United States tech giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the metaverse via updates to its Teams and Xbox gaming console services, forth with a new product called "Dynamics 365 Continued Spaces."

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appear the firm's metaverse plans for Teams and Spaces on Tuesday during the Microsoft Ignite conference.

"The Metaverse enables us to embed calculating into the existent earth and to embed the real world into computing. Bringing real presence to any digital infinite. What's nigh important is that we are able to bring our humanity with us, and choose how nosotros want to experience this earth," Nadella said.

The update for Microsoft Teams is dubbed "Mesh" and its initial rollout in 2022 will provide users with personalized digital avatars and immersive spaces to run across in the metaverse "that tin can exist accessed from any device, with no special equipment needed."

Later downward the road of Mesh's development, organizations will as well be able to build custom spaces to back up contexts such as meetings or "social mixers."

The Mesh update. Source: Mircosoft

Microsoft's new Dynamics 365 Continued Spaces product is set for its first preview in December 2022, and it volition enable organizations to combine metaverse and bogus intelligence (AI) applied science with their businesses. The firm said that Spaces tin exist used to harness observational data from cameras from the "the retail store to the manufacturing plant floor," in what it is calling a "hybrid work environment."

"With the power of your existing cameras, harness computer vision and observational information to help complete the movie—giving a new perspective into people, places, and things," wrote Vishal Sood, general manager of Connected Spaces, in a Tuesday blog post.

"Post-obit deployment, simply plough on AI-powered models, known as skills, to help understand specific scenarios such as customer beliefs at a promotional display, traffic patterns, and insights unique to your infinite."

Related: The Sandbox raises $93M to expand its NFT metaverse

During an interview with Bloomberg TV on Midweek, Nadella also stated that Microsoft's video game firm, Xbox, will "absolutely" work on integrating the metaverse into its gaming lines. The CEO kept his cards close to his breast, however, every bit he didn't provide whatever concrete updates for the gaming sector.

"Y'all tin can absolutely expect us to do things in gaming," Nadella said, and added:

"If y'all accept Halo equally a game, it is a Metaverse. Minecraft is a Metaverse, and so is Flying Sim. In some sense, they're 2nd today and the question is can yous at present take that to a fully 3D globe, and nosotros absolutely plan to practice and so."

Microsoft is not the only mainstream giant to come out with metaverse plans this week, with Cointelegraph reporting earlier on Wednesday that Nike had submitted applications for trademarks of its iconic logo and slogan for use in "online virtual worlds." The firm has also posted two recent job listings for virtual material designers.

Nike said the new recruits would "play a key role in redefining our digital globe, ushering us into the Metaverse."

Social media giant Facebook is famously taking the plunge into the metaverse, rebranding itself equally Meta and working to provide a platform for creators to build virtual online businesses, connect online experiences with the concrete world, and launch its virtual reality hardware business named "Reality Labs."

During an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box on Friday, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian commented on Facebook's plans, labeling information technology a "masterstroke in diversion and distraction" from the problems that take plagued the firm.

While Ohanian noted that Meta should not exist "underestimated," he emphasized that there is plenty organic movement from the crypto sector to create an open up metaverse every bit opposed to one controlled by the social media giant:

"Right now, there is this bottom-up move to create the Metaverse. You're seeing a lot of this happening in the crypto community. You lot're seeing a lot of people edifice what I think is, what most of us hope will become, a much more than organic type of world rather than a acme-down Facebook-imposed one."