just chatting and streaming, the Metaverse lets you interact, learn, earn, play, and work without physically changing your position. VR (Virtual Reality) AR (Augmented Reality) Why does the Metaverse Matter? The metaverse aims to fuse the real world with the digital world. It will offer new avenues for communication and interaction among users in a virtual environment. This new ecosystem of shared virtual worlds will be the revolution for the existing networks of the globe. To enter the metaverse, you need to have a virtual reality system set up which will take you to digital dimensions. The 3D avatars will work as user identity across virtual space. The metaverse will also upgrade social media networks with a whole new three-dimensional experience. The immersive space will improve the interaction between people from different regions, this might be the reason Meta is investing enormous amounts in it. An Online conducted in December 2021 reveals different perspectives of people towards the metaverse. Some see it as a good platform for self-expression, while 29% of respondents also consider it an innovative tool for education. Many see it as an opportunity to travel the entire world without moving, 34% of people selected the option of Metaverse helping in overcoming real-life obstacles. survey The Evolution of the Existing Industries with Metaverse Like and other innovations, the metaverse will also transform industries in the digital age. We have seen earlier that the futuristic concept is well adopted by the gaming industry. Other sectors such as the financial and travel industries will experience momentous changes from implementing the metaverse. Web3 Immersive Gaming with Metaverse The recent massive acquisition of is a clear indication of the company’s desire to bolster the emerging concept of Metaverse. Apart from ideas, there are games such as the that lets players create, own, and govern their digital worlds with non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrency. It is in fact, an Ethereum-powered multiplayer platform that enables the future of blockchain gaming. There are many firms that see the Metaverse as the future of the gaming industry. Epic Games, the company behind the popular battle royale game, Fortnite, is also a notable supporter of the idea. Some other significant names include Roblox, Take2, and Tencent Games. Activision Blizzard by Microsoft Sandbox The Future of Social Media Social media is the main force that connects people across the globe. People utilize social networking sites as much as anything else. A recent data report from July 2022 reveals that there are almost monthly active users on Facebook. Meta is investing enormous amounts in the Metaverse as it is the future of social media. The addition of 3D avatars on Facebook, Instagram, and other networks ensures the next generation of communication and social interaction. People will render their three-dimensional identities to perform various activities together. The future predicts digital currencies and trading of services over these platforms, enabling new ways of sharing information. 3 billion New Possibilities in Education Sector The educational industry can take great advantage of the metaverse. It will provide new possibilities for learning through virtual and augmented reality, enabling improved outcomes. A prime example of blended learning was seen during the time of COVID-19. In the UK, the keyword “Free Online Learning” experienced the highest rise of on Google during the period of the pandemic. 360% 3D simulation on metaverse can improve learning opportunities with deliberate practice of educational principles. The revolutionary concept will also improve the academic experience of people with disabilities. By entering the Metaverse, everyone can enjoy immersion, promoting equality and good practices. Final Thoughts Merging the real and digital worlds together, the Metaverse promises an authentic experience for people. Companies investing and putting their trust in the revolutionary concept will enable the metaverse to take real world operations into digital spaces. Everything we love about digital interaction will be magnified and it will open a new world of experiences to share with our loved ones. Still, there are challenges to be addressed before the metaverse can achieve worldwide adoption and widespread use. One of the key challenges is the implementation of seamless virtual interaction.

