Reggie Fils-Aimé, the executive who led Nintendo of America for almost five years, spoke of the metaverse presented in 2021 by Meta (ex Facebook) and did not exactly say praiseworthy words. Nothing of that.
In an interview with Bloombergthe verbose and controversial businessman fired harsh criticism at Mark Zuckerberg’s virtual project and recalled that Facebook “It’s not an innovative company.”
For Fils-Aimé, who worked 15 years at Nintendo and was president of the American subsidiary until 2019, he said in the interview: “I don’t think the Meta metaverse will succeed.”
“I am not convinced by the idea of Facebook. I do not understand that your definition of the metaverse is successful, in addition, we all know that it is not an innovative company, ”he pointed out, implying that the future metaverse as Zuckerberg presented it will be a failure.
As a speaker at the event South by SouthwestFils-Aimé recalled that Meta, when it was Facebook, has copied or bought all the interesting ideas that have emerged in recent years and that the metaverse, which he defined as a “digital space in which people interact with friends in social settings and playful”, is something that “already existed” and that “they have implemented much earlier”, such as platforms like Roblox, he exemplified.
What does a former Nintendo think about Facebook
It must be remembered that Facebook changed its corporate identity to Meta in October 2021, the company that now encompasses all the social networks and messaging services that previously acted under the umbrella of the social network founded by Zuckerberg.
On that occasion, Zuckerberg said that the change was due to the fact that the company will bet everything on the metaverse, the digital spaces that, as he assured, will be a key part of the “new internet.”
Fils-Aimé continued to shoot at Zuckerberg and only recognized the Cupertino company for having bought “really very interesting companies, such as Oculus or Instagram.”
Augmented reality: the future according to Fils-Aimé
For the former Nintendo, who was supplanted in 2019 by Doug Bowser in the highest chair of Nintendo of America, It’s a long way from people wearing virtual reality headsets all the time.
“We are not ready for that now,” he assured, although he left the door open so that in the future, which he measured as “distant”, it might happen.
However, Fils-Aimé said that is more confident in the success of augmented realityan opinion more in line with what other industry leaders have said, such as the head of Apple, Tim Cook.
For Fils-Aimé, augmented reality allows interaction in a physical and digital world in the same time and space, to give the example of the game Pokémon Go, developed by Niantic, The Pokémon Company and, of course, Nintendo.
According to the businessman, in the future of digital entertainment the key will be in “new gaming experiences and deeper combinations between the physical and digital worlds.”
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