Microsoft Makes a $69 Billion Down Payment on the Metaverse

There are many reasons why Microsoft Corp. would have wanted to purchase Activision Blizzard Inc., which publishes a range of famous video game franchises, from Call of Duty to Candy Crush Saga. The $68.7 billion deal, which was announced on Jan. 18 and requires regulatory approval, would make Microsoft the third-largest gaming company in the world. But in Microsoft’s own explanation of the largest acquisition in its 46-year history, the word “metaverse” did a lot of the heavy lifting.

The metaverse refers to a new generation of computing where instead of switching between discrete apps, people enter ...