Tencent Holdings is about to construct an prolonged actuality (XR) unit, its immersive wing tasked with creating {hardware} and software program for future metaverse options, Reuters reported final week, citing three sources acquainted with the matter.
Tencent will type the brand new XR division underneath its Interactive Leisure enterprise group and develop the corporate’s software program and {hardware} options underneath the management of Li Shen, Chief Know-how Officer of Tencent Video games, the sources defined within the report.
In keeping with the report, the secretive unit will make use of over 300 employees amid Tencent’s company-wide employees cuts, and also will consider the employees depend based mostly on the division’s efficiency metrics.
The Transfer to the Metaverse
The transfer comes as a few of the world’s prime tech corporations launch a large shift to turning into metaverse corporations, specifically after Fb rebranded to Meta Platforms in October final yr, triggering different corporations to comply with.
Microsoft, Disney, Sony Interactive Leisure, NVIDIA, TikTok proprietor ByteDance, Apple, HTC VIVE, Nextech AR, and lots of others have begun exploring potential metaverse options, sparking an industry-wide exploration of use instances, functions, applied sciences, and ecosystems.
The information follows developments from the Chinese language gaming and software program big, who mentioned in November final yr it could construct metaverse companies that adopted rules from the Chiense authorities.
Tencent President Martin Lau mentioned on the time there can be many applied sciences borrowed from gaming corporations used “for the metaverse,” including he felt his enterprise had “a number of the know-how and know-how constructing blocks” to discover and develop the Metaverse.
WeChat, Tencent’s widely-used messaging app, briefly suspended in April quite a few consumer accounts utilizing third-party blockchain companies in a crackdown on secondary gross sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain companies, citing considerations over their speculative nature, earlier experiences discovered.
