What I Read This Week
Where does Activision Blizzard go from here?; Heidi Klum launches a virtual world on Roblox to empower inclusive creative expression; and will live sports be the "killer app" of the metaverse?
From Into The Metaverse
Caught My Attention…
Blizzard Entertainment, once hailed as the "Pixar of video games," built an impressive legacy through hit franchises like Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, Hearthstone, and Overwatch, each of which became a cultural phenomenon. The company’s success stemmed from core principles like prioritizing players over profits, only releasing games when ready, iterating on existing genres, and constantly playtesting their projects. However, Blizzard’s fall from grace in recent years has overshadowed its contributions to gaming, writes Jason Schreier from Bloomberg. Despite setbacks and project cancellations, Blizzard's focus on quality and innovation helped shape the gaming industry, leading to its eventual acquisition by Microsoft in a $69 billion deal.
Heidi Klum, inspired by her daughter Lou’s experience with virtual fashion games, has launched her own inclusive game, Modelverse, on Roblox. Partnering with Supersocial, Klum aimed to create a platform that allows for diverse body types and creative expression, addressing her concern that existing games promote a narrow beauty standard, writes Adriana Lee of WWD. In Modelverse, players can design avatars with various shapes or even as whimsical characters like marshmallows or sausages and compete in catwalk competitions judged by Klum and the Roblox community. Unlike other virtual spaces, Modelverse focuses on creativity and community over commercialization, allowing players to carry their virtual fashion across the Roblox platform's millions of experiences.
As major sports brands explore the metaverse, live sports may help drive broader adoption of virtual worlds, writes Alexander Lee from Digiday. While the hype around the metaverse has cooled since its peak in 2021-2022, recent developments—such as Major League Baseball (MLB) allowing NFT avatar holders to attend and watch games in a virtual stadium—show new potential for brand engagement. For a recent Tampa Bay Rays vs. Detroit Tigers game, fans could view the action in real-time within a virtual ballpark, an experiment MLB sees an opportunity for fans and advertisers alike. Though the initiative is still in its early stages with modest user numbers, it signals future revenue potential through sponsorships, branded experiences, and even virtual ticket sales. While the NFL and other sports organizations also invest in their metaverse presences, MLB is the first to broadcast a real-time virtual game. For now, these efforts target younger audiences, but the growing integration of live sports into virtual worlds suggests that broader engagement across demographics may not be far off.
Other Reading…
An ambitious competitor to The Sims is in the works, for some personal reasons (Game File)
The Dawn of AI News Agents (The Media Copilot)
Hasbro is bringing classic board games to Fortnite, starting with Clue (The Verge)
Heidi Klum and Supersocial Bring the Runway to Roblox with the Launch of "Modelverse" (Supersocial)
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