"I don't believe one player or one company can make all the right decisions."
Facebook's announcement of a new, sweeping focus on virtual reality metaverses prompted praise and criticism. The company has even changed its name to Meta.
It seems that not everyone at the social media giant is happy with the new strategy. This includes the high-ranking VR developers from megacorporations.
John Carmack was the legendary programmer behind Doom, Quake and took over as Oculus VR's CTO before it was acquired by Facebook. After the announcement of the new direction, Carmack was a keynote speaker at Facebooks Connect conference. He voiced his dismay about the announcement.
I have been actively opposing every metaverse attempt that we have tried to spin-up internally within the company since before acquisition times, stated Carmack, who is now the consulting CTO during the address. There are good reasons to believe that building the metaverse is not the best way to end up with it.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Carmack was arguing that he wanted to see a metaverse but wasn't sure Facebook was the right company to do so. Ars Technica's analysis of his comments suggests that his particular objection is that Facebook's vision will try to solve the problem at too high a level. It will try to generalize all applications for the metaverse, but not focus on creating smaller, more engaging experiences that actually offer value to users.
He said that the most obvious way to the metaverse would be for there to be one universal app, such as Roblox. It is just not possible for one company to make all the right decisions.
This is a striking statement to make about your employer, especially after the company announced a major strategic shift. He is not the only one who doubts the venture among Facebook employees. VR hardware developers at Facebook are also skeptical.
Carmack said, "But here we are." Mark Zuckerberg decided now was the right time to create the metaverse. So huge wheels are turning, resources are flowing, and it is certain that the effort will be made.
Advertisement
Advertisement
You're not the only one who finds this a bit catty. It does seem that Carmack is ready to embrace the new vision. He actually took this opportunity to challenge the company to host next year's Facebook Connect conference at the same location he spoke at in the metaverse.
He said that I would be very disappointed if next year I was sitting in front of a video crew with a camera in physical realities doing this talk. I want to be walking in the halls as my avatar, in front of thousands of people and getting the feed across multiple platforms.
More about the metaverse: A startup is creating digital human servants to work in the metaverse
Do you care about clean energy adoption? Learn how much money and planet you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. UnderstandSolar.com can show you how much money and planet you could save by switching over to solar power. Futurism.com might earn a small commission if you sign up via this link.
Advertisement
Advertisement
