Ken Kutaragi, the mastermind behind Sony’s entry into video games, and led the teams that created the first-ever PlayStation as well as the PS2, PS3 and PSP consoles that followed, has dismissed the metaverse in an interview with Bloomberg.
Kutaragi, who left the PlayStation business in 2007, now runs a robotics outfit called Ascent. Kutaragi elaborates that his goals with Ascent is bending real-life and the virtual world in a gadget-free way.
However, the former PlayStation exec is no fan of the metaverse. Kutaragi stated, “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. You would rather be a polished avatar instead of your real self? That’s essentially no different from anonymous messageboard sites.”
Kutaragi went on to give his thoughts about the hardware element of metaverse ideas such as Facebook’s massive push with Quest 2, Apple betting big on its own future headset, and his former employer now working on PSVR2.
Kutaragi responded, “Headsets would isolate you from the real world, and I can’t agree with that. Headsets are simply annoying.”
Despite leaving PlayStation in 2007, Kutaragi stuck around in honorary roles at Sony for some years. And while his dismissal of the metaverse might actually excite some people, Kutaragi just might be searching for ways to blend Ascent into the metaverse in future.
Indeed, the idea of the metaverse might seem a little too new for some to commit to, and some might say Meta is probably biting off more than they can chew on this one but, as it stands, the company is dedicated to perfecting the metaverse, even if right now it still looks like the inside of a video game.
Image Source: Playstation State of Play
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
