View Matrix in Metal "Game" Sample code

I tried to understand the view matrix.

The part from original code as below:

    private func updateGameState() {
        /// Update any game state before rendering

        uniforms[0].projectionMatrix = projectionMatrix

        let rotationAxis = SIMD3<Float>(1, 1, 0)
        let modelMatrix = matrix4x4_rotation(radians: rotation, axis: rotationAxis)
        let viewMatrix = matrix4x4_translation(0.0, 0.0, -8.0)
        uniforms[0].modelViewMatrix = simd_mul(viewMatrix, modelMatrix)
        rotation += 0.01
    }

If the view matrix is initialed in x = -0.5, as:let viewMatrix = matrix4x4_translation(-0.5, 0.0, -8.0) The cube in the MetalView will move left. I think it should move to right hand side because View Matrix is camera position, am I wrong?