Who Cares About The Metaverse? Apparently Not Xbox's CEO Phil Spencer

At a virtual reality event on October 28, 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would change its name to Meta, to reflect the company’s broader ambitions. Zuckerberg had declared that they were working on building an advanced version of the internet called the “metaverse”, which was meant to be a step forward from the Facebook we knew in 2004. The idea was to extend the socialization aspect and introduce doing business with colleagues.
 
True, in the past few years, there has been a lot of hype around the metaverse and what it may offer in the technological world. And this goes beyond pastime activities like playing at a no deposit bonus casino.
 
When it comes to science fiction, the "metaverse" is a hypothetical simulation of the Internet as a distinct, ubiquitous, and deeply engaging virtual world, expedited by the use of VR and AR headsets. As for vernacular usage, "metaverse" is a chain of 3D virtual worlds that concentrate on social connection.

But how feasible is its implementation? There have been quite a number of naysayers, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer being one of them, and he has raised valid points for taking such a stance.

Meanwhile, other leaders also didn’t mince their words and expressed their letdown with the works being done by Meta to the metaverse technology. All Turtles CEO Phil Libin outrightly described himself as a “hater” of the metaverse, claiming that the “Facebook vision of the metaverse is… so stupid it makes me sad. It accomplishes nothing. The reason is hard to define because it’s that stupid like this should be a red flag.”

A Red Flag: Meta’s Losses

One of Meta’s shareholders, wrote to Zuckerberg: “People are confused by what the metaverse even means. If the company were investing $1-2B per year into this project, then that confusion might not even be a problem.” Alarmed by the current pace of spending, he urged Zuckerberg to “cap its metaverse investments to no more than $5B per year with more discrete targets and measures of success.”

Still, Zuckerberg himself is optimistic about his vision of Meta: “I think people are going to look back decades from now and talk about the importance of the work that was done here.”