Alright, stick with us here. If you've never heard of the 'metaverse', it's what Meta (formerly Facebook) is calling "the next evolution of social connection." According to Mark Zuckerberg and his team, "3D spaces in the metaverse will let you socialize, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what we can imagine." It's unknown how its ultimately going to turn out, but comparisons are being made to the likes of Second Life and Ready Player One.

Today, Microsoft has outlined a vision for its own version of the metaverse, which includes features such as a virtual version of Microsoft Teams that will work with various VR and AR devices - as well as still be accessible in 2D.

This will extend to Xbox in the future, as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed earlier today that he expects the brand to get involved over time, with a goal of transforming so-called "2D" games into "full 3D worlds".

Here's what Nadella had to say about it to Bloomberg:

“You can absolutely expect us to do things in gaming. If you take Halo as a game, it is a metaverse. Minecraft is a metaverse, and so is Flight Sim. In some sense, they are 2D today, but the question is, can you now take that to a full 3D world, and so we absolutely plan to do so.”

That's all we know about it so far, so it's really anyone's guess what Microsoft is planning here. Minecraft has tinkered with virtual reality in the past, and Microsoft Flight Simulator has full VR support on PC, but it sounds like Microsoft has further ambitions to try and interconnect these franchises as part of its metaverse in the future. Interesting stuff!

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.

[source bloomberg.com]