If you’ve seen Ready Player One and Sword Art Online, metaverses aren’t good ideas.
Tencent! You probably heard that name multiple times. However, if you live under a rock, Tencent is one of China’s largest, if not the largest, conglomerates. It largely focuses on the entertainment sector such as gaming, video sharing, social media, and television programs.
In a recent report, the company is allegedly planning to acquire Xiaomi’s gaming division called Black Shark for around CNY 3 Billion (~Php 24 billion/ USD 471 million). The reason for the move is for the company to step onto the curious world of the metaverse.
If you haven’t heard, the metaverse is basically a digital perspective of the real world, with your own digital avatars that move around a certain environment. If you’re familiar with Virtual Reality and/or VR Chat, then this is essentially a similar concept. Under Tencent, Black Shark would have a complete makeover transformation, transitioning from selling gaming peripherals to virtual reality as their main motif.
Tencent would be developing the software while Black Shark would be making the hardware, in other words, Black Shark will be making virtual reality products while Tencent is responsible for the digital stuff.
Xiaomi is currently the largest shareholder for Black Shark, at 46.7%. While this is just an allegation, and Tencent is yet to respond, this move is more likely to happen, knowing Tencent.
In Q3 2021, the company had patented several VR/AR technologies. As VR grows larger, especially with the idea of a metaverse getting popular lately, it’s no surprise why Tencent also wants to jump ship onto it. It is a good business decision on their part as a tech company. They are also developing their own R&D group for the said AR/VR content.
Source: GizmoChina
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