- Daedalus World Limited of the British Virgin Islands will be responsible for collecting taxes on firms that offer "betting, gambling, and cryptocurrency services to people and organizations based inside the Republic of Zimbabwe," the Zimbabwean government said recently.
- Gaming, according to Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella, “will play a vital role in the development of metaverse platforms.”
Zimbabwe's View on Bitcoin
The inclusion of crypto assets on the tax list is the latest hint from the Zimbabwean government that its stance on cryptocurrencies is evolving. Zimbabwe's monetary authorities have said that the country had no intentions to adopt cryptocurrency.
However, a public notification sent by Information Technology Minister Jenfan Muswere may imply that the government has reconsidered its attitude. The November 19 general notice states:
Daedalus World Limited of Tortola, British Virgin Islands, has agreed to help the Zimbabwean government collect income by taxing eligible enterprises that supply digital advertising, content, cloud computing, e-commerce, and gaming.
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The government's tax revenue collection arrangement with Daedalus World Limited targets internet giants including Google, Youtube, and Facebook, according to News24.
"Gaming would be essential in the creation of metaverse platforms," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said after the company bought Activision Blizzard.
Call of Duty, Overwatch, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater are all published by Activision Blizzard. Following the deal, its games will be available on Xbox's 25 million-strong Game Pass service.
Microsoft said on Tuesday that it will buy Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share, or $68.7 billion. The deal, slated to close in 2023, would place Microsoft third in terms of income, after Tencent-owned Riot Games and Sony-owned PlayStation.
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As well as "supplying the Metaverse's building blocks," Microsoft said that the acquisition will help it expand its services across mobile, PC, console, and cloud gaming. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated:
"Gaming is the most active and intriguing genre of entertainment accessible today across all platforms," he remarked.”
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will remain at the helm until the acquisition is finalized when Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer will take over.
According to Spencer's blog post on the Xbox website, the firm is dedicated to making cloud gaming accessible to as many devices as possible. He made no mention of the metaverse or nonfungible tokens (NFT), which have enraged some gamers.
"The exceptional assets across Activision Blizzard will help accelerate our objectives for Cloud Gaming," Spencer said.
Microsoft's metaverse plans were first unveiled in November with an upgrade to "Teams" and the debut of "Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces." It will be available later this year as part of the "Mesh" upgrade for Teams.
Additionally, Nadella said that customers may "absolutely expect" Microsoft to integrate metaverse components into its Xbox gaming devices, but he gave no further details.
Microsoft's metaverse plan for Xbox is uncertain since Spencer said in November that testing with NFTs was more "exploitative" than "entertaining."
If the Xbox Store enabled NFTs, Spencer said the company would carefully filter out any potentially unlawful content.
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The Wall Street Journal claimed last week that Microsoft's augmented reality business has lost 100 employees to Metaverse competitor Meta (Facebook).
