Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming and head of the Xbox division, expressed his disappointment with the current concept of Metaverse as he described it as a “poorly made video game”.
Addressing questions at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live 2022 conference, Spencer was asked what he thought of the Metaverse to which he criticized the current iteration of the Metaverse.
“Today it’s a poorly made video game. Making a metaverse like a living room is not how I want to spend my time. What I see in the metaverse world is that we’re at an early stage and this development will,” he said.
Phil Spencer at WSJ Live on the metaverse:
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022
"Today it's a poorly built video game. Building a metaverse that's like a living room is not how I want to spend my time. What I see in the metaverse world is that we're at the early stage and this will evolve."
The Metaverse is this year’s hottest term, and Meta (previously Facebook) is the organization pushing it the hardest. Spencer’s remarks about a living room, though, could be a subtle swipe at Meta, promoting the Metaverse as a tool for businesses, allowing for meetings to be held there.
Since Fortnite is a metaverse where players may combine different avatars and properties into a single shared universe, the notion of a virtual world is still unclear.
There is no sign that Xbox is pursuing a metaverse strategy. Still, given that organizations like Meta continue to invest in the Metaverse despite the recent negative press they have received on expanding this goal, we may anticipate the question to remain.
