Rift, Vive, and Virtual Reality

unfortunately mods didn't have enough ease of use and marketing push than a standalone games. so i don't think most people know/understand mods.


No, itll never have that push. But the standalone formula will continue that connects to pcvr. That's the winning ticket. The big AAA games won't be a thing, but mods will continue to thrive and improve. I'm cool with that.
 
Last year, Quest 2 sales rivaled the ps2 first year sales at 10 million in a year. The previous best year for VR was around 1.3 million sales.

Definitely the sales of the Quest 2 were good. However, let's compare that to something recently that had a huge initial spike in sales but then petered out once the novelty factor wore off. Microsoft's Kinect. 35 million units were sold, 19 million in the first 1.5 years.

The more important thing to be looking at when talking about long term success is software sales (games in this case) as that will be representative of use, especially long term use. We don't really get numbers for VR titles unfortunately due to sales being too low for most developers to be comfortable revealing sales numbers.

However, we can alternatively look at the rate and quality of released titles. Not only are quality VR titles still really rare, the overall volume of VR title releases is in constant decline. That should not be the case if VR titles were selling well as the case should be with a larger install base of hardware devices. Alternatively many people have gotten one in order to watch VR porn and don't game on their device.

That indicates that many people who have purchased a VR headset due to the novelty have stopped using the device for whatever reason. Hence lower game sales equals lower VR title development and investment. That's a bit concerning WRT long term VR gaming viability.

NOTE - this isn't to discount people that actually are actively using their headset (there's a few people on this forum that love their VR headset and use it regularly), just pointing out circumstantial evidence that increased hardware sales aren't leading to increased VR game sales and more importantly VR game development.

Regards,
SB
 
Last edited:
Meta is obviously going to make a big push with VR or maybe AR as well.

Apple is developing a headset of some kind but people predict it will be very expensive.

But I heard that the HoloLens army deal was a mess?
 
So that's why a "polished" vr games, no matter how limited in scope, are sold ate ridiculously high price compared to the gameplay hours.

Even games that consistently become top 10 sellers didn't have a sequel after years and years.

The addresable market is too small.
 
But I heard that the HoloLens army deal was a mess?

A big part of that is enlisted personnel generally being resistant to change. The reports are based on feedback from enlisted personnel (infantry, etc.) that have been testing it. You had similar reactions with, for example, the M16 in the 50's and early 60's as well. Of course there were legitimate concerns which caused some loss of life due to that idiot McNamara pushing it through before all soldiers concerns were addressed WRT reliability in combat conditions (dirt, mud, etc.) among other things. Anyway, once those issues were ironed out the M16 became a reliable weapon. Unfortunately for many US soldiers they weren't addressed before the rifles were issued to soldiers in the Vietnam war. /sigh.

Anyway, this isn't to say there aren't legitimate issues with Hololens in testing with the US military WRT use in battlefield conditions, because there are. It's just to illustrate that this is fairly common with any new piece of kit that goes through initial research, development and testing prior to approval for active military use and extended procurement. It's still in active development so whether it becomes a fixture in the military or not is still up in the air.

Regards,
SB
 
Definitely the sales of the Quest 2 were good. However, let's compare that to something recently that had a huge initial spike in sales but then petered out once the novelty factor wore off. Microsoft's Kinect. 35 million units were sold, 19 million in the first 1.5 years.

The more important thing to be looking at when talking about long term success is software sales (games in this case) as that will be representative of use, especially long term use. We don't really get numbers for VR titles unfortunately due to sales being too low for most developers to be comfortable revealing sales numbers.

However, we can alternatively look at the rate and quality of released titles. Not only are quality VR titles still really rare, the overall volume of VR title releases is in constant decline. That should not be the case if VR titles were selling well as the case should be with a larger install base of hardware devices. Alternatively many people have gotten one in order to watch VR porn and don't game on their device.

That indicates that many people who have purchased a VR headset due to the novelty have stopped using the device for whatever reason. Hence lower game sales equals lower VR title development and investment. That's a bit concerning WRT long term VR gaming viability.

NOTE - this isn't to discount people that actually are actively using their headset (there's a few people on this forum that love their VR headset and use it regularly), just pointing out circumstantial evidence that increased hardware sales aren't leading to increased VR game sales and more importantly VR game development.

Regards,
SB


But there's not much showing that VR is faltering, especially not when FB is fully committed. For the last 5 years VR has been increasing year over year. Sony just announced psvr2 will have 20 launch titles, and how are measuring less games? Quantity in general?
Kinect was an experiment with the classic sales surge that fell off a cliff. The major issue with kinect was software variety was almost nonexistent and gimmicky at best. Developers had almost no options. VR does casual better than kinect, all the way to the most hardcore simulators. Also, kinect was a cheap add on most of its life and even a pack in during a time when Wii was all the rage and folks wanted a casial option on 360. An anomaly to be sure, and an unwelcome one.
 
Steam VR Fest Coming July 18 - 25
Register your interest now to participate in Steam VR Fest
Get up, get moving (safely!), and join Steam VR Fest, a celebration of games that drop players face-first into their favorite worlds. With thousands of VR titles on Steam, we're excited to host this event celebrating the world of virtual reality.

Steam VR Fest runs July 18, 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7) to July 25, 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7). Join us (virtually*)
 
Norm from Tested takes a fascinating looks at a collection of Meta research headsets.


That's a really great look at the research behind what will eventually come to the market. For me, it's interesting to see the challenges involved with getting the headset to not be so bulky and it all revolves around the display and the optics. Also interesting to hear about new types of distortion that have to be dealt with if you want to have thinner headsets that conform more close to the contours of a person's head (canting the lenses/displays, for example).

Great stuff.

Regards,
SB
 
That's a really great look at the research behind what will eventually come to the market.

Zuck and Abrash had their own 30 minute discussion on the prototypes. It nowhere near as good as Norