Reggie Fils-Aime skeptical about Meta's metaverse
Brendan Sinclair
Managing Editor
Monday 14th March 2022
Reggie Fils-Aime doesn't see a lot of promise in the version of the metaverse being pursued by Meta (formerly Facebook).
The former Nintendo of America president explained his reservations in a South by Southwest keynote this weekend, as recorded by Bloomberg.
Part of his skepticism had to do with the company's track record, both with physical products like Portal and with innovation in general.
"You have to admit that Facebook itself is not an innovative company"
Reggie Fils-Aime
"You have to admit that Facebook itself is not an innovative company," Fils-Aime said. "They have either acquired really interesting things -- like Oculus, like Instagram -- or they have been a fast follower of other people's ideas. That's Facebook. Inherently they are not an innovative company, other than the very original social platform that was created many years ago."
More specifically, he questioned the company's motivations in pursuing its vision of the metaverse.
"I believe that in order to be innovative, you really need to be thinking about the consumer first -- and I don't think they do," Fils-Aime said. "I think they think about advertising revenue first because that's 98% of their revenue."
Fils-Aime said the key for any company hoping to innovate is to have an innovative culture. If you want to bring new and different ideas to market, then you need to reward and encourage that throughout the organization, from marketing to product development to accounting.
Finally, he questioned the idea that people would be willing to spend considerable chunks of their day in VR.
"That's why I'm much more of a believer in AR," Fils-Aime said. "There's a lot of examples of successful AR today. Pokémon Go
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