Xbox Gaming will be a key focus in Microsoft’s Metaverse, Nadella

Microsoft’s Metaverse ambitions are not limited to enterprise applications even though the company chose Teams to announce its foray into the segment at the Ignite 2021 conference. Gaming in Metaverse with Xbox will be a key focus area for Microsoft, CEO Satya Nadella, told Bloomberg TV, reported the Verge.

“You can expect us to do things in gaming. If you take Halo as a game, it is a Metaverse. Minecarft is a Metaverse.

In some sense, they are 2D today, the question is can you take it to a full 3D world and we plan to do so,” Nadella said. 

Gaming accounts for a major share of Microsoft’s revenue. In the recent quarterly results for the quarter ending September 30 for FY2021, the company reported a 16% YoY (year-on-year) increase in gaming revenue. Revenue from Xbox devices was up by 166%. 

Microsoft has been working on mixed reality (MR) devices called HoloLens, which until now has been positioned more as an enterprise device. However, the company has hinted in the past that they can be used for gaming and entertainment too.  

HoloLens already supports Epic’s Unreal game engine so developers can create AR and VR content for it. Microsoft had earlier created a special version of Minecraft for HoloLens to showcase the game’s potential in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). 

Gaming was also a key element in Facebook’s Metaverse, which was unveiled last month by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

He showed how in the Metaverse, players could invite digital avatars of their friends to play multiplayer games using AR and VR.