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Despite Hype, VR Investment Fades In Q1 2017

TONX

Distinguished Air Superiority
1. It's uncomfortable in several ways

2. Isolates you from your house (matters, in a family)

3. Worse image quality than you have become used to.

Those three things are the main problems that need to be solved before it stands a chance and they sound simple but they are actually really really hard to address. In particular the motion issue may be impossible to solve for stationary VR.

Gaming on a screen is not going to stand still so issue 3 is a moving target. How can that be fixed when gaming on a screen is always at the edge of performance?

VR Playroom for PSVR alleviates that. Totally made for family and friends to play together, and its brilliant.
 

Sir Doom

Member
It alright VR bros Valve is supporting their hardware with hands off support. lol

Not surprised by this
Hardware has potential but software is lacking
 
I think they released the hardware too soon, the visual fidelity is hugely underwhelming. I also think it will never be anything but niche until then.
 
Well, the novelty of VR has pretty much worn off for early adopters and game developpers, and we're left with the reality... An expensive piece of hardware that can deliver okay, but somewhat limited vr "experiences", but kinda make most people somewhat sick the minute proper controller movement to the mix and developpers try to make full retail games out of it, unless they use somewhat gimmicky methods to trick us into not puking all over the place.

Plus , I feel like the graphical fidelity isn't there, at least on Playstation Move (granted, I don't own a PS Pro)... It was better on Oculus and HTC vive from what I remember, but still not flawless either.

To me it has the same niche appeal as 3D movies... After a couple of hours in the theater, you're pretty happy to remove the googles and get back to real life. I get the same feeling for VR. It's fun to try a new app or demo, to experience it , but I'm usually happy when said demo ends, to remove the helmet and go back to play my games on a screen sitting on a couch without feeling sick or bumping into my cat by mistake.

Maybe in a couple of years, with better screens, better optics, better graphics, perhaps a treadmill system to handle movement, it'll become something that really clicks for gaming... But for now, it feels like a gimmick more than a game changer.... Asides from VR porn... XD, I think that's what's going to keep VR alive for the next few years...
 
I think regardless if VR is too early or not (and it is) it was still destined to fail. The main problem is splitting the market. What you're buying into is a $500 to $800 accessory for your console and PC on top of the overhead cost of buying a console or PC that can play games perfectly fine as is. Because of the high cost of investment, fewer people will inevitably buy into it leading to a market that not worth developing for when you can make a traditional PC or console game which more developers have more experience with and can reach a higher number of people. That's why you're seeing the games drying up and no big company taking it very seriously in the first place.The VR hype bubble is already imploding and it's more than likely Sony and Valve will drop out and Oculus will either be absorbed into Facebook completely, shuttered, or sold off. Like wearables, this is another attempt at every company looking at science fiction to find the next big thing like Apple. Honestly we're going to write the entire thing off as just another fad in a year or two unless there's some sort of second wind but considering you're dealing with a split and ever decreasing market, that's looking more unlikely every day.
 
The technology has a lot of potential, but it's simply not accessible. It's too expensive and there are no real incentives to make it a must buy just yet. The software is pretty thin on all platforms, and on top of that it's also fragmented between platforms. It was dead before it launched, and sadly only stuff bundled with phones nowadays can survive in the market if it doesn't really die out soon.
 
VR Playroom for PSVR alleviates that. Totally made for family and friends to play together, and its brilliant.
That's one example that doesn't cover every other situation. For example, I have two young kids. If my wife were to go out for the evening, I could never play VR even if they had gone to bed already for the night being the only parent in the house. That isolation of being cut off from being aware of my kids is something I couldn't do where as it's no issue at all with regular video games. Isolation from your family is a real issue.
 
I think if there's one thing that succeeds in terms of VR, it's going to be Google Cardboard. I mean, pretty much everyone owns a smartphone good enough for it, and there's some pretty neat and cheap phone vr cases on the market today...

The gyroscope is good enough to give a pretty good approximation of head tracking, and you can pretty much play Oculus and Rift games using it as long as you setup a Riftcat or Trinus account on your pc and use the phone as an emulated vr headset ... The only issue being the controller, and it's been solved with the Nolo VR Kickstarter, which offers a pretty decent alternative to HTC / Oculus / Move controllers for somewhat cheap.

Honestly, if you own a good enough smartphone, you can get a vr setup going for like 150 bucks or less that way, much more accessible than any other alternative. That said, you would need a decent enough Oculus and Vive games, unless you're satisfited with the phone app store games, which kinda stink when it comes to vr imho...
 

lantus

Member
There's almost no reason to own any one of them. I was most interested in psvr, but the content is rolling out extremely slow.
 

ducksauce

Member
I honestly think VR is the next Kinect or 3D TV. It's one of those things people only THINK they want because it's a concept that is ingrained in our minds as "The Future".

