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Phil Spencer on VR "Right now feels like Demos and Experiments"

G

Guerrilla

Member
So stevivor (never heard of them before) has a great interview with Phil Spencer on VR.

http://stevivor.com/2016/11/xboxs-phil-spencer-vr-will-come-project-scorpio-doesnt-feel-like-demos-experiments/

Its a good read, and while he believes in the future of VR he thinks its not there yet. And with the PSVR as the second VR Device I own already collecting dust I have to fully agree with him.

Some noteworthy quotes:

I don’t think the creators in the game space have yet found – well, they haven’t obviously perfected the craft of building VR games,” he said. “It’s so early, I think we’re a couple of years before we’ll really see that hit mainstream.
Click to expand...


I think VR will find its spot in gaming; I would make that bet,” he continued. “We designed Scorpio as a VR-capable console. Whether that happens this year, next year or the year after… like I said, I still think the creative community has to get its arms around what are these new tools, and this new feeling — this new immersion.
Click to expand...


What experiences do you put in people’s hands to have a long term engagement? Most of these things I’m playing now feel like demos and experiments, which I actually think it’s absolutely the right thing to have happened. That’s not a criticism at all, but should be happening. But I think it will take time.
Click to expand...

There are even some lines regarding hololens

With HoloLens we picked where we think the tech’s going to be in ten years, because we see a lot of people doing great work in the VR space today.
Click to expand...

Ten years seem about right

What do you think?


Turn into "VR Thread Simulator" if old
 
dottme

dottme

Member
I think I agree more or less. But in 10 year the tech will be really different and I won't take a bet.
I let the other pay for the debug phase. I'm waiting for the time it is a good tech.
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
He's not wrong. That doesn't mean there isn't anything worth playing, but I think generally that is what it feels like now.
 
S

SuperBanana

Banned
Don't really blame him. VR hype dried up about 5 seconds after launch and sales have flat lined. Even PSVR which was aimed at a bigger market got mixed impressions. Might as well be ready to make one but not jumping into a dead market.
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
Honestly the way VR is being rolled out now is smart as hell. By the time there is real development and projects for it, there will already be an install base.
 
cheezcake

cheezcake

Member
He's not wrong but some are extremely convincing demos and experiments. Budget Cuts is easily the best VR game I've tried and it will make a great full fledged game on release.
 
T

TheSpoiler

Member
SuperBanana said:
Don't really blame him. VR hype dried up about 5 seconds after launch and sales have flat lined. Even PSVR which was aimed at a bigger market got mixed impressions. Might as well be ready to make one but not jumping into a dead market.
Click to expand...

Did it? Seemed a solid 7 to 8 with some dips and some highs. The list of games needs to be bigger, sure, but is there any indication that sales have flatlined?
 
S

Spyder_Monkey

Banned
dottme said:
I think I agree more or less. But in 10 year the tech will be really different and I won't take a bet.
I let the other pay for the debug phase. I'm waiting for the time it is a good tech.
Click to expand...

Who even knows if the tech will be around in 10 years. As of right now all the major VR players are doing a bad job laying down the foundation for the tech.
 
G

Guerrilla

Member
Frozenprince said:
Honestly the way VR is being rolled out now is smart as hell. By the time there is real development and projects for it, there will already be an install base.
Click to expand...

I think it might be quite the opposite, a lot of people might be turned off of VR due to its vast current limitations. It's great for the first couple of hours but you quite quickly start to see the cracks in the wall. I think this technology could have used around 2 more years in the oven before even starting to target enthusiasts. Releasing Dev Kit Versions over that period of time would have been the smart way imo, since all currently released headsets still feel like unfinished products.
 
K

kyser73

Member
Interesting to see MS take a Valve-esque approach in letting others take a capital risk on hardware while providing a hardware specification.

On AR I think MS are betting too early with Hololens. All the lessons required - screen, compute, battery - will be solved as VR develops. There's also a lot more extraneous technology that needs to advance for AR to truly take flight.

I'm loving my PSVR though - it's a great complementary gaming experience to 2D (and in the case of Thumper, Rez & other sesnsory assault titles utterly transformative of the games), and I'm looking forward to seeing how VR gaming develops.
 
Surface of Me

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
Almost sounds like they will just allow a few third party headsets on Scorpio and just ride it out.
 
panda-zebra

panda-zebra

Banned
VR doesn't start until Uncle Phil says so?

Guerrilla said:
And with the PSVR as the second VR Device I own already collecting dust I have to fully agree with him.
Click to expand...

Seriously? I've already got a backlog, a fairly daunting one seeing what's coming. What games do you have?
 
G

Gintoki

Member
Yeah, its the reason why I'm not getting a VR headset any time soon. By the time the software is there the headsets will be even cheaper
 
B

Bsigg12

Member
Surface of Me said:
Almost sounds like they will just allow a few third party headsets on Scorpio and just ride it out.
Click to expand...

This is what I expect them to do. They'll support VR with Windows Holographic and such but I don't expect to see them making their own device, just partnering with others. They're so far down the rabbit hole of AR/Mixed reality that seriously developing a VR device would likely cause a pretty big rift with the Hololens team.
 