The Metaverse is the Next Generation of Digital Interaction in Virtual Reality 

You may not have heard about the new emerging term “metaverse”, yet it has quickly become a tech buzzword. The Metaverse is predicted to be the future of the Internet and become widespread soon due to the investment and hype of many tech giants such as Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Apple, etc. This cutting-edge technology promises to bring about many amazing applications to our life. What is the Metaverse? It may be overwhelming to look at many different definitions of the Metaverse on the Internet, but it is not that complicated. The term “metaverse” was first used in 1992 in a fiction novel by Neal Stephenson as the combination of two words: meta means “beyond” and verse is short for “the universe”. The Metaverse can simply be understood as a “cyberspace” or “virtual world” generated by the Internet and supporting devices such as AR and VR. It is an online environment everyone can access and have deep interactions with each other while being far away. Moreover, users can enter the Metaverse to interact with virtual objects. For the best immersive experience in the Metaverse, VR or AR headsets are used. Moreover, users can be equipped with haptic VR suits and gloves or controllers to feel and interact with the things in the Metaverse in the closest way to the real experience. However, those who cannot afford a headset can use their phones or laptops to enter and interact in the Metaverse. The Metaverse in the recent time If the main purpose of using the Metaverse is to interact with each other then why do we need it? We already have smartphones or laptops which can enable us to talk and see each other remotely. The Metaverse was born due to technological development and the demands of having a virtual world for people to immerse themselves in and have deep interactions. In this new virtual world, users can have a better immersive experience by having eye contact, chatting, or even physical touches. Many companies and organisations have hopped on the board of the Metaverse bandwagon for its huge potential. Facebook changed its name to meta and is about to launch its Metaverse called Horizon World. Besides, its most prominent VR headsets-Oculus Quest has changed into Meta Quest. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also acquired Activision Blizzard which creates Candy Crush and Call of Duty. Moreover, you can find many games in the Metaverse now like Axie Infinity, Decentraland or The Sandbox. Use cases of the Metaverse Entertainment Ariana Grande’s virtual show is one of the most popular use cases of the Metaverse in the entertainment field. Instead of paying a huge expense for traveling and housing when attending their idols' concerts, fans can now enjoy the shows right in their homes with the Metaverse. Business In the aspect of Business, the Metaverse is a platform that can be utilized to build virtual showrooms for users to experience the products before purchasing conveniently. Moreover, meetings are now easier in the Metaverse because it helps us to save time and effort in transportation. Fashion You may have never thought that the Metaverse can make a huge contribution to protecting the environment. Fashion is seen as one of the industries polluting our habitat the most. Some designs are created for art’s sake and never worn more than once, apart from when they are on the show. That’s why Fashion shows in the Metaverse are a great solution. With virtual outfits in the Metaverse, we can both have fancy fashion shows and be environmentally friendly as well. Gaming To meet the users’ demands, Games are developed in the Metaverse to provide gamers with an immersive experience. Some prominent names in the Metaverse are Decentraland, Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, Illuvium, Chain of Alliance, etc. Sports The Metaverse deserves to be called a futuristic world. According to Mark Zuckerberg, you can, in the near future, even play sports in the Metaverse with your friends from far away. If you are not one who likes to play, you can enjoy sports matches in the Metaverse with a much more exciting experience than watching through a 2D screen.

