Not every entertainment CEO has the metaverse bug

The Future. While we’ve written a lot about the tech sector’s almost-religious push into the metaverse, many top CEOs don’t believe that the metaverse — as narrowly-defined now — will be something people actually want to spend time in at scale. The criticism may instead be a recalibration toward thinking of the metaverse as a way to bring digital connectivity into the real world… instead of just losing ourselves in an online existence.

Headset headaches
According to The Verge, not every entertainment CEO has the metaverse bug.

• Microsoft’s CEO of gaming, Phil Spencer, compared the current plans for the metaverse as “ a poorly built video game,” noting that the whole virtual conference room aesthetic of the many platforms is unappealing
• Snap CEO Evan Spiegel disparagingly described the metaverse like “living inside a computer.”
• Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, said that the metaverse is “a word I’ll never use.”
• Disney CEO Bob Chapek tries “not to use” the word metaverse — a kind of about-face.

While the comments seem to be kicking Meta while it’s down, each of these companies are getting into a metaverse in their own way.

• Microsoft’s pending $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard will reportedly give the tech giant the “building blocks for the metaverse,” powered by AAA video-game entertainment.
• Snap’s several forays into AR could bring an interconnected virtual world into the real world.
• Apple will undoubtedly toll metaverse platforms that will inevitably be distributed through the App Store.
• Disney is exploring ways of connecting the theme park experience with the Disney+ experience, which it calls “next-generation storytelling.”

So, no, it’s not the vibes of a conference room in VR, but it’s connective — a belief that even the creator of the concept behind the metaverse, author Neal Stephenson, holds true.