Raphael Thys
Inventor of the PlayStation Ken Kutaragi, pictured here in 2005, holds up a PlayStation 3.
- PlayStation inventor Ken Kutaragi told Bloomberg he's not impressed by the metaverse.
- "I can't see the point of doing it," Kutaragi said.
- He added that VR and AR headsets are "simply annoying."
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The man who invented PlayStation is not impressed by the metaverse.
Ken Kutaragi, a former Sony executive who is sometimes known as the "Father of PlayStation" said in an interview with Bloomberg he doesn't see much value in the metaverse.
"Being in the real world is very important, but the metaverse is about making quasi-real in the virtual world, and I can't see the point of doing it," Kutaragi said.
"You would rather be a polished avatar instead of your real self? That's essentially no different from anonymous message board sites," he added.
The metaverse is a term borrowed from science-fiction, which refers to a future version of the internet accessed through immersive technologies such as VR and AR.
Kutaragi said the VR and AR headsets associated with metaverse technology are a sticking point.
"Headsets would isolate you from the real world, and I can't agree with that," he said, adding: "Headsets are simply annoying."
Meta, formerly Facebook, has been at the forefront of tech companies touting metaverse technology. Microsoft, Sony's video game console rival and maker of the Xbox, said this week that it would be focusing on building metaverse platforms with its acquisition of game publisher Activision.
Kutaragi isn't the only member of the industry to voice skepticism about the merits of the metaverse.
Evernote founder Phil Libin said in an interview that the hype surrounding metaverse tech reminds him of communist propaganda he was exposed growing up in the former Soviet Union.
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