Microsoft and Sony have independently announced they are pursuing massive gaming acquisitions. Microsoft is looking to acquire Activision for $68.7B and Sony is looking to acquire Bungie for $3.6B.

On the surface (not to be confused with the Microsoft Surface), this looks like both companies are working to protect their hardware platforms by ensuring they have a compelling lineup of game titles. But what does a closer look at these acquisitions tell us?

On reviewing the patent portfolios of Activision and Bungie, one can see that Microsoft’s acquisition may be much more strategic by what they gained in terms of intellectual property.

Bungie is not listed as an applicant on any patents. Activision, on the other hand, is the named applicant on 140 patents.

While many of Activision’s patents are extremely valuable in the multi-player, gaming space, their worth to Microsoft is strategically superior when one considers them through the advent of the metaverse.

The metaverse, if you have not been following the hype, is a blend of the real and virtual worlds where participants are always tuned into their digital reality through the multi-connectivity of online gaming, social media, augmented reality, virtual reality, and the real world itself.

Some of the patents in Activision’s portfolio are directly related to the metaverse, such as their technique for determining whether an object is genuine or fake in a metaverse. Other patents may be useful in both the metaverse and for on-line gaming, such as improving player matching, and generating content derived from, or based on, social networks.

Time will tell how these acquisitions affect Microsoft and Sony in the long term, but it looks to us like Microsoft’s $68.7B acquisition of Activision could be the superior strategic move – at least from a patent perspective.