- Ken Kutaragi, creator of PlayStation, stated that he does not think it makes much sense to divide the real and virtual worlds instead of making one.
- Kutaragi bets on combining the real world with cyberspace in a seamless and device-free way.
Ever since Facebook announced its rebranding to Meta and intentions to create the largest metaverse ever imagined, this sector has exploded in the crypto ecosystem. The projects like Decentraland or The Sandbox saw their token hit all-time highs. However, a video game expert does not believe that this is the future of gaming.
Ken Kutaragi was the man responsible for creating the PlayStation when he was an executive at Sony, and in the face of such a creation it is logical that his word has an important weight. The Japanese, in an interview with Bloombergdeclared he does not think it makes much sense to divide the real and virtual worlds instead of making one.
“Being in the real world is very important, but the metaverse is about being almost real in the virtual world, and I don’t see the point of doing that. Would you rather be an avatar instead of your real self? Basically, that’s no different from anonymous message board sites.Kutaragi opined.
In the metaverse or virtual reality, tools are needed to be able to access that world: a pair of glasses and headphones to be able to live a complete experience. These accessories also do not seem to be to the liking of the founder of PlayStation, which he considers could create greater difficulties for their adoption.
“Headphones would cut you off from the real world, and I can’t agree with that. Headphones are just annoying”, assured who worked for many years at Sony before setting up his own company.
Ascent: Union of the real world and cyberspace
Kutagari’s company is called Ascent Robotics Inc.. and he has a totally different approach: he’s ready to innovate with sophisticated robotics, in his own words.
“This is blending the real world with cyberspace in a seamless, device-free way, similar to the holograms in Star Wars.”, noted Kutaragi and added: “Today’s robots don’t have software or sensors that can match humans in understanding the real world and reacting to things they see for the first time, and our short-term goal is to offer a solution to that.”.
Kutaragi isn’t the only big name to express discontent with the idea of making the metaverse the future. Phil Libin, the founder of the Evernote app; Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, plus John Carmack, developer of the Doom video game and executive of the Oculus company, dedicated to building virtual reality headsets, do not trust experiences in the metaverse as much either.
In 2017, Sony released its virtual reality PSVR headset, the one with 360-degree vision and “stunning visuals.” Beyond the investment made (there are more than 500 games available), sales were far from expected: only 5 million have been sold since then. The question that arises is: Is the same audience for consoles as for VR?
Microsoft, Sony’s great rival in the world of consoles, bought the Activision company and announced that it will work to create content within the metaverse. This does not mean that an Xbox viewer will arrive, because Microsoft ruled it out.
“VR for consoles is not a focus for us at the moment”, they clarified.
Like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) once were, today metaverse is the word that captivates and impresses (almost) the entire crypto ecosystem. He still has to captivate a part of the public, including Kutaragi, the father of PlayStation.
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