Sadly I think I'm in this boat. I'm a day one Vive owner and while it was cool for a few weeks,I haven't touched the thing in months and really have no desire to go back. I thought room scale would be amazing but it's just a huge hassle to me. Also good ole reliable console/pc games have been amazing lately so there is also that.
 

Trojan

Member
Has anyone else listened to the Game Informer Podcast with Alex Hutchinson (FarCry 4 director) where they discuss VR?

He's got a pessimistic view of VR but I can't disagree with the points he brings up. I have been a big VR supporter and own a Vive, but I agree with him that it hasn't been an organic embrace of game design for VR. More of a "how can we make this work in VR" mentality rather than using it as a medium for unique gameplay that can't be reproduced on a TV.

Skip to 2:03:15 for the VR discussion
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=prWFJViKTpo
 
I feel like VR will go the way of 3D TVs. People don't like wearing tech. I hope I'm wrong, but the data seems to show that the average person isn't feeling it.
 

akira28

Member
This news should shock no one.

they should have listened. openVR allows a bigger entry and support base. walled gardens with 1000$ entry fees are doomed to being niche.

I hope PSVR can keep the ball rolling while the other end gets its act together. and I guess Illusion type games.
 

Vinnk

Member
VR Playroom for PSVR alleviates that. Totally made for family and friends to play together, and its brilliant.

If I'm watching the kids I don't even risk putting on headphones. If there were older and would be into the VR playroom, that is one thing. But as a responsible parent if I am going to game at all (and I usually don't unless the kids are sleeping/fully engaged in something else) I cannot remove the most important senses used in keeping my kids alive.

That said, if this had been out when I was a student I would have been all over it. And I still plan to get into VR someday, but for the foreseeable future it's not a good fit to my lifestyle.
 

Hyun Sai

Member
Niche product for enthusiasts.

I don't think I'll ever invest in it anyway :

- I already hate having simple headphones or glasses on my head.
- I can have motion sickness even with some non VR games.
- I can't make space in my living room for it.
- I like being aware of my surroundings when I'm playing.

So I don't even take into account the number of quality games or the prohibitive cost. I may be a special case, but I somehow doubt it.
 

Souzetsu

Member
I honestly believe that VR won't take off until they get walking around in a VR space down so that it's not causing motion sickness and not hampered by small play spaces. How that's going to be achieved I have no idea.
 
The games are terrible, 360 video is even worse so there is a reason people aren't into VR right now. I think as a person in the industry we all see that its the convergence of AR and VR where things can happen. When the technology lets us seamlessly go between fully immersed, partially immersed and not augmented at all it can enter the mass market. I had a smartphone in 2003 (Nokia 6600) but it wasn't until 2008 when the iPhone 3G came out that people even really started executing on of all the possibilities.
If you think of Vive and PSVR as Nokia Symbian OS and T-mobile Sidekick then you see where things can get to in just 10 years.

VR is not happening today but you need everything thats happening now to create something we will appreciate in 10 years.
 

Nick

Junior Member
I hate that VR is tanking, because I truly and honestly believe it is the future of gaming. Putting on my PSVR for the first time was an experience I haven't felt since I was a little kid. Even something as simple as Alumette, with the peaking into windows and moving my head to see the full story was a magical experience. Job Simulator had me grinning ear to ear. I BELIEVE IN VR!
 

oni-link

Member
The games are terrible, 360 video is even worse so there is a reason people aren't into VR right now. I think as a person in the industry we all see that its the convergence of AR and VR where things can happen. When the technology lets us seamlessly go between fully immersed, partially immersed and not augmented at all it can enter the mass market. I had a smartphone in 2003 (Nokia 6600) but it wasn't until 2008 when the iPhone 3G came out that people even really started executing on of all the possibilities.
If you think of Vive and PSVR as Nokia Symbian OS and T-mobile Sidekick then you see where things can get to in just 10 years.

VR is not happening today but you need everything thats happening now to create something we will appreciate in 10 years.

Yeah it could go that way, or it could end up being something niche mainly enjoyed by enthusiasts

A lot of people assume VR will naturally be "the future" but I don't think that's guaranteed to happen

Either way it's hardly a surprise that people are less excited now by a platform that has so far shown it only really has niche/gimmicky/uninteresting software

Once we see VR games with mass appeal that can only be done with VR, people will start to come around
 

cakefoo

Member
Just throwing this out there: Mark Zuckerberg invested $3B fully aware that it could take 20 years for VR to go mainstream. By my expert calculations, we're only at the 1 year marker.
 

