The Chief Executive Officer of Gaming at Microsoft and Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has voiced some concerns about the concept of the metaverse as well as the way in which it is being implemented. Spencer made the observation that, in his opinion, the present state of the metaverse is comparable to “a badly developed video game,” but he also noted that the industry is still in its infancy and would most likely continue to develop.
Phil Spencer Speaks Against the Metaverse of Today
Despite the fact that the concept of “the metaverse,” which still lacks a clear definition, has been embraced by a number of businesses in an effort to gain the competitive advantage that comes with being industry pioneers, other influential figures have voiced their disapproval of the current market. During the WSJ Live Convention, Phil Spencer, who is in charge of Xbox at Microsoft, criticized the current metaverse technology by pointing out that it is not yet polished.
Spencer, when speaking on the Metaverse at the WSJ Tech Live Conference, referred to it as “a badly made video game.” He also compared the platform to a living room, which is a place where he would not want to spend his time. In addition to this, he acknowledges that it is still in its infant stage and is optimistic that it will develop.
The graphical quality of Meta’s main metaverse application, Horizon Worlds, has been called into question on many occasions, leading many people to view this comment as an oblique strike at the company. After making his initial comments, Spencer commented on them by saying, “Video game developers have a great ability to make compelling worlds that we want to go spend time in; developing a metaverse that’s like a living room is not how I want to spend my time.” Spencer was referring to the fact that people desire to spend time in captivating worlds created by video game creators.
Despite this, Spencer does not dismiss the possibility of the metaverse just yet. The CEO feels that the business is still in its infancy, and that in the future, the metaverse will develop into something similar to the video games that are available now.
Previous Criticism from Spencer Regarding the Metaverse
Spencer’s cynicism about the excitement that has recently surrounded the idea of the metaverse is not new, since this is not the first time he has expressed it. In August, Spencer provided an explanation in which he said that in his opinion, the metaverse was nothing new and that it had been in development for more than 30 years; he also mentioned that 3D games were a component of this technology. In addition to this, he said that play-to-earn (P2E) models were an example of “a hammer hunting for a nail.”
In a similar manner, Spencer does not approve of the NFT (non-fungible token) game concept. He deems it to be exploitative and claims that it is full of “speculation and experimentation.” Microsoft announced in January that it would be purchasing Activision Blizzard for a total price of $68.7 billion. The company said that it believed gaming will “play a significant role in the development of metaverse platforms.”
Final Thoughts
Bitcoin.com News has recently stated that Microsoft was working on integrating other technologies such as Microsoft Cloud with metaverse apps, in order to act as the artificial intelligence and analytical layer for a variety of different applications. However, the head of Xbox isn’t the only one who has been critical of the metaverse. Several giant firms such as Apple, Snapchat, Disney, and others have also taken a jab at the metaverse.
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of global marketing, said that the phrase “metaverse” is one that he would never use. Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat, has compared the experience of using the metaverse to “living inside a computer.” Evan claims that “living inside a computer” is the very last thing he would want to do when he finally got back to his house after a long day at work.
