Nicktendo86
Member
To be honest that list of problems makes it sound pretty dead to me, in it's current form anyway.
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Is VR dead in the water? (Steam VR game sales / Data Leak)
- Thread starter DynamiteCop!
- Start date
Bboy AJ
My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
I sold my Vive months ago and don't miss it a bit. Day one owner. The technology isn't here yet. It's bulky, uncomfortable, blurry, and takes a good amount of set up. And there aren't incredible gaming experiences that make dealing with those downsides worth it.
Hard pass. It'll be worth it eventually. But for now, absolutely skip it and you miss little.
Hard pass. It'll be worth it eventually. But for now, absolutely skip it and you miss little.
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it_wasn't_me
Banned
I think it's quite clear now why Microsoft pulled the plug on VR support for the Xbox One X.
https://vrscout.com/news/steam-leak-reveals-vr-player-count/#
First and foremost, did MS even tried to push VR? Looks like Sony with PSVR is doing well.
Blam
Member
Lol this is a joke right? Vive is one of the worst offenders of being cheap as fuck. Great example is their horrible controllers. Oculus is a much better standard because unlike Vive, they actually try to push forward the VR ecosystem with new advancements and their stuff is really fucking durable.
Two Pikachus
Member
Worst post. I own both because of my job. They're both excellent. I prefer Vive because roomscale is slightly more accurate and I don't like the Oculus walled-garden stuff, but they stand toe-to-toe. Leave this fanboy shit out of the discussion.
Krappadizzle
Member
Biggest issue I have with VR(Vive owner) is that with the exception of a few really stand out games, there just isn't anything doing anything unique. So many games just copycat other games essentially giving us hundred of wave based Zombie/Alien/Robot shooters. Skyrim/Fallout/Superhot/Beat Saber are all pretty good and there are a few good MP games. But I'd wager the attach rate is so low that studios are afraid to pump money into it.
In my mind there's no doubt VR is the future in pretty much all mediums TV, Movies, Games, Concerts. Everything will benefit from VR. It's just that the content isn't there yet.
In my mind there's no doubt VR is the future in pretty much all mediums TV, Movies, Games, Concerts. Everything will benefit from VR. It's just that the content isn't there yet.
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For me it's because everyone is acting like "VR is here!!!" but will happily turn around and go "actually, the technology isn't quite there yet" when you ask about some of the glaring restrictions. I get why there are so many restrictions and I get the reasons behind those restrictions, but to me, I want VR so that I can feel fully immersed in the game world.
Seeing a set of disembodied hands representing me ruins that immersion entirely. Same goes for teleportation locomotion, which is often the recommended or only movement method available in many titles. I get that it reduces motion sickness significantly, but if we're on the point where I have to start using gimmicky movement schemes just to play VR, it already goes against why I want VR. It's already breaking my immersion.
The only game I'd be able to play with the current VR issues, is Elite Dangerous and I'm not dropping that kind of money for a single game that I play a few days every couple of months.
Seeing a set of disembodied hands representing me ruins that immersion entirely. Same goes for teleportation locomotion, which is often the recommended or only movement method available in many titles. I get that it reduces motion sickness significantly, but if we're on the point where I have to start using gimmicky movement schemes just to play VR, it already goes against why I want VR. It's already breaking my immersion.
The only game I'd be able to play with the current VR issues, is Elite Dangerous and I'm not dropping that kind of money for a single game that I play a few days every couple of months.
Dr. Claus
Vincit qui se vincit
VR is incredibly expensive. Between the rather high-powered computer you need and the overly priced headsets - that is a lot of barriers for people to enter into the space. PSVR is the cheapest option currently, but even then it doesn't have a large library of games (but it does seem to be increasing each year). While VR is currently more of an overpriced gimmick, I can see it improving tremendously over the coming years and I can't wait for it to do so. My short time spent with my PSVR has been fantastic and would love to have more games to play on the system (that aren't simple mini-game compilations like Job Sim).
metareferential
Member
What's wrong with the controllers? I've been using them since day one very much, and I've smashed them against the walls in many occasions. No sign of damage so far.
And for now, speaking of quality, HTC's tracking is the best available on the market. And the difference will even be greater once the new lighthouses are available.
And I say this having owned both solutions for room-scale.
Anyway, who's best is irrelevant. Competition will only make VR better and better.
pr0cs
Member
It's not dead but has a long way to go.