Jumeira

Banned
Too much effort needed, expensive with little support, this was never going to take off under these circumstances. I was never on board, not surprised in the least
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
at the moment the tecnology is not here yet to be sustainable and appealing to the masses..but so were mobile phones at the beginning

This is such an incredibly flawed comparison, considering mobile phones are part of everyone's daily lives right now and are required to function properly in modern times, whereas in VR you need to purchase specific gear for a very specific thing that is simply not required whatsoever if you are not interested in it.
 

oni-link

Member
Just throwing this out there: Mark Zuckerberg invested $3B fully aware that it could take 20 years for VR to go mainstream. By my expert calculations, we're only at the 1 year marker.

What year are we at with 3D TV tech?

How long till that takes over the world?
 

bratpack

Member
I am happy enough with my 80euro Samsung gear VR to be honest no way would I spend 400 on the psvr

the gear be has an official occulus thing built in so the apps are much better quality than what's on Google's play store imo
 
Unless they can deliver a good cable free headset I just don't see VR be viable for mass market.

I think people need to realize that VR isn't a revolutionary event, but a long term project. We're barely in the crawling stage, standing and walking are still a long way out.
It would be a shame if the technical shortcomings and flood of shovelware garbage we see now, is going to delay or even ruin the further development of better VR solutions and experiences.
 
I'm still enjoying the hell out of my PSVR, personally, and if I got my vr news from gaf I'd have thought vr died before any of the big 3 released. I'm anxious due to a slow content drop and all the doom and gloom posts around here but I'm also cautiously optimistic for E3 this year. We will se I guess.
 

Alphahawk

Member
It was never going to happen. One company made a fantastic Kickstarter and allowed everyone to drink the Koolaid.

People who believed in it were always talking about how wonderful the technology and the experience was, but never seemed to factor in price or how the public would perceive it. Point blank it's an expensive product, but it's not just that, you also need a beefy PC to run it. That's an absurd amount of money for Joe Consumer to put down. Also I never saw the average consumer being too thrilled about wearing said headset.
 

Rygar 8 Bit

Jaguar 64-bit
Unless they can deliver a good cable free headset I just don't see VR be viable for mass market.

I think people need to realize that VR isn't a revolutionary event, but a long term project. We're barely in the crawling stage, standing and walking are still a long way out.
It would be a shame if the technical shortcomings and flood of shovelware garbage we see now, is going to delay or even ruin the further development of better VR solutions and experiences.

theres already a wireless adapter coming out soon for vive
and whats wrong with the walking? thats been solved a while ago with several different options you can choose
 

Rygar 8 Bit

Jaguar 64-bit
So glad I didn't fall into the VR hype, I have yet to see a game that is worth the price investment.

these have more then justified the price for me

arizona sunshine
super hot
raw data
sairento
climbey
gorn
compound
onward
art of fight
the lab
hover junkers
space pirate trainer
special delivery
serious sam
vanishing realms
spell fighter
pavlov
knock out league
holopoint

edit : curses meant to edit this to my last post
 

Oersted

Member
need it to play vr games though :p the games made for proper vr just cant be played any other way stuff like climbey

iOS and Android are main plattforms. Windows phones get something when the developer has too much money, is looking for a niche or they get flatout paid by Microsoft.

VR is the Windows phone. It is not the standard target plattform.
 

shark sandwich

tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
The hardcore gamer geeks on GAF wanted so bad to put on a cutting edge VR headset and say "OMG this is the greatest gaming revelation I've had since MARIO 64!!!"

I think we should acknowledge that the audience here is a lot more receptive to the experience, and a lot more willing to ignore its shortcomings, than the general public. It's very similar to the way one might be willing to rationalize away contradictions in one's religious text, or overlook personality flaws in one's lover.

Finally, "it just needs for the technology to improve, and the price to drop, and for someone to make a killer app!!" could've been said about just about every failed technology. But maybe, just maybe, people simply don't want it regardless of the price.

Look at Kinect 2.0. Vastly superior to 1.0, with a 1080p camera, far greater accuracy, able to read your heartbeat, track individual fingers, etc. It failed because, by that time, people realized they would rather play games while sitting on their asses with a controller instead of standing up and pantomiming.
 

