Asked about his vision of the metaverse, former Nintendo boss Reggie Fils-Aimé admitted that he did not believe at all in the idea of the virtual reality web dreamed up by Mark Zuckerberg.
Yes the metaverse has established itself for several months as the future of an increasingly immersive web, the project dreamed up by Mark Zuckerberg is not really unanimous. The proof with Reggie Fils-Aimé, former emblematic boss of Nintendo of America. Asked by Bloomberg this weekend, the businessman delivered a vision of the future very different from that imagined by Metawhile also addressing a big tackle to the creator of Facebook.
Reggie Fils-Aimé is not impressed with Meta
“Facebook is not an innovative company”. It was with this harsh criticism that the former boss of Nintendo began his interview. At the microphone of journalist Emily Chang, he explained that not only was the firm created by Mark Zuckerberg not revolutionary, but that in addition, it had bought or copied all interesting ideas that she offered.
Regarding the metaverse in particular, the businessman also delivered a very pessimistic view of the Meta project. If he did not deny the interest of “social and playful environments in which it is possible to interact with friends”like Roblox in particular, he was more critical of Mark Zuckerberg’s virtual world: “I’m not convinced by the idea, I don’t think it will work as it is”.
Pokémon GO rather than the metaverse
Among the most important elements of the metaverse, the virtual reality does not seem to convince Reggie Fils-Aimé: “I’ve tried just about every VR device and pretty much every VR experience, but I don’t think the technology is ready for the mainstream. It doesn’t mean we’ll never get there, but I don’t think it will become 100% of our entertainment time”.
For the former boss of Nintendo, the future will have to turn instead to other media, such as augmented reality in particular, which allows immersion in a digital world while remaining physically present IRL. A concept that has already proven itself several years ago, with the phenomenon Pokémon GO on mobile.