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Take Two CEO on VR: "Thankfully, we didn't waste any money on it. "

The quote:
That said, there was all this hype for years about VR, and I wasn't very compelled by that. Thankfully, as a result, we didn't waste any money on it. Equally, there was an enormous amount of hype around movement to the cloud for interactive entertainment distribution.

Full article: https://www.protocol.com/amp/take-two-strauss-zelnick-2647646413

Yep. Only a few people still thinks that VR is the future of gaming, the next step, and so on.
It is just another failed gimmick (and no, VR isn't in its infancy.)
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Love his take on cloud gaming more:

There are billions of PCs out there. You know, if you can make in a frictionless way console video games available to everyone who has a PC or a tablet or a phone, then your market size automatically would be 20x just mathematically.

Of course that doesn't make any sense at all. Because the implication is you are super interested in video games but you were just unwilling to buy a console. I mean, I'm sure there were people like that, but if they are so interested that they want to pay $60 or $70 for a front-line title, it's hard for me to believe they were unwilling to spend $250 on a console to be able to do it ever in their life.

Been saying the same damn thing.. where is the actual consumer demand for cloud gaming? Where are these people that really want to play AAA games but won't buy a console?
 

MaulerX

Member
The last thing I want to do when I get home from a hards day of work at night is to strap on a headset and move around and get motion sickness. And this is coming from someone who bought the Oculus Rift day one.

It's an amazing experience in short bursts now and again. That's about it.
 
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ksdixon

Member
I always said that on the games side it needed more games in the Resident Evil 7 treatment. Meaning Full/Real games with full controller movement, your head is the camera for that immersion factor without the drawbacks or limitation of movement using motion controls.

Too many VR games were short 'experiences', and you'd lasso yourself around to spots on the floor to ''move''. Total shite.

Physically, I think it needs to be wireless. Every time I think about playing it, I just can't be arsed with the life-support-machine of tangled wires.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
It is the future of gaming. But they’re also right to avoid it. Shit like this is going to take a LONG time. I bet we won’t see its full potential for a solid decade or more.
I've had all oculus headsets. From dk1 to quest.... and I love the damn thing but it's not the future. The games have to be so very tame and accepting of You being a fat lazy ass who can't crouch behind cover, vault over obstacles, run in place and so on. Compare Alyx to hl2.... Some of best action game down to almost adventure game pacing. It's great but it's not the only future.
 

Bankai

Member
VR is an enthusiast device, due to the number of barriers for some people (Like my eyesight and motion sickness).

It will never be mainstream, but can survive as a niche.

I love PSVR, but I totally understand what you mean.

I recently finished Skyrim VR, but that game.. when I first got my PSVR and tried Skyrim VR I got soooooo sick. It was terrible, didn;t know what was going on. After "building my PSVR legs" with games like Astrobot, Statik, Crystal Rift (hidden gem), I though I was ready! I tried Here They Lie.. :messenger_fearful: Holy schnitzel.. That was rough, but I persevered and got sick while battling through the game. It was intense, playing a horror game which actually makes you sick!

tenor.gif


After that I tried Skyrim VR again, this time with MOVE controllers (the only way to truly play the game): I was hooked. Platinum'd it couple of weeks ago = one of the best gaming-experiences ever.

Moral of the story: VR isn't for everybody and you gotta be willing to build up your stamina to really enjoy it. But when it clicks & works for you, there's nothing like it.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
It’s still to inconvenient, but have been saying this for ages. Clumsy headsets with wires until they solve this , it won’t be for the masses.
Quest can be used to play pc games like alyx wirelessy... It's still clunky, stuttery, weird lenses and way too hot to use for whole summer...
 
OP is certainly strange. If you think bulky often wired low specced hardware is not in it's infacy, that's probably because you're in your infancy. It's not a dying market, as proven by literally any growth statistic in the last year.

So now that we've established that yes, VR is a definitively early technology, we can count on lots of advancement. Luckily I've seen many of the advancements coming and they defy the impossible, or so I'm told constantly about how 'Not a chance. You can't fix that issue in VR.' Yes, you can is what I say to almost every problem people bring up.

Rockstar will have to do VR at some point, regardless of what Strauss thinks, because VR is going to A) grow way more than people imagine and B) be the ideal fit for Rockstar worlds.
 