The Metaverse in Real Life

A brief introduction In 2018, the gaming industry was valued at about 140 billion USD. This number is predicted to go up to 200 billion by the end of 2022, according to a Forbes published on 3 June 2022. The number of gamers currently involved in the ecosystem is about 3.24 billion people around the globe. That is around 50% of the world’s population (obviously), which shouldn’t be a surprising number. After all, if you are reading this article, I would place my bet on the fact that you must have played games on a mobile/PC/console at least at some point in your life. article The reason that we get so addicted to games is that they’re fun. Not because they allow players to take responsibility for their players or to develop their reflexes, but simply because they are fun. Gamers can spend hours grinding for a game and create a certain reputation. Some of them build an audience that enjoys just as much spectating the gameplay as they do playing the game themselves. Gamers get a self-reinforcing incentive to grind even more and improve at a game. That is what web2 gaming focused on. Fast forward to 2020, and you see a different future emerging for the gaming ecosystem. Nevertheless, many gamers claim to “hate” the change being brought. Even though the web3 gaming ecosystem had promised to allow the gamers to play-to-earn(P2E), the shift has been relatively slow. Let us explore the reason behind this. Gamers Hate Miners Firstly, gamers have hated miners since the middle of 2020. “With the pandemic in full swing, governments enforced lockdowns, causing businesses to shutter and forcing many to work at home. As the year went by, many people discovered that mining crypto, especially Bitcoin and Ethereum, could be lucrative. This caused prices to skyrocket from around $6,000 in March 2020 to more than $55,000 just one year later. The near ten-fold increase further increased crypto hype which, unfortunately, relied on GPUs for processing,” — according to an published in 2021. A lack of supply caused GPU prices to increase, which was not favorable for gamers who needed GPUs to play games. The conflict of demand for the same product gave birth to animosity between the two groups of people: gamers and miners. Seeds of hatred for the blockchains might have been planted in those early days. With the current prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies crashing, the ban on mining in China, and Ethereum moving to PoS — the prices for GPUs will hopefully continue easing up worldwide (see graph below). article Secondly, many P2E games that advertise as “play-to-earn” eventually become “pay-to-earn” games. Axie Infinity, which at a certain point in time allowed gamers in the Philippines to earn more than the minimum wage in the country, might have dipped in popularity for this reason only. Revenue is diverted from the newcomers to those who have been in the games since the beginning. However, if you have weight in your bags, you can simply buy a couple of doxxed NFTs and be at the top of the game not by experience but by having cash. Hardworking gamers most certainly do not like that since the concept undermines the hard work invested in the game by players. Thirdly, NFTs have a get-rich-quick narrative around them. The NFT market bull run in 2021 made people believe you can quickly get rich by trading NFTs. “This is just the pure desire to get rich that drives everything in the crypto space right now. It’s another of these bubble manias,” says Frances Coppola, a finance and economics commentator. Nobody likes lucky winners. Neither do gamers. Web3 gaming is supposed to be built on NFTs, and if gamers don’t like NFTs, yet another reason crops up to hate crypto gaming as well. More on NFT’s below. The promise that the blockchain has made is to transfer the power of authority from centralized entities to the masses. Web3 gaming was also supposed to transfer ownership to the gamers via NFTs. However, this promise was never delivered. NFTs for games started becoming a road to raising money for the development of the games. Gamers are not investors. That is what companies like Animoca or Sky Mavis must understand. What they tried to do was raise money by selling NFTs even before the game used to be built. An approach worth giving a shot would probably be to build the product first and then supply monetary incentives for the gamers. With the highly unperfected graphics for the games available, gamers do not have a solid reason to shift from the games they are playing today. Another primary reason for the hate would be that web3 gaming might be highly overvalued. Sony, the largest video game company in the world by revenue, makes around 25 billion USD per annum. Activision, Ubisoft, Tencent, and Nintendo together drive revenue of about 30 billion. Sum the largest gaming companies according to their market cap, and you get a valuation of around 1 trillion USD. But, almost any game that we have ever played are produced by studios that we have heard of dozens of time and are used to. Meanwhile, AXS, the governance token for the blockchain game Axie Infinity had a fully diluted valuation of around $ 40 billion at its peak. That is a considerable number comparable to Activision Blizzard’s market cap of 60 billion USD today. If we compare the fame gained by Axie Infinity with the developer behind the call of Duty, HearthStone, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush, etc., obviously the winner emerges rather quickly. The amount of hard work gone into the franchises that Activision has built is incomparable to that of blockchain games today. This leads to the obvious observation that the web3 gaming ecosystem may have been highly overvalued, which irks the apparent fans of the established gaming companies. Possible solutions Even though I have discussed some of the most probable reasons we have not seen a substantial shift of users from the conventional games to the P2E economy, this does not mean that web3 gaming is not here to stay. In a vast majority of the cases, consumers do not know what they want. Gamers alike might not be interested in the ecosystem right now. However, they will be when the infrastructure is ready. If you are reading this in 2022, you are early. The infrastructure for web3 gaming is currently being built (similar to Defi in 2018). It might take a couple of months, or probably years, for the ecosystem to be ready for millions of new users. Several projects are working on it e.g , a company in Delhi, is currently working on Web3 “CVs” for gamers. R t.co espc Their infrastructure is currently being built for the next generation of gamers, including an NFT lending platform, a marketplace, and a decentralised ID for gamers. Yet another reason for the huddle in adoption of web3 games is the responsibility of storing private keys safely. However, Respect is also working on a solution for that (with semi-custodial wallets that don’t require users to bother about keeping their private keys secret).I believe that right now it is the time to build. With not much hype around scams and shitcoins, the With not many projects staying around, it might be the perfect time to build before the next bull market. problem-solvers that are here to stay are perfecting their solutions. Hope you liked the article, and let me know if there are statements that might have been incorrect. : I am also a Solidity dev at Respct.co, however this post reflects purely own opinions. Disclosure Have a great day! More Have a great day!

