Phil Spencer, the head of the software giant’s Xbox business, joined a number of prominent IT CEOs in their criticism of Meta’s flagship project.
The CEO of Microsoft’s gaming division described Meta’s metaverse concept as “a poorly constructed video game.”
Speaking at the WSJ Tech Live conference, Phil Spencer was less than excited about the project’s quality in comparison to contemporary video games.
He said that “video game creators have an amazing ability to build compelling worlds that we want to spend time in,” referencing game environments like those of Minecraft. “For me, building a metaverse that looks like a meeting room, I just find that’s not where I want to spend most of my time.”
The executive was not completely pessimistic about the future of the Metaverse, but he believes it will differ greatly from Meta’s current offerings.
“There are engagement models where you can really have productive interactions and get things done in 3D virtual spaces, and I think they’re going to look a lot more like video games than some of the models we’re seeing today,” he added.
Spencer believes there will be a substantial transfer of expertise between firms developing the metaverse and the gaming business. “We’re going to learn from what video games have done.”
At the same event, Palmer Luckey, the current leader of the defense technology company Anduril Industries, had even harsher words for Meta’s project: “It’s not fun and it’s not good.”
Luckey is not unfamiliar with virtual worlds, having founded Occulus Rift at age 19.
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