The 30-year-old success game could make an appearance in Microsoft’s professional messaging system, to liven up meetings that drag on. Weird, did you say weird?
Obviously, Microsoft finds that some meetings drag on. According to the site The Verge, which cites anonymous sources, the software giant would indeed be testing… the integration of video games into Teams, its professional messaging software.
Well, don’t expect to play Flight Simulator, or Starfield within Slack’s big competitor. Microsoft would rather work on much more modest titles. Starting with Solitaire, his old success game, present in Windows for… 32 years already! And there would be, according to The Verge, other classics on the program, such as Power 4 or Wordament, a clone of Boggle that Microsoft already offers for download on the App Store and the Play Store.
But why on earth does Microsoft want to integrate games into a dedicated productivity tool? It seems paradoxical at first sight to waste time playing with a tool that is supposed to save you time. Especially since, according to the American site, these games are “designed to allow work colleagues to play against each other during meetings”!
The first step towards an enterprise metaverse?
Weird ? Not that much ! Since Teams has existed, and in particular since the pandemic, Microsoft has continued to add functions designed to make it essential, especially when its users telecommute. This is for example the case of the various Viva modules, launched last year, supposed to improve the well-being of remote employees.
Above all, according to The Verge, it would be a first step towards “virtual spaces” within Teams, in which employees could meet and exchange through games… but not only. At the same time, Microsoft is also working on the integration of its Mesh platform with Teams, and on the design of avatars to represent you in meetings within 3D spaces, which should land in the software this year.
Tom Warren, who signs the article for The Verge, specifies however that the integration of games in Teams is for the moment only an internal test. Microsoft hasn’t made the decision yet to push this update to its customers, and may eventually abandon the idea. It would be a shame: a game of Solitaire in the corporate metaverse that Microsoft calls for, you can’t refuse!
Source :
The Verge