G

Guerrilla

Member
panda-zebra said:
VR doesn't start until Uncle Phil says so?



Seriously? I've already got a backlog, a fairly daunting one seeing what's coming. What games do you have?
Click to expand...

The thing is, when I want to play PSVR, I have to get it out of the drawer, connect it to the breakout box, push the table out of the way and put the camera on the table. While this only takes a couple of minutes, a couple of minutes is a big hurdle when you just want to play some games between time with your wife and your job.

I had a lot of fun with PSVR but currently there is nothing really pulling me in. I got the following:


Arkham VR (finished)
Job Simulator (basically got out of it what I could, still great for parties though)
Rush of Blood (finished)
Superhypercube (not enough meat there imo)
PSVR Worlds (finished)
And I tried most of the demos from the disc, I'll probably still get thumper


I got a lot of hope for Robinson though
 
D

Decider

Member
Phil Spencer's main competitor has a horse in the VR race, of course he's going to downplay it.

SuperBanana said:
Don't really blame him. VR hype dried up about 5 seconds after launch and sales have flat lined. Even PSVR which was aimed at a bigger market got mixed impressions. Might as well be ready to make one but not jumping into a dead market.
Click to expand...
It really feels like you've plucked most of what you've said out of the air. PSVR has only been out for a few weeks, has been selling well and has had predominantly positive impressions. Dead market? Microsoft themselves have revealed a cheaper PC headset this week, which also takes a lot of design cues from Sony.
 
A

Atom Heart Mother

Banned
I agree heavily. No real VR games have come out and made me want to buy the product. I don't really care for any of these 'simulation' indie games that are just let player bait or something. I recognize there might be a cool gem but nothing has wowed me yet.
 
K

krang

Member
Racing games translate pretty easily because of their short engagement nature. Other than that, I'm not sure full-length games specifically for VR will be a thing for a long long time.
 
Mato

Mato

Member
Not that he is wrong, but RE7 is coming out in 3 months.It seems Capcom had VR in mind pretty early into the game's development.
 
K

kyser73

Member
Mato said:
Not that he is wrong, but RE7 is coming out in 3 months.It seems Capcom had VR in mind pretty early into the game's development.
Click to expand...

Having played Rush of Blood & Here They Lie, and remembering the dread I felt playing the RE7 demo in 2D...not a chance I'll be playing RE7.

Being scared can be fun. A deep sensation of dread punctuated by sheer terror isn't for me!
 
A

Alienfan

Member
He's not wrong. Sony are doing a terrible job supporting the headset so far, nothing but tech demos and relying on third party support for what are essentially overpriced mobile games, it's pretty much the Kinect all over again. And just like the Kinect, as impressive as it is technical, I'm still not convinced its place is in the home. VR has a long, long way to go. And we're not going to get there on tech demos, the headset companies need to start taking risks
 
G

Guerrilla

Member
Mato said:
Not that he is wrong, but RE7 is coming out in 3 months.It seems Capcom had VR in mind pretty early into the game's development.
Click to expand...

You think so? Isn't RE7 played like a FPS with the controller in VR? Every game I have tried that requires you to turn around with the right stick in first person gave every single person that tried it of my friends nausea after a short period, including me. I know this is anecdotal, but if you look around the internet that seems to be a problem for a lot of people with these kinds of games.

I would love to see RE7 to combat that, but I can't imagine how. IMO RE7 seems like a horrible fit for VR.
 
T

travisbickle

Member
I'd prefer MS to get their hands dirty at this experimental stage of VR. There's a lot of crossover between VR and augmented reality, do they not even have a small studio producing content for Vive/Oculus?
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
Decider said:
It really feels like you've plucked most of what you've said out of the air. PSVR has only been out for a few weeks, has been selling well and has had predominantly positive impressions.
Click to expand...

Do we know that it's selling well? It seems pretty readily available rather than hard to find. I'm not sure we can say one way or the other of how well it's selling at the moment.
 
K

kyser73

Member
Alienfan said:
He's not wrong. Sony are doing a terrible job supporting the headset so far, nothing but tech demos and relying on third party support for what are essentially overpriced mobile games, it's pretty much the Kinect all over again. And just like the Kinect, as impressive as it is technical, I'm still not convinced its place is in the home. VR has a long, long way to go.
Click to expand...

What is this bollocks?
 
J

joebruin

Member
Alienfan said:
He's not wrong. Sony are doing a terrible job supporting the headset so far, nothing but tech demos and relying on third party support for what are essentially overpriced mobile games, it's pretty much the Kinect all over again. And just like the Kinect, as impressive as it is technical, I'm still not convinced its place is in the home. VR has a long, long way to go. And we're not going to get there on tech demos, the headset companies need to start taking risks
Click to expand...


i'm reading the opposite. people in the thread have been praising it as having one of the best lineup of launch titles for a console.
 
B

big_z

Member
He's not wrong and he's far from the first to say that. Nintendo stance on VR is the same. When its ready they'll be there but right now its not.

Props to sony for jumping in early, whether or not it pays off is to be seen.
 
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