PlayStation Creator Ken Kutaragi Not a Fan of VR Headsets or Metaverse

If I'm being honest I agree with him almost 100%. VR is cool but the headset required to engage with it can be annoying to deal with. As for the Metaverse he is spot on as far as I can tell.

Damn straight! Never used one. Never will. I have to wear glasses in the first place. Why would I want to slap some heavy clunky ass goggles on top of my face and over my glasses? Screw virtual reality. How bout actual reality? Talk about realism!

Not a fan of the whole metaverse idea for sure - but I'm also sure VR games can be tons of fun (haven't used a VR headset since the 90s so can't 100% confirm - but looking forward to PSVR2).

I agree with this.

As someone with no interest In social gaming outside of local co-op with the wife, I fundamentally disagree. Still, if he only wants flat games, there are plenty of options for that.

Man talks truth. But stick always has two ends. I see it as give and take. It depends on which side of the stick you will end up being.

The headset IS a huge barrier for a ton of people, I doubt VR will ever get the buy in that flat gaming has because of it. Not until they are as unobtrusive as a pair of reading glasses.

He’s not wrong. VR isn’t comfortable to use as it is now. Until it becomes more comfortable and affordable I’m really not interested in VR. It’s not worth the entry price for barely a handful of games either.

VR headsets are in an early phase, though. Future headsets will likely be much smaller, lighter, more comfortable and less isolating to use. More like AR/VR hybrids resembling sunglasses I suspect.

I would agree that:

• wearing a headset is less comfortable than not wearing a headset
• meeting people in reality is better than meeting people in a metaverse
  But, I would disagree
• that playing games in VR is more isolating than playing games on a flat screen. Typically the attention of people playing games is fully focused on the game whether they are wearing a headset or not. In my opinion the only exception are couch co-op games, and some party games, but those are just a fraction of all games.
• Also if You cannot see people in reality (e.g. there could be some pandemic going on) virtual meetings in VR might be a better alternative to just video meetings, provided enough of the gestures are captured. But I never tried that, and can only say that I am not a big fan of video meetings. If there was something that would come closer to an in-person experience that would be an advantage.

Gotta love those who can't understand how their reality doesn't align with the day to day struggles and horrible realities of others, of which things like this could potentially be a far healthier escapism for then drugs or alcohol.

“We need fantasy to survive because reality is too difficult.” - Lady Gaga

@Truegamer79 You're a gamer but only want actual reality???

I love my PSVR. I think it's one of the most exciting things to happen in the console industry since the leap from 2D to 3D.

Well, old people can be wrong too, regardless of their contributions.

@__jamiie
Beats the heck outta virtual reality while wearing those idiotic goggles.

He’s on the money. I don’t like VR, gives me a pounding headache every time I’ve tried it.

I'm with him. Headsets are unconfortable and quite honestly, anything not designed carefully scrambles my brain. I like vader immortal, but when i tried Asgard's Wrath, a more complete game, my brain noped put. I was feeling it for days, felt sick and never played VR again.
It's just not mass market material with those kinds of drawbacks.

Agreed. Getting too close to the Matrix.

Love VR. One of the best things to happen last gen. I can’t wait for PSVR2.

@__jamiie Totally agree. Biggest leap in gaming from 2D to 3D. Astro bots giving me one best experiences in gaming and RE7. When I look at horror in flat screen now, its not horror unless its in VR.

VR - AR is only going to get better.

@BorntobeGeek75 Me too. I've been so impressed with the output on PSVR despite the limitations of the Move controllers and resolution of the headset. Iron Man, Blood and Truth, RE7, Astrobot, WipEout and Ace Combat are absolutely breathtaking.

I'd love it if Sony could find a way to make the VR2 backwards compatible but I'll be keeping hold of my original and my Pro regardless.

I think VR is pretty cool, but as another glasses wearer it can be a big hassle. So I'm not too keen on PSVR2, it seems odd to me they're chasing that dragon, considering the original PSVR only sold 5 million or so. Why can't we have another handheld then?! Huh? Huh? Huh?

I'm not all that interested in VR but...the man works at a company for robots now. "you'd rather be a polished avatar of yourself" man forgets things like playstation home it seems or fandom in general.

I have no idea what a Metaverse is and at this point Im afraid to ask

I like his old school approach. Having a metaverse is weird and mind screwing. Let's leave VR for gaming (with light social elements) or hypothetically; disaster training or something. If I'm honest, as someone who uses psvr with moves, it's annoying having to wait for the 2 moves to charge when I only have 1 USB slot for charging on ps4 (the other 2 go to psvr itself and an external HDD). Then there's making sure the PSVR temperature is higher than me/the room so it doesn't cloud up... And finally the wire. Basically I never play it in short bursts, it has to be a long session and so I only really use it once a week in summer. Winter it gets a little more use, though.

I agree with his meta verse opinions, but VR games are basically the only kind of games I'm interested in from now on

Resi 4 vr is the best game I've played in a long time, it's amazing. Big fan of vr in general

VR should be an optional choice to play, not as mandatory way to play.
VR machine itself is expensive not to mention the health risk for using VR for long time.

@Ichiban Haha! I loved PSP and the VITA, but that market is totally dominated by the (cheap and awful) Switch. I guess that's why VR is worth it for now. They're in a very unique position with console VR, especially with such a high barrier of entry in other adjacent markets like PC VR. And yeah, native Quest 2 games are mostly just trash (in comparison to console/PC VR).