author: Miriam Moszczynska
PlayStation Creator Critical of VR and Metaverse
Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, considers metaverse and VR and AR technologies to be pointless ideas.
- Ken Kutaragi spoke out on metaverse and virtual reality;
- The former CEO of Sony is skeptical towards both technologies - he believes they are pointless.
Inan interview with Bloomberg Ken Kutaragi addressed the issue of the gaining popularity of the metaverse, that is, a virtual world derived from science fiction movies or anime. According to the father of PlayStation it does not make sense, as well as VR glasses. Here's Kutaragi's full statement:
“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.”
While Kutaragi's words are strong, it's hard to disagree with them. Admittedly, the virtual world has its advantages, which can be appreciated especially in times of the pandemic (e.g. organizing meetings and working without worrying about health), but the complete transfer of everyday life to the metaverse (of which Mark Zuckerberg is an enthusiast) may have a number of negative consequences and raises legitimate concerns.
Ken Kutaragi also shared his view on VR headsets, which were quite popular last year, mainly thanks to the Oculus platform. According to the former Sony CEO, they are also nothing special.
“Headsets would isolate you from the real world, and I can’t agree with that. Headsets are simply annoying.”
As you can see, Kutaragi is far from being enthusiastic about virtual reality, which will probably gain more and more supporters with time. Already VR and AR (augmented reality) are helping in neurological experiments and research. Headsets that enable us to control characters in games using only our brain. Though there is also no shortage of more mundane applications.