Science fiction enthusiasts have long desired a commonplace, real-world version of virtual reality, and thanks to recent technological breakthroughs, that dream is now more feasible than ever. If that's all we have, it will be some time before we see a VR world like the one from Ready Player One. The closest popular attempt has been made by Meta (formerly Facebook) and Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse project.
The internet has taken the opportunity to mock pretty much anything since the Metaverse has shown off so much because, well, it looks dumb. Think about their most recent claim that they added legs, which supposedly don't even work as they were supposed to.
According to Tom Warren of The Verge, Xbox's Phil Spencer, one of the key players in the sector, recently shared his thoughts on WSJ Live. Spencer's response when asked what he thought of the Metaverse as it is right now was, "Today it's a crappy video game. I'm not interested in wasting time making the metaverse resemble a living space. He did make it clear, though, that the concept is still in its infancy and that it will "evolve." An evolution seems inevitable given how unpopular the Metaverse has been with both users and true Meta employees who are paid to use it.
The truth is that it has a terrible appearance, and the only companies that have used it thus far have been those trying to advertise their goods or allow employees to work remotely. Employees are already tired of wearing hot, uncomfortable headsets while working in a dingy-looking digital office, so nobody wants to make their job harder. The idea itself isn't really all that novel. Because platforms like VRChat have been around for a while and players actually enjoy that game, at least we know it's possible.
At the WSJ conference, Apple executive Greg Joswiak derided the phrase "metaverse" and said he would never use it. The senior Apple executive seated next to Joswiak did not share his opinions; instead, he just said, "Fine with that." Mark Zuckerberg said in answer to inquiries regarding his investment, "People will look back and speak about the relevance of the work being done here a decade from now."
