Its game on for the Big Tech

In 2000 Microsoft launched “Microsoft Games” which later became “Xbox Game Studios”. For years, they have been dominating the gaming market together with the Japanese company Nintendo. However, the other Big Tech companies are starting to find their place in the gaming world. Meta owns the gamming community “Facebook Gaming” where users can stream videogame content, but their hands are tied by regulators who have tightly restricted mergers and acquisitions from the company citing monopoly. Microsoft on the other hand has been allowed to purchase Activision, the company that created “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft”, bringing it a step closer towards creating their gaming metaverse[1]. Competition between the two companies for the metaverse has been wildly publicised, however, the gaming world is attracting other big players. Netflix has recently announced that it is planning to launch their own video game studio based in Helsinki. Netflix had previously tried to enter the industry by buying small gaming companies such as Oxenfree, but now they are going further and creating their own studio from scratch[2]. However, two days after the announcement, Google announced that it was closing Stadia cloud service, a platform that allows users to stream games online[3]. So, the question remains ¿Is gamming the next gold mine for online platforms or is it just a way to drive the focus away from their loss of users?

[1] Forbes. Why The Microsoft-Activision Deal Is Good For Mark Zuckerberg And Meta. (18 Jan 2022)

[2] BBC News. Netflix plans to launch its own video game studio. (28 Sept 2022)

[3] BBC News. Google to close Stadia cloud service and refund gamers (30 Sept 2022)