Why Some Gamers Dislike the P2E Movement

Blizzard attempts to breathe fresh air into a fading, but loyal IP The announcement of Overwatch 2, revealed at Blizzcon 2019, divided much of the game's fanbase. But the problem wasn't the once fiercely loyal fans fervently arguing over their ideal version of the game, it was the indecision and lack of direction taking place within the walls of Activision/Blizzard/King. While on paper, a sequel to a once wildly popular title like Overwatch seems like an easy win for a AAA developer like Blizzard, who employs more than 100 developers in Overwatch's Team 4 alone. But it turns out, getting the game into the hands of players and fans has been much harder than they anticipated. The main problem, as it seems to have turned out, was the lack of direction from higher-ups in regards to what exactly they wanted to be done with Overwatch 2. Was it to be a PvE (player versus environment) with PvP (player versus player) updates, or continue filling its niche as the fast-paced team shooter that so many fell in love with? What could they do to bring the players back that they lost? Development Purgatory Much of the problems with creating a game like Overwatch, or any hero/class shooter game, is just the balancing aspect of it. This was a problem plaguing their original title, as it had received little to no updates since the development of the sequel began. Many of the popular compositions being played were considered "meta" for up to a year at a time. The PvE missions had been the same every year, special event skins were getting seemingly more and more plain. But the problems at Activision/Blizzard were just beginning. The news of workplace sexual harassment rocked, but not necessarily shocked, much of the gaming world. Being caught in the middle of a PR storm, and losing their Vice President, Jeff Kaplan, Blizzard doubled down on getting as much of the game done as possible and getting it into the hands of fans that had been waiting almost 3 years for a glimpse at what the future might hold for Overwatch. Microsoft steps in In quite surprising news, tech giant Microsoft offered Activision/Blizzard a deal they couldn't refuse, ultimately settling at $68.7 billion for acquisition. Would this fix any of the pervasive frat-boy cultures that had been so prevalent in the offices? Would it get the development back on track? But most importantly; would it simply gut much of their titles, keeping only the most lucrative in their portfolio? Fans feared the worst. But then we got real, tangible news. Overwatch 2, a beacon of light in the mist Then it came; April 26th. We finally had a date. The community was hesitantly excited, we had gone through years of stale gameplay, with little to no updates or content added. We were losing a teammate going from 6 players on a team to only 5. Still, fans were yearning for more news. The fifth season of the Overwatch League was to be played on the beta patch, throwing a wrench into many of the organizations that had spent the season building synergy between their 6 personal rosters. The community seems split on Overwatch 2 gameplay, but most seem happy just to have any sort of content added. The core mechanics of the game felt much the same, but the pacing was different, the UI was different, and we finally had new maps and a new hero to play-test. The beta, unfortunately, came to a close on May 17th, but don't fret. The Overwatch team announced that on June 16th, they would be sharing more news pertaining to Overwatch 2, as well as new PVP beta. For now, the community seems to have stepped back from their metaphorical ledge and embraced change, even if it doesn't fit their ideal vision of the game. The future is uncertain for Overwatch 2 and Blizzard in general, but for the first time in a long time, fans are excited for what the future holds and eager to see more of the game they've been so patiently waiting for.

