Xbox boss Phil Spencer says the metaverse is like ‘a poorly built videogame’

The metaverse is exciting (opens in new tab), it’s mystifying (opens in new tab), but above all else, it’s kind of a mess. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg got brutally dragged in August because of his horrific, dead-eyed meta-selfie (opens in new tab); the beatdown resumed earlier this month when Zuck announced that Meta avatars would be getting legs (opens in new tab). And it’s not just the online hoi polloi who don’t care for the current state of things. Speaking at today’s WSJ Tech Live 2022 conference, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said the metaverse is “a poorly built videogame.”

“If I think about videogames, for years we’ve been putting people together in 3D spaces to go and save the world from invading aliens, or conquer the castle,” Spencer said. “Building a metaverse that looks like a meeting room, I just find that’s not where I want to spend most of my time.”