Meta (previously Fb) would possibly need to placed on a VR headset and spend eternity within the metaverse as a result of the corporate gained’t need to present its face after a former Nintendo govt dressed the corporate down this weekend.

Former Nintendo of America COO and president Reggie Fils-Aimé took a second at this 12 months’s South by Southwest (SXSW) to rag on Meta and supply us with some not-so-favorable projections about the place the corporate is heading. When requested concerning the tech big, Fils-Aimé bluntly stated it was “not an modern firm.”

“I don’t suppose that their present definition [of the metaverse] goes to achieve success,” Fils-Aimé informed Bloomberg reporter Emily Chang at SXSW. “You need to admit that Fb itself will not be an modern firm. They’ve both acquired actually attention-grabbing issues, like Oculus, like Instagram, or they’ve been a quick follower of different individuals’s concepts. Inherently, they aren’t an modern firm aside from the very authentic social platform that was created a few years in the past.”

Oculus, bought by Meta (previously Fb) in 2014, is the main maker of digital actuality {hardware}, and its Quest 2 headset is extensively thought-about the most effective product of its variety. Robust gross sales figures and glowing opinions are encouraging indicators for Meta’s imaginative and prescient, however its rocky historical past with {hardware} launches makes Fils-Aimé doubt whether or not these early successes will proceed as different rivals enter the market. He claims the Fb Portal “wasn’t a giant concept” and says the 20 million or so VR headsets offered to this point would have been a great single-year gross sales determine throughout his time at Nintendo.

“The final quantity I noticed was that, in complete—and never simply Oculus—in complete, about 20 million VR gadgets have been offered,” he stated. “Once I was operating Nintendo, that was a great 12 months, one 12 months, by way of {hardware} sell-through.”

G/O Media might get a fee

Save $70

Apple AirPods Max

Experience Next-Level Sound
Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking provides theater-like sound that surrounds you

While the former Nintendo executive believes the metaverse will become a larger part of our lives—and says some elements already exist (citing Fortnite and Roblox)—Fils-Aimé doesn’t think Meta will be leading the way. He says that to be in order to be innovative, companies need to prioritize customers and bring fresh ideas into the marketplace, but that instead of doing so, Meta has put ad revenue above all else.

Fils-Aimé said he favors augmented reality over virtual reality when asked about what devices we’ll be using in the future. The ideal product, in his eyes, is a lightweight set of glasses that let you interact with a “digital experience,” something the former exec finds more compelling than a bulky VR headset.