Overwatch 2: Will It Hold Up?

The last month will go down in history as "black February" and not so much because of volatility in the markets as growing geopolitical tensions. Despite all the promises, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light to a so-called "military operation" in Ukraine. It didn’t take long for Europe and the US to respond. In a matter of days, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the prohibited United States persons from engaging in transactions with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. Treasury This action effectively immobilizes any assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation held in the United States or by U.S. persons, wherever located. On top of that, the United States and its allies have announced that they are prepared to restrict imports of Russian technology products by 50%. Lose-lose situation The only problem is that anti-Russian sanctions have also punished the global economy: gas and oil prices are skyrocketing, whereas prices for metals, including palladium, which is widely used in the manufacture of automotive catalysts, have hit multi-year highs. In this context, it shouldn’t be a surprise that inflation expectations have spiked once again. According to the latest , Eurozone consumer prices rose by a record 5.8 percent in February. data The jump in the cost of living in the Eurozone to well above the ECB’s 2 percent inflation target has divided the central bank into two groups: those who are pushing for tighter monetary policy to tackle inflation and those who want a pause to assess the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Prepare for High Gas Prices Regarding energy prices, the biggest issue is that the world's leading oil powers simply cannot increase production due to lack of capacity because of extremely low investment in the industry in recent years. Even the current quotas are not fully taken by OPEC+ countries. The good news is that the prospects for the Iran nuclear deal remain important for the oil market. Negotiators are gradually moving closer to a consensus, which could mean the removal of sanctions on Iranian oil exports and would add up to 1 million barrels to the market by 2022. Iran currently produces about 2.5 million b/d. It is forecasted that the rapid growth of commodity prices could end up pushing up inflation in the U.S. and EU. The monetary authorities will inevitably react to this by raising refinancing rates, which will raise the cost of loans for businesses. Given the rise in the cost of industrial raw materials, along with energy, this will inevitably lead to a downturn in the global economy. In particular, JPMorgan Chase & Co. a run-up to $150 a barrel would almost stall the global expansion and send inflation spiraling to over 7%, more than three times the rate targeted by most monetary policymakers. warns How to Save Money Despite rising inflation expectations, the major cryptocurrency failed to justify its safe-haven status. Possible reasons for the continuation of the sideways trend include geopolitical tensions, as well as increased hawkish sentiment at the Federal Reserve. If risk-off in the markets continues, Bitcoin's return to historical records may be delayed. In the meantime, Exchange-traded funds that in gold and other precious metals have seen massive inflows. Data from Refinitiv Lipper showed and other precious metal ETFs have seen an inflow of $4.7 billion this year, after witnessing outflows worth $7.8 billion last year. invest gold Regarding the stocks, the best idea would be to follow Buffett’s principle: not to rush and invest in enterprises with a long-term economic outlook. It is worth mentioning that in the last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway shares of Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) and Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI), and bought securities of Formula One Group (FWONK), Activision Blizzard (ATVI), and Nu Holdings (NU). sold In addition, Berkshire increased its stake in Chevron (CVX) by more than 33%, decreasing its stake in Kroger (KR) by 0.61%, and Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR) by 8.8%. Also, the company continued to get rid of pharma securities, with shares in AbbVie ( ) down -79%, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) down -76%, and Royalty Pharma (RPRX) down 34%. ABBV Another option would be to invest in real physical assets: real estate, cars, or bars of gold or other metals. In addition, it could be a good idea to focus on businesses that don't depend too much on market conditions and external circumstances. Everything that generates cash is a possible defense against inflation.

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