CEJames

Member
these have more then justified the price for me

arizona sunshine
super hot
raw data
sairento
climbey
gorn
compound
onward
art of fight
the lab
hover junkers
space pirate trainer
special delivery
serious sam
vanishing realms
spell fighter
pavlov
knock out league
holopoint

edit : curses meant to edit this to my last post

You can multiply that list by 10 and it still won't be enough for some people.
 
I'm still enjoying the hell out of my PSVR, personally, and if I got my vr news from gaf I'd have thought vr died before any of the big 3 released. I'm anxious due to a slow content drop and all the doom and gloom posts around here but I'm also cautiously optimistic for E3 this year. We will se I guess.

Yup we will see, way too early to predict anything. I want it to be successful I think VR is one of the best things to happen to gaming and entertainment as a whole in my life time (so far), seeing as the PSVR/Vive/Rift are the starting points of the consumer technology it is in a very good place and hands of decent manufactures. Content is king though and that is what will drive sales, ultimately it will require a few companies to be prepared to make a few big loses to break the catch 22 in terms of content as we already have that with the hardware. We also have to see what volumetric cameras might bring to the VR experience as well as a multitude of other new/emerging technologies, we don't know what impact if any they will have.
 

Vice

Member
VR Playroom for PSVR alleviates that. Totally made for family and friends to play together, and its brilliant.

While that's true that it can be fun, when you have responsibilities like caring for a small child or animal the isolation can be a big hindrance. Then, there's the issues that come from not being able to hear or see anything. Even something as simple as missing a call or not being aware of some minor emergency can be pretty bad for a family.
 

Dantero

Member
If the vive actually fit onto my head I'd buy it, but it doesn't. I don't really want to support oculus so I won't buy a rift and I don't think PSVR has enough longevity to not be a waste of money. Indie pc devs are probably what'll keep VR alive for some time to come so hopefully we'll get a vive 2 at some point.
 
While that's true that it can be fun, when you have responsibilities like caring for a small child or animal the isolation can be a big hindrance. Then, there's the issues that come from not being able to hear or see anything. Even something as simple as missing a call or not being aware of some minor emergency can be pretty bad for a family.
This is needless handwringing. Of course you take into consideration that you'll be wearing a visor and headphones before you play. But you're not completely deaf and dumb to the world. Most thinking adults would reserve the VR for after the kids go to bed, or if they have the house to themselves. Or you do it together as a family and take turns.

All this what-iffing is just absurd. I mean, what if something catches on fire while you're in the shower or taking a shit? What if your spouse falls down the stairs while you're out mowing the lawn? What if your dog chokes on a chew toy while you're at the store? As a parent/caretaker, you have to anticipate potentially dangerous situations, but you can't fret over every little thing that could possibly happen. You'd never get anything done.
 

Z3M0G

Member
I don't think it should necessarily be included with PS5, but the Kinect comparisons never cease to amaze me. It's a completely different thing that has gotten a completely different response from developers. The consumer base for VR is also at the near opposite end of the spectrum. If it would be helpful to give more details about this I can, but in all honesty if you are posting in a VR thread and don't know this already then I'm not sure how much I can sway you to pay attention to the details.

I didn't intend to compare it to Kinect in terms of viability as a product... I refer to how they would increase the price of the package, and that it would cause some people to avoid buying one if they fell it needlessly increases the price of the overall package.

I was playing "what if"s.
 

Peru

Member
VR will NEVER be the main way to play videogames.

Will it be a viable experience platform, for theme parks and entertainment businesses? Sure.
Will it have professional work-related uses? Sure.
Will it work well in certain game settings? Sure.

It will survive. It will be a platform. It will improve.

But regardless of lighter headsets, better comfort, better virtual 'walking', higher resolution, lower cost -- it's simply more of an effort, and more of a bother to play games in VR than out of VR. It's not about immature technology. Playing epic, long traditional games in a virtual world is fatiguing.

The tech is here to stay. But it's better to accept it as an accessory and as a platform for other uses than to maintain that it will be the end platform for all gaming.
 

Plasma

Banned
and when is that? serious question, what are the big upcoming VR games?
Farpoint and Star Trek are coming out next month so far this year Resident Evil 7, Psychonauts, Robo Recall and Rock Band have come out.

Later this year Fallout 4, Arktika.1, From Other Suns, Killing Floor and Lone Echo are coming out. Valve are working on three VR games and I would be very suprised if Sony don't announce more games at E3.

There are also plenty of really good games in early access like Pavlov, H3VR, Raw Data, Sairento and Onward that are putting out significant content updates for their games regularly.

Can we stop pretending that there isn't anything out or coming out on VR?
 
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