Reggie Fils-Aime Questions Facebook's Vision For The Metaverse

The concept of the Metaverse, an all-encompassing virtual reality space, is one that Facebook parent Meta has been intently pursuing as of late, but video game veteran Reggie Fils-Aime is skeptical of that company's direction.

Speaking at the South by Southwest event in Texas, the former Nintendo of America president explained how he believed that smaller companies and more innovative brands such as Epic Games would be responsible for shaping the Metaverse through compelling ideas.

"Facebook itself is not an innovative company," Fils-Aime said, via Bloomberg. "They have either acquired interesting things like Oculus and Instagram, or they've been a fast follower of people's ideas. I don't think their current definition will be successful."

Fils-Aime also mentioned that bigger companies could look to acquire these more innovative firms--a running theme in 2022 so far--similar to Microsoft's proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard. Beyond talk of the Metaverse, Fils-Aime has kept busy since he left Nintendo in 2019.

After a short stint serving on the board of directors at GameStop, Fils-Aime left the company amid the upheaval related to the short squeeze drama in 2021 and he is currently the chairman of the UTA Acquisition Corp., while he also sits on the board of Brunswick Corp., a company renowned for making attractive boats.

The Reggineator has also added author to this resume as his new book that charts his rise from the Bronx to the top of Nintendo, Disrupting the Game, will be out in May.