Meta and its competitors have made big promises regarding their work with VR technology. However, Meta’s yet to sell everyone on its vision of the future. One of these critics is former Evernote boss and current Mmhmm CEO Phil Libin. He lambasted Meta’s metaverse during a recent Insider interview, calling it “uncreative.”

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Phil Libin runs Mmhmm, a virtual presentation software designed to work with platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Libin and several coworkers recently tried out Meta’s first metaverse product, Horizon Workrooms. Like the rival Microsoft Mesh, Meta’s software is essentially a VR version of Zoom. It lets teams carry out business meetings in a virtual reality conference room.

Libin, who was already skeptical about the product going in, hated the experience, saying, “It was only tolerable for a few minutes.” Libin specifically criticized the inability to interact with real-world objects as a significant disadvantage compared to something like Zoom. For example, simply drinking a cup of coffee becomes a hassle with VR goggles strapped to one’s face.

This isn’t the first time Libin levied criticisms against Meta’s vision of the metaverse, previously saying that the hype reminded him of Soviet propaganda. However, he is also not the only person unimpressed with Meta and the metaverse in general, with John Carmack sharing his concerns back in October. Meanwhile, Meta reports losing $10 billion from its new metaverse business, with the company’s stock shrinking by 26% last Thursday.

Libin went on to say about the metaverse, “It’s an old idea. It’s uncreative, it’s been tried many, many times over the past four decades, and it’s never worked.” Again, Libin isn’t the first to express a similar opinion. Some online commenters have drawn comparisons between current metaverse projects and the online game Second Life. Released in 2003, Linden Lab marketed Second Life along much the same lines as Zuckerberg’s metaverse, and it saw a similar level of media hype.

Meanwhile, Meta’s vision of the metaverse still struggles to prove its worth, and Libin doubts it ever will. Said Libin, “It’s not gonna get better because it started bad. It started stupid. It can get more sophisticated, but it’ll just be more sophisticated — but still bad.”

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Source: Insider