The tech still isn't ready, what with blurry visuals, steep hardware reqs and prowess required to get things to work correct. Couple that with all the locomotion issues and sickness we still haven't found a good genre for VR that isn't better suited to traditional gaming.
I have no doubt that in the future it has the potential to be great but right now there are so many barriers that it's 100% niche
The tech still isn't ready, what with blurry visuals, steep hardware reqs and prowess required to get things to work correct. Couple that with all the locomotion issues and sickness we still haven't found a good genre for VR that isn't better suited to traditional gaming.
I have no doubt that in the future it has the potential to be great but right now there are so many barriers that it's 100% niche
Blam
Member
Um alright not really fanboy I have both lmao. I also own the Pimax so I'll just continue to be a fanboy to all 3 of them, but nearly everyone I know who has a Vive has had to open their controllers up, and fix the one part under the trackpad.
Sure the tracking is better on Vive I won't tag that. But honestly Oculus and their walled garden make strides over SteamVR's absolutely horrible updates. The Desktop screen has not been fixed still. It's been years since it's been released and the entire SteamVR experience is not really friendly.
I mean really you're probably one of the lucky ones I'd say if your controller didn't break after hitting it into a wall. if it's one of the older ones it makes sense, and I will agree right now the tracking is better for the Vive, but as far as I know both companies revamped their tracking so we'll have to wait and see how the new systems run in comparison to their old ones.
DarthBuzzer
Member
Someday makes it sound like it's wishful thinking in some far off time. We already know that Oculus and HTC are working on gen 2, are others. The technology is going to be a huge jump from today. Name a problem with VR and it's likely to have been fixed by gen 2, and this will happen by 2020 at the latest.
When the hardware is good enough, the adoption will kick up a lot more even for non-gaming uses. 2nd Gen VR will be good enough to replace 1080p monitors and multi-monitor desk setups, and potentially even ultrawide 1440p monitors.
But there are 5 AAA VR exclusives on the way now, so that will lead the way for other developers to jump in once they see what's been learned, as well as the spike in sales that will result from those titles.
DarthBuzzer
Member
Not sure why you think we haven't found that genre yet, because horror / racing games are generally regarded as objectively better in VR. FPS is more subjective, but many would agree that VR expands the genre's potential to much greater heights. Those are examples of genres VR shines in to a point where it will be the dominating platform holder of games in those genres in the coming decades. I certainly don't expect CoD or Battlefield or similar franchises to exist outside of VR by 2030 onwards.
Then there are many other genres that VR works well in like 3rd person and perhaps most exciting of all are the new genres that VR will create. Is Echo VR a new genre of gaming? It kind of feels like it.
There are still some games that give you a full body and some of these games have immersive movement systems too.
We need more, but it's not zero.
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bitbydeath
Member
Xbox isn’t powerful enough to run VR. They tested it years ago and the best they could achieve was watching a game in a virtual theatre.
Berek Halfhand
Member
I have a VIVE, PSVR, and Oculus GO. I'd say for the price the OculusGo is a good product for entry level. I use that more than anything right now. But I haven't picked up that Mouse game yet either so I don't know how well PSVR has evolved.
Airola
Member
I tried RE7 on PSVR and while I could see the potential in that how it was a different experience than usual to walk through doors and feel you are really walking there, there still was the issue of major nausea. I couldn't play it more than 10 minutes. Looking around while not moving around was great but as soon as I started to move around with the controller I started to feel nauseous and the awful feeling just increased the longer I played.
This is a serious issue for VR. Until they can figure out how to get rid of whatever makes people feel sick while playing I don't think it will get any mainstream popularity. For simple "looking around" experiences it's fine - or maybe for some on-rails shooters perhaps - but for "real games" it's just not good enough yet.
I could see VR becoming a thing for arcades where the game experiences are short, but it's just not ready for more yet. And it could very well be it will never be ready to become a mainstream hit. It could be it's impossible to make the experience to not cause nausea to massive amounts of people.
VR was already a thing in the 90's. Just like the people who were very interested about it back then and bought the devices but ended up thinking it's not good, people today can do the same thing. You aren't forced to like a thing you have strong passion for before you try it.
This is a serious issue for VR. Until they can figure out how to get rid of whatever makes people feel sick while playing I don't think it will get any mainstream popularity. For simple "looking around" experiences it's fine - or maybe for some on-rails shooters perhaps - but for "real games" it's just not good enough yet.