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Arkam

Member
" Thankfully, as a result, we didn't waste any money on it. "

I don't believe you. Not for one second. I am going to bet the farm that multiple POC and prototypes have been built by Take2. Sure they themselves didnt bet the farm, but to make a hyperbolic statement like this makes him look like he is ashamed of it.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
OP is certainly strange. If you think bulky often wired low specced hardware is not in it's infacy, that's probably because you're in your infancy. It's not a dying market, as proven by literally any growth statistic in the last year.

So now that we've established that yes, VR is a definitively early technology, we can count on lots of advancement. Luckily I've seen many of the advancements coming and they defy the impossible, or so I'm told constantly about how 'Not a chance. You can't fix that issue in VR.' Yes, you can is what I say to almost every problem people bring up.

Rockstar will have to do VR at some point, regardless of what Strauss thinks, because VR is going to A) grow way more than people imagine and B) be the ideal fit for Rockstar worlds.
We have this type of vr since 2013. It did progressed a lot but not enough at the same time
 

BlakeofT

Member
My brother let me play on his Valve Index recently. It's easily the most fun I've had playing video games in several years. I mostly played HL Alyx, Beat Saber and Boneworks. I'm 100% sold on it but I want to upgrade my PC first. Just a matter of time for me.
 
Rift S owner here. I bought it over a year ago and used it maybe 5 times after the initial "wow factor" wore off.

The velcro strap is great for collecting dust. That's like the only benefit of VR.
 

Bogey

Banned
I think VR is indeed very amazing and has high potential. The only reason it didn't pick up steam is because of the high cost barrier to entry. Bundle a VR headset with a console and see VR blow up.

That's far from being the only reason.

There's also the fact that a very large amount of players get horribly nauseated from most forms of locomotion, leaving at best very very un-immersive and clunky forms of movement (teleportation) as movement options for a large number of games.

Then of course, there's also the fact that many popular genres don't really translate particularly well into VR. No matter how far tech progresses, I don't really see myself playing an RTS, or even something dota/lol like in VR.

I still really hope VR is going to have a breakthrough. But I think it's naive to say the only thing holding is back is price. There are issues much, much harder to fix that that, before I see any chance for mainstream appeal.
 

Matt_Fox

Member
VR is a mini monitor and a mic strapped to your face. That's it.

For many that's enough, and it's a transformative way to play games. But the zealots who wax lyrical about 'virtual space', 'immersion', and the 'future of digital realms' as if they're trying to justify some conceptual artists oeuvre aren't doing VR any favours.

'Console warriors' have nothing on 'VR warriors'.
 
VR is an enthusiast device, due to the number of barriers for some people (Like my eyesight and motion sickness).

It will never be mainstream, but can survive as a niche.
It will be mainstream, because it's gaming and non-gaming uses are far too profound to stay niche. Even if we look at it's external impact on future gaming, it's easy to imagine Discord going full VR, PS Home and Xbox avatars being central to the online experience, E3, PSX, and Xbox events being VR experiences, Nintendoland being a virtual experience. Heck even Fortnite is meant to fully transition into VR, or at least some future version of it.

VR will be enormous, but it will take time.
 
VR is a mini monitor and a mic strapped to your face. That's it.

For many that's enough, and it's a transformative way to play games. But the zealots who wax lyrical about 'virtual space', 'immersion', and the 'future of digital realms' as if they're trying to justify some conceptual artists oeuvre aren't doing VR any favours.

'Console warriors' have nothing on 'VR warriors'.
You completely misunderstand VR is you think this stuff isn't coming. It's already happening infact. I've attended hundreds of events in VR, some of which are just as big in scale as the real thing, some are better than the real thing. Immersion is the central component of our future computing devices whether you believe it or not.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
That's far from being the only reason.

There's also the fact that a very large amount of players get horribly nauseated from most forms of locomotion, leaving at best very very un-immersive and clunky forms of movement (teleportation) as movement options for a large number of games.

Then of course, there's also the fact that many popular genres don't really translate particularly well into VR. No matter how far tech progresses, I don't really see myself playing an RTS, or even something dota/lol like in VR.

I still really hope VR is going to have a breakthrough. But I think it's naive to say the only thing holding is back is price. There are issues much, much harder to fix that that, before I see any chance for mainstream appeal.

The locomotion thing is a problem, but it's not insurmountable. You essentially have to condition yourself to it. RTS actually does work great in VR - see Brass Tactics. It's obviously not the same sort of game as DOTA or Starcraft 2, but it's a RTS.

But you're right. I keep mentioning this but like 3D it requires a lot of basic things we take for granted in gaming to be thrown out and reconsidered. Even something as simple as walking forward in a game. There was a time when things like camera control were considered deal-breakers for 3D... until devs started figuring it out. VR is simply too profound and the potential is too high to be ignored. Zelnick has his stock price to worry about, but companies will keep working on this. From 2017 to now we have seen quite a bit of advancement IMO.
 
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Aight

Member
VR will only take of, if it is wireless and as small and light as some normal sunglasses, and also the Graphics need to be top notch and not looking like N64 games. Well, maybe in 2031.
 

Klayzer

Member
He also said similar things about streaming games from the cloud. I guess PSNow and Xcloud doesn't have a real market according to him. Take 2 only cares about that easy gambling money from GTA5 online and NBA2k card scams.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Thanks for the tip; I'll add you to ignore as you obviously aren't capable to provide any useful input.
 
We have this type of vr since 2013. It did progressed a lot but not enough at the same time
Then look at what's ahead. This is a real prototype display system for VR:
FRL_Shades_Worn-2-768x375.png.webp


The reason why VR hasn't advanced like crazy since 2013 is because everything from 2013-2016 was about getting the first products on shelves. Only since 2016 has research been focused a lot on the bigger leaps, and those can't realistically happen in just 4 years; they happen closer to 10 years. (from 2016)
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
He also said similar things about streaming games from the cloud. I guess PSNow and Xcloud doesn't have a real market according to him. Take 2 only cares about that easy gambling money from GTA5 online and NBA2k card scams.
PSNow streaming never caught on mainstream at all... so yeah, it's a good example of what he's talking about.

Stadia is as well.. and xCloud is just now coming out of beta, we have no idea how popular it will be.

"Well companies are trying!" isn't an argument against what he's saying. They'd need to succeed. No one really has yet, at all.
 
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Matt_Fox

Member
Immersion is the central component of our future computing devices whether you believe it or not.

I don't think you need 3D for immersion. I've been deeply, deeply immersed in video games for the past 40 years on flat 2D screens. In fact, 3D might be a barrier. If 3D were the vital ingredient then why have 3D TV sales fallen off a cliff? It's a gimmick and fun in short doses, but sorry to say the public doesn't want it 24/7...

 
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GymWolf

Member
Whoever watched any scifi show or movie knows that vr is the future.

That or some implant shit directly in our brains or eyes, there is no stop with immersion and entartainment, big screens can only go that far.

When this stuff is gonna be superpowerfull and with a small discrete form factor people are gonna get crazy.

There is no one single person who tried PROPER vr at my home and was less than enthusiastic about it.
 

Bryank75

Banned
I see the even bigger 2 or 3 paragraphs where he breaks down why Cloud gaming is bullshit to him was ignored completely. Typical!

'So I suspect it will not be transformative. I'm speaking against my own interests, right? We're supposed to paint this picture of nirvana; however, I just don't think it's nirvana. Nirvana is making great hits, and then people will find them.' SZ

The guy knows the business.

I'm waiting on PSVR2 cause there are a good few games I want on it.
 
I don't think you need 3D for immersion. I've been deeply, deeply immersed in video games for the past 40 years on flat 2D screens. In fact, 3D might be a barrier. If 3D were the vital ingredient then why have 3D TV sales fallen off a cliff? It's a gimmick and fun in short doses, but sorry to say its not going to take over 24/7...

You need 3D for presence. The immersion in a video game on a 2D dispay and one in VR can't be compared. One is a psychological flow state, and the other is more about a literal sensory overload which is profound in ways you haven't considered. For example, roleplaying on a 2D screen is an abstract concept because you are not the character; in VR you are the character because your brain believes this new body is yours, known as the body transfership illusion. As such, people in VR naturally roleplay far more and to far more convincing degrees, and with a lot more freedom of choice on top.

That's the level of immersion VR, and only VR, offers - even in it's early state.

3DTVs failed because they were 3DTVs; that's the only reason. They had almost no value, promise, or change to the end experience.
 
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