For months now the metaverse has been on everyone's lips and there are more and more companies that, in one way or another, have expressed their plans to form part of it. However, not everyone is attracted to the idea of a life in virtuality; such is the case of Ken Kutaragi, considered in the world of videogames as “the father of the PlayStation”.
The former CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, who also led the first efforts of the Japanese company in the development of the PlayStation, gave an interview to Bloomberg in which he made his position on the metaverse clear. Without hesitation, considered that it is nonsense.
“Being in the real world is very important, but the metaverse is about doing almost real things in the virtual world, and I don't see the point of that. Would you rather be a polished avatar instead of your real self? Basically, that doesn't it is different from forums with anonymous messages”, he assured.
But Ken Kutaragi's criticism has not been limited to the visions of the metaverse proposed by companies such as Meta, Epic Games or Boeing. It was also expressed in against the implementation of technology through virtual reality or augmented reality helmets.
This is not only curious because both Facebook, Apple and Google are already working on developments of this type, but also because of the advances provided by PlayStation to this sector. “Headsets would cut you off from the real world and I can't agree with that. They're just annoying,” he said.
The metaverse doesn't seduce the “father” of the PlayStation
Photo by Barbara Zandoval on Unsplash It is clear that Ken Kutaragi is far from being the most optimistic in everything related to the metaverse as he currently proposes it. However, his current company intends to develop technology to blend the virtual with the real world. Today the energies of the 71-year-old businessman are focused on the expansion of Ascent Robotics.
As its name indicates, the company is dedicated to robotics and the development of artificial intelligence. They are currently working on a system that allows them to take any real object and convert it into information that can be read by a computer, to apply it to robots. But the ultimate goal is to take the data that these robots can collect so that a virtual scene can be projected in the real world; that is, as if it were a hologram.
Kutaragi's plans are really ambitious and could easily be considered as part of the exploration towards a new type of metaverse. However, it is clear that the executive wants nothing to do with that term.