I could see VR becoming a thing for arcades where the game experiences are short, but it's just not ready for more yet. And it could very well be it will never be ready to become a mainstream hit. It could be it's impossible to make the experience to not cause nausea to massive amounts of people.
VR was already a thing in the 90's. Just like the people who were very interested about it back then and bought the devices but ended up thinking it's not good, people today can do the same thing. You aren't forced to like a thing you have strong passion for before you try it.
Sakura Doritos
Member
I am just waiting on games or experiences I want to have. My problem is Ready Player One put my expectations too high and the games ATM that look to deliver something resembling deep immersion are horror games. And we'll... I'm not going to give myself a heart attack. RE7 looks scary as fuck in VR and my buddy noped hard after an hour or two on his PSVR.
PerezDeCorcho
Member
Apples and oranges...
Radical Socks
Gold Member
When assessing the limitations of that data, it doesn't take into account # of unique downloads for PSVR and Oculus store. This is also only looking at the VR games ecosystem -- what about 360 videos and games on Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR? How are those apps faring in the marketplace?
HagglesworthMD
Member
No Oculus store or PSVR data in this 'leak' and the data we do have isn't even accurate, it only accounts for games with achievements from my understanding. Beat Saber isn't even on there and that's been a top seller for weeks.
What we do know for sure is Valve has stated that VR monthly active users is up 160% year over year and they described the current state of their VR library as a "thriving marketplace". They are also working on new controllers and base stations.
Extrapolating from which data we do have from recent Steam hardware surveys its estimated that 611,000 VR headsets are connected to PCs with Steam (Windows MR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive).
PSVR has also sold 2 million headsets.
Given the current price points of headsets, it's a sure bet that once competition gets fiercer and prices drop VR is going to explode in user base.
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DCharlie
And even i am moderately surprised
my GRADE A ignorant take :
i've only really played with PSVR - i'm absolutely open to the idea that this is not the optimal VR , so please bear with me
Cons : it's still uncomfortable - it's hot as hell in Japan now and the addition of a gaming "hat" is not ideal
the resolution still lacks
vertigo :O
Pros : Area X in Rez - i mean, it's just an endorphin rush for me
Also a con : RE7 - i played all the RE games and loved them but the sense of horror is now off the chart.
future : when this tech is a lightweight pair of glasses, when other people can also sit in, then we are there
But as of now? i suspect this will be a niche - we're on the way because the sense of immersion is insane, but it's going to take time.
we are not there yet
i've only really played with PSVR - i'm absolutely open to the idea that this is not the optimal VR , so please bear with me
Cons : it's still uncomfortable - it's hot as hell in Japan now and the addition of a gaming "hat" is not ideal
the resolution still lacks
vertigo :O
Pros : Area X in Rez - i mean, it's just an endorphin rush for me
Also a con : RE7 - i played all the RE games and loved them but the sense of horror is now off the chart.
future : when this tech is a lightweight pair of glasses, when other people can also sit in, then we are there
But as of now? i suspect this will be a niche - we're on the way because the sense of immersion is insane, but it's going to take time.
we are not there yet
Desmond Sultana
Member
I don't see anyone being enthused about making a new VR solution after the last batch flopped so badly.
Seems like a huge financial risk with little payoff.
Seems like a huge financial risk with little payoff.
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magnumpy
Member
there are already future plans for future vr devices
this is michael abrash, chief scientist at oculus
there is another manufacturer with the "pimax8k" coming soon
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i haven't tried RE7 because i don't have a PSVR, but i do have a rift and yes, the first time you try to move in VR it is vertigo inducing, but i think that is the user that needs to get used to it, not necessarly the developer.
after a couple of days of use i can play serius sam with free movement without any problem and serius sam is a fast game!
in racing games they say to use the "lock horizon" to help, but after a while i turned it off and i'm fine (and i like it better).
obviously this varies for each user, but the point is that you need to get used to it, you can't completely discard VR because after the first hour you feel a bit weird.
what really needs to improve massively is the resolution, but in time they'll get there.
Memorabilia
Member
A lot of people have been in denial about VR since day one. It's not a difficult analysis but understandably people are passionate about it succeeding and employ emotion in place of logic. Price isn't the only barrier. Equally problematic is the unwieldy nature of the headsets, whack motion controls, wires everywhere, isolating nature of the tech when people increasingly want to game socially, etc.... Of these, price is 1a and headset size/weight is 1b. I've been saying this since years before the first VR units shipped: it'll never be mainstream until its as cheap as a DVD/BR player and is as easy/unobtrusive to wear as a pair of light weight glasses. Which means we're still multiple iterations away from where this tech needs to be for average families to pick it up and embrace it in droves. I want it to succeed too, but we have to be realistic about its mass market potential as the tech goes thru growing pains.
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baphomet
Member
So completely off the mark it's humorous.
Darko
Member
This post is why I dont trust "y'all" opinions on VR.
Data Ghost
Member
I had PSVR day one then sold it after playing all the good stuff, got nearly all my money back and still enjoyed it to the max. Resident Evil 7 was THE most frightening and claustrophobic experience I have ever had with a game, it was incredible. Now I am sitting it out until the tech improves again. As people have mentioned above, it needs to get smaller, higher resolution, and cheaper. I still believe that VR is a huge component to future tech, unless something else comes along that can immerse you in the same way. Also didn't FaceBook buy Oculus?
Airola
Member
It's not about feeling vertigo or "a bit weird." It's not about getting dizzy from the movement.
It's about getting nauseous to the point of feeling you will soon vomit.
If I'm riding a bus and I start reading a magazine there I will get very sick feeling too and for the rest of the trip I have to stay completely still and focus on breathing or I'm going to vomit. The feeling I got from VR was quite like that.
Do you think that's something that would stop by just getting used to it too?
Even if it was something that would stop happening by just getting used to it, do you think the general people would be willing to try it over and over again in hopes for it to get better? People who get sick while traveling in a car will avoid doing everything that makes them feel sick.
I've been excited about Virtual Reality stuff since the early 90's. I even tried the original Doom with a VR headset on a game expo back in around 1995. It wasn't a good experience but it didn't take my interest away from VR. Now I've tried it again and while it has clearly better now than what it was then - especially what comes to free head movements and the illusion of you being there - it still has major problems with causing motion sickness. You can't get people who easily get seasick to travel on a boat in hopes to getting used to it. You can't get people who get sick by riding on the back of a bus and who have to be in front of the bus to not get sick to willingly go in the back of the bus in hopes of getting used to it. You can't get people who get sick in a car if they read a magazine to continue reading the magazines in hopes of getting used to it. It is the same thing with video games. The common people in general are not willing to endure that type of feeling of sickness.
Motion sickness affects too many people for VR to become a household item anytime soon. It is currently good for a niche audience and it might not pass that level of general interest ever if they don't figure out how to reduce the cause for motion sickness while using it. Vertigo and "feeling a bit weird" is ok. Those types of feelings could even make the experience interesting for many. But the feeling of wanting to vomit and having to spend a long time after playing on VR to get rid of the sick feeling is just too much.
It would be better if the sick feeling would come only after playing the game. It would be like booze. People would love drinking booze, and while the hangover would be awful and they would even claim to stop drinking because of that, they would still end up drinking because it's too much fun. But with VR the thing is that you get that feeling of hangover during playing the game and not just afterwards. Do you think people would drink booze if they'd get hangover during drinking?
you are right about that, but you seem to be a very extreme case.
plenty of people in the world that read or use their phone on a bus/train/car.
i believe (no proof obviously) that the the ratio of people that can "adapt" exceeds by far the one who can't.
i was willing, now i spend most evenings inside the cockpit of a ship in elite dangerous.
of course i'm one of the "lucky few" who didn't get seriously sick (i was also conscius to stop if something made me feel sick)
Grinchy
Banned
The motion sickness issue seems pretty hard to track. A stat of 25-40% of people experiencing it was posted earlier, but without the actual study it's hard to actually know what it concluded outside of that general statement. I find it very hard to believe that any company would dive into this technology if it was true that up to 40% of the entire population physically can't use it.
I can only go on anecdotal experiences. My brother told me he got extremely sick the first day from playing RIGS. After that experience, he played it in short bursts until one day he just no longer had any issues from any game at all. No more comfort settings, no bad feelings or anything.
The first night I tried a game called World War Toons (a FPS), my brain just would not allow me to walk forward in the game with a control stick while I was sitting down. It was an incredibly strange feeling that I just couldn't get past and I thought that was it for me. I tried it again after a couple weeks of playing other VR games and it was like the problem never existed. Outside of that, I've never experienced any bad feeling from VR games whatsoever.
My nephew has never had a problem, sister, brother-in-law, two close friends, ect. Again, this is all anecdotal, but it makes me really question if those that experience the issue are just naturally going to be more vocal about it on the internet leading to people just assuming motion sickness is some guarantee.
