A killer app for the metaverse? Fill it with AI avatars of ourselves – so we don't need to go there

Microsoft's US$75 billion (£55 billion) acquisition of Activision Blizzard has landed – true to Call of Duty vernacular – "like a bomb" on the US$200 billion revenue video games industry. It heavily arms the Xbox giant for its vision of the metaverse, in which gaming is the marketing adrenaline of this much-touted online future that is to be experienced immersively through virtual reality (VR) headsets or augmented-reality (AR) glasses. The stock market knocked US$10 billion off Playstation maker Sony's valuation on the news. The metaverse was also a big noise at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, branded "tech's hottest trend" by Variety magazine. Product launches included Samsung's new VR world My House, offering virtual home makeovers; and US beauty tech group Perfect Corp's AR-driven virtual beauty makeover range, which lets people experiment with cosmetics and accessories using AR.