‘Poorly built video game’, ‘living inside a computer’: Not many tech bigwigs like metaverse, except Mark Zuckerberg – Times of India

It was a very busy week for technology companies as they announced their quarterly earnings. Out of the big four – Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta – it was the Facebook-parent company which reportedly lost more than $9 billion in 2022 so far. This is just under the $10 billion it lost in 2021. In fact, Meta is not giving up on its metaverse project and announced that the next-generation Quest headset will launch in 2023. However, it seems that unlike Mark Zuckerberg, other technology bigwigs aren’t taken by the metaverse.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal concluded the WSJ Tech Live conference in which Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s CEO of gaming, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak and Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke on the hot topic. All the top executives made it clear that they are not a fan of the concept and what Meta is doing. Here’s what they said:
Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s CEO of gaming
Spencer described metaverse as “a poorly built video game.” “Video game creators have an amazing ability to build compelling worlds that we want to spend time in. 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 explained.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel
When asked for his take on the metaverse, Spiegel defined the metaverse as “living inside a computer.” “The last thing I want to do when I get home from work at the end of a long day is live inside a computer,” the CEO said.
Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak
Apart from speaking on EU regulation on USB-C and confirming that Apple will launch an iPhone with a USB-C type charging port, Joswiak said metaverse is a word that he’ll never use. His fellow executive Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President
of Software Engineering at Apple, also chose “not to speak” the word.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek
Chapek said that the company tends “not to use” the word metaverse “because for us, that’s a big, broad term. For us, it’s next-generation storytelling.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, said during Meta’s Connect keynote that the two companies are collaborating to bring things like Teams, Windows, and Xbox to VR.