I can only go on anecdotal experiences. My brother told me he got extremely sick the first day from playing RIGS. After that experience, he played it in short bursts until one day he just no longer had any issues from any game at all. No more comfort settings, no bad feelings or anything.
The first night I tried a game called World War Toons (a FPS), my brain just would not allow me to walk forward in the game with a control stick while I was sitting down. It was an incredibly strange feeling that I just couldn't get past and I thought that was it for me. I tried it again after a couple weeks of playing other VR games and it was like the problem never existed. Outside of that, I've never experienced any bad feeling from VR games whatsoever.
My nephew has never had a problem, sister, brother-in-law, two close friends, ect. Again, this is all anecdotal, but it makes me really question if those that experience the issue are just naturally going to be more vocal about it on the internet leading to people just assuming motion sickness is some guarantee.
W
Whataborman
Unconfirmed Member
I have a Oculus Rift (with controllers), HTC Vive, and PSVR. I haven't touched the Rift and Vive in over two years, and then only because some friends were over who wanted to try them out. PSVR has sat in it's box for over a year and the only game I played with it was Resident Evil 7.
I consider space, equipment, and setup to be minor issues. I'd love more room for room scale and I agree that that all of the cables, etc... attached to the VR units aren't great but the biggest issue I have with VR is lack of content. There are just no games that I want to play, or I guess I should say that there are no games that compel me to go through the minor hassle of getting my VR units out of their boxes. The games that exist are fun for a few minutes but quickly get repetitive because most think the gimmick of VR is enough to get people to play them. It's not.
IMO, VR is going to be dead in the water until developers start developing deep, interesting content not just another game that makes use of the VR gimmick.
I consider space, equipment, and setup to be minor issues. I'd love more room for room scale and I agree that that all of the cables, etc... attached to the VR units aren't great but the biggest issue I have with VR is lack of content. There are just no games that I want to play, or I guess I should say that there are no games that compel me to go through the minor hassle of getting my VR units out of their boxes. The games that exist are fun for a few minutes but quickly get repetitive because most think the gimmick of VR is enough to get people to play them. It's not.
IMO, VR is going to be dead in the water until developers start developing deep, interesting content not just another game that makes use of the VR gimmick.
shark sandwich
tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
As I have said before, IMO VR is something that people only think they want. It’s not simply a matter of the tech improving, it’s that it’s inferior in many ways to sitting on your ass with a controller in hand and not being isolated from your surroundings.
I put it in the same category as Kinect or 3D television.
“Once they have glasses-free 3D that works from any angle, it’ll really go mainstream!” “Once we have lag-free 1:1 motion tracking that works in any room size/lighting conditions then it’ll really be mainstream!”
Just, no. There is still the question of whether people will still want it once the novelty factor wears off.
I put it in the same category as Kinect or 3D television.
“Once they have glasses-free 3D that works from any angle, it’ll really go mainstream!” “Once we have lag-free 1:1 motion tracking that works in any room size/lighting conditions then it’ll really be mainstream!”
Just, no. There is still the question of whether people will still want it once the novelty factor wears off.
DarthBuzzer
Member
Not everyone wants to game socially. In fact I would wager there are more people who game on their own than those that play with friends on their couch. Also VR is very social because you can get the same general experience as having your friends come around by just visiting them in VR. The motion controls are not "whack", at least not on PC where they are universally loved.
Airola
Member
Sure there are. Plenty of people do that. I do that on trains. I don't have any issue with reading on a train, but some reason it's impossible on a bus or in a car.
I can also use a phone on a bus if it's just for short bursts of reading a short news article or a text message.
But yeah, I think I am more sensitive to it than a lot of others. I can't use the full 3D effect on 3DS either. I can use it if it's set to the bare minimum but anything more than that will cause me to feel sick after a while. And I've even experienced sickness after playing a couple of regular FPS games for an hour or two. On VR it's a tougher thing as the sickness starts very early. I literally couldn't play it more than 10 minutes. It was ok for a couple of minutes and after that I started to feel a bit sick. I didn't yet know what made me feel sick but after another couple of minutes I notices that it turned worse every time I walked around with the controller. After about 10 minutes I just had to stop.
Could be, but seeing this frequently mentioned by gamers in topics concerning VR shows it is not that rare of a thing to happen. We are people who are interested in this technology. We are people who are enthusiastic about video games. And even in our group of people there are lots of people who get sick and can't use VR. So if this happens this frequently in our group of people what it will be like with those groups of people who aren't as enthusiastic about games or don't have this type of interest in technology. At least within our group there are people who might be willing to endure the sickness and will be interested to try another product, but I doubt the general people would give a second chance as easily.
