What does Microsoft Buying Activision Blizzard Mean for Metaverse?
On Jan. 18, 2022, the so-called Metaverse was touted by Microsoft as a basis for its $68.7 billion acquisition of game company Activision Blizzard, which would offer "building blocks for the metaverse." Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, has rebranded his social networking firm Meta after betting on the metaverse. For years, Google has been working on metaverse-related technology. Apple is also working on its own comparable products. But what exactly is the metaverse, and does it even exist? Here's all you need to know about it. What is Metaverse? The word Metaverse first appeared in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash , written by Neal Stephenson. In the fiction novel, Metaverse is the 3D virtual world where human beings' avatars interact with each other. It is described as the next generation of the Internet. The word "metaverse" is made up of the prefix "meta" (meaning beyond) and the stem "verse" (a backformation