Metaverse is bad. That’s according to several industry celebrities, and the founder of VR headset startup Oculus is the latest to flatly refuse.
“I don’t think it’s a good product,” Palmer Luckey said about the core product of Metaverse Horizon Worlds at The Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference.
Oculus was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion as part of the company’s massively costly and nearly decade-long pursuit of a virtual reality universe. Luckey, who was fired by Facebook in 2016, now runs defense and security products startup Anduril Industries.
“It’s not good, it’s not fun… Most people on the team would agree it’s not a good product,” he said, alluding to Internal memo leaked revealed that staff barely cared and it was glitching.
Zuckerberg’s “Project Car”
But it’s not just quality that has drawn criticism from every angle; Meta is so far losing a lot of money as Mark Zuckerberg promotes the technology.
“Mark Zuckerberg is the number one virtual reality fan in the world,” Luckey said. “He has invested more money and time than anyone in history.”
In 2021 alone, Meta invest 10 billion dollars in the metaverse, and is expected to lose another $10 billion this year.
As a result, profits and confidence in the company are falling dramatically. Since the company changed its name to Meta in 2021, Zuckberg’s personal net worth has fallen by more than $70 billion, while as of Monday, Meta’s stock is down more than 60% year-to-date.
Luckey lamented Zuckerberg’s intense push toward VR, likening the metaverse to the CEO’s “project car” — an incredibly expensive hobby that you’ll eventually lose money on.
“You attack it and maybe no one else sees the value… Will they stumble? Yeah sure. Will they waste money? Do they add things to their project car that they can hack later? Right.”
Despite the criticism, Luckey believes that Metaverse can still be successful because there is enough money involved to streamline current affairs.
“It was terrible today, but it could be great in the future,” he said. “Zuckerberg will put money in to do it. They are in the best position of anyone to win in the long run. “
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