‘It’s not good, it’s not fun.’ The Oculus founder who sold his VR startup to Mark Zuckerberg slams Meta’s Horizon Worlds as a hobby ‘project car’ - Fortune

“I don’t deliberation it’s a bully product,” Palmer Luckey said astir the Metaverse’s halfway merchandise Horizon Worlds astatine the Wall Street Journal league Tech Live. 

Oculus was acquired by Facebook successful 2014 for $2 cardinal arsenic portion of the company’s hugely costly and adjacent decade-long pursuit of its virtual world universe. Luckey, who was fired from Facebook successful 2016, present runs the information and defence merchandise start-up Anduril Industries.

“It’s not good, it’s not fun…Most radical connected the squad would hold it’s not a bully product,” helium said, alluding to leaked interior memos revealing that unit are hardly interested, and that it’s suffering from glitches.  

Zuckerberg’s “project car”

But it’s not conscionable the prime that has drawn disapproval from each angles; Meta is truthful acold losing a batch of wealth connected Mark Zuckerberg’s propulsion into the technology.

“Mark Zuckerberg is the fig 1 virtual world instrumentality successful the world,” Luckey said. “He’s enactment successful much wealth and clip to it than anyone ever successful history.” 

In 2021 alone, Meta invested $10 billion successful the metaverse, and is expected to suffer different $10 cardinal this year. 

As a result, profits and religion successful the institution is dropping significantly. Since the institution changed its sanction to Meta successful 2021, Zuckberg’s idiosyncratic net worthy has dropped by implicit $70 billion, portion arsenic of Monday, Meta’s shares are down implicit 60% year-to-date. 

Luckey lamented Zuckerberg’s aggravated propulsion towards VR, likening the metaverse to the CEO’s “project car” — an incredibly costly hobby that you yet suffer wealth on.  

“You hack astatine it and possibly nary 1 other sees the value… Will they stumble? Yeah sure. Will they discarded money? Will they adhd things to their task car that they aboriginal hack off? Yes.”

Despite the criticism, Luckey believes the Metaverse could inactive win since there’s capable wealth progressive to streamline the existent issues. 

“It is unspeakable today, but it could beryllium astonishing successful the future,” helium said. “Zuckerberg volition enactment the wealth successful to bash it. They’re successful the champion presumption of anyone to triumph successful the agelong run.”