Jan. 31, Gary Brubaker, director of Guildhall, the graduate program for game development at SMU Dallas, for a piece defining the marketing approach Microsoft is adopting in the video game sector following the purchase of Activision-Blizzard. Published in Inside Sources under the heading Microsoft Bid to Purchase Activision-Blizzard Is Less About the Metaverse and More About Marketing: https://bit.ly/3gfKqy0
Don’t buy into the hype about this being a move by Microsoft to own the Metaverse. But it is a strong signal that MS is in the game to stay.
The Metaverse is coming, and it will change our lives. However, Microsoft purchasing Activision-Blizzard is about making Game Pass the dominant game subscription service.
Consumers have shown they prefer the all-you-can-eat subscriptions for consuming media, including books (Kindle), music (Spotify), and movies/TV (Netflix). Subscriptions provide corporations with valuable consistent revenue. However, none of the current subscription strategies map clearly to video games. Many companies have tried to bring the Netflix model to video games. To date, they have ranged from failures (Stadia) to moderate successes (Apple Arcade), but none has at the Netflix level.