Mark Zuckerberg is a big supporter of virtual reality: he feared years ago the advent of the metaverse and converted his entire company to this “creed”. To this day, however, he has not yet been able to justify the existence of this desired creature of his.
Among his numerous critics, there is one who has a particular effect on me: his name is Palmer Luckey. At first hearing this name may not tell you anything. He is the founder of Oculus, a company that was bought by Facebook for $ 2 billion in 2014.
Palmer hates everything Zuckerberg has done since.
Former Oculus CEO: “The metaverse? It's not good"
“I don't think it's a good product.” Luckey said it bluntly, speaking of the metaverse embryo developed by Meta. To be precise, he was talking about Horizon worlds: a virtual world still raw, and apparently almost deserted.
This doesn't strike me as a small opinion: Luckey and Oculus laid the groundwork for Meta's Quest line of VR devices, currently the key component of the company's move into the metaverse. E It's not the only excellent criticism.
Metapoco and Metaniente
Maybe Zuckerberg will win this challenge. Perhaps the billions already spent on this venture are terrorizing investors, but they are wrong.
One thing is certain: they will certainly not be needed the Meta TV commercials to spread the Metaverse, indeed: to structure it. Of the 500.000 Horizon Worlds users predicted for 2022, only 200.000 have materialized, and they don't attend regularly.
Like the former Oculus CEO, I too have the impression, when looking at Horizon Worlds, that I am looking at the VR version of Google+. And that's saying a lot.
How will it proceed?
I go back there periodically and will be back, because it's news worthy of coverage. I am sure that the potential of virtual and augmented reality will not fail to manifest itself.
I simply do not know if they will do it in the times and ways imagined by Meta.
Palmer Luckey doesn't foresee a total implosion of Meta. He likens the current proto-metaverse to a “car project.” A plan that will probably take very different forms.
Maybe, David. Maybe.
Or maybe they are old and new Oculus (sorry, Quest) will serve more specific things and the Metaverse in Zuckerberg sauce will go to keep company with Pound, Portal and Facebook Phone in Menlo Park's cemetery of aborted dreams.