After my experience I talked to two people about my experience. The other one is just a gamer and the other is a game developer. Both said they had the same experience I had. They felt sick. But then again I know people who have completed RE7 on VR and had no issues whatsoever. The thing is though that nothing like this should happen in the first place in video games. People very rarely get sick from playing a regular video game. But for some reason this VR thing causes people who don't get sick from video games to get sick from video games on VR and that is, I think, the biggest problem VR has right now if they want VR to become a desirable product for more than a niche audience (which is fine to me - I don't know why VR even should aim to become a mainstream success).
I think VR might be ok for flight simulators and racing games where you can't walk around like you can in games like RE7.
I could still try something like that, or could try those on rails experiments, but I think I won't ever touch another game where you can freely walk around.
DarthBuzzer
Member
Wait, you bought 3 expensive devices and barely touched any of them even at launch? That's less of a problem with VR.
I don't understand why someone would pay all that money and play an hour or two and then shelve it permanently.
And keep in mind the games you're talking about are all launch games. The library has improved considerably since then and ultimately your experience just doesn't reflect the state of VR anymore.
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DarthBuzzer
Member
No. You're just not thinking of where the tech can go. I can guarantee you right now that all gamers alive would be into Ready Player One tech.
At that point there are almost no downsides, and only upsides, massive upsides.
gustave154
Member
PSVR is still going strong with games still being made for it... i don't see how it is dead...
AndrewRyan
Member
I sort of did that with PSVR. Played a bunch the first couple of months then just tapered off until it was collecting dust. It was too much of a hassle to setup everything after a long day at work.
Ended up building a PC and getting a Vive and play that almost every day. It's much less of a hassle since standing cuts down on the wire mess. The integrated headphones and room-scale make it easy to jump into since you don't always have face forward making it easy enough to where it doesn't seem like a hassle.
DarthBuzzer
Member
I thought you said you haven't touched the Vive in over 2 years? (since launch)
If that's the case I would highly suggest playing the Oculus titles either on the Vive through ReVive or through Rift. Lone Echo / Echo VR is something all PC VR owners should try.
shark sandwich
tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
I don’t buy it. Gamers aren’t going to buy a fancy VR treadmill and run around all day in virtual worlds, for the same reason they don’t spend all day running around outside in the real world. For the most part, gamers want to sit on their butt and look at a screen.
And no matter how good the tech gets, it’s still not going to be like real life. In the real world you have momentum. If you’re, say, sprinting, your body has a ton of momentum that has to be dissipated when you try to stop. No fancy VR treadmill can simulate that.
We’ll see. I’m prepared to admit I’m wrong if it catches on. But I think that, at best, the future of VR gaming is for niche enthusiasts, and arcades that offer short, novelty experiences.
DarthBuzzer
Member
That logic doesn't hold up. VR isn't the real world. It allows for a much better reality with things that are impossible in real life. If real life was literally just an Elder Scrolls game and everyone had magic and sword skills and could never be injured or die, people would be having the time of their lives fighting dragons and exploring impossible lands.
I don’t buy it. Gamers aren’t going to buy a fancy VR treadmill and run around all day in virtual worlds, for the same reason they don’t spend all day running around outside in the real world. For the most part, gamers want to sit on their butt and look at a screen.
And no matter how good the tech gets, it’s still not going to be like real life. In the real world you have momentum. If you’re, say, sprinting, your body has a ton of momentum that has to be dissipated when you try to stop. No fancy VR treadmill can simulate that.
We’ll see. I’m prepared to admit I’m wrong if it catches on. But I think that, at best, the future of VR gaming is for niche enthusiasts, and arcades that offer short, novelty experiences.
Also I'm not suggesting treadmills, you can still have immersive locomotion systems that aren't that demanding. It doesn't matter if it's not exactly like reality, it doesn't need to be. You can't play zero gravity frisbee in a big arena in real life. You can in Echo VR.
You are without a doubt going to be wrong. VR is much more than gaming as well. People can sit on their butt whilst watching movies in an IMAX theater, or tour the world and concerts, or socialise with people, or use it as a computing device, for education, etc. There are countless uses.
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LittleBusters
Banned
There just isn't any compelling use cases for VR when we have 4K televisions and no motion sickness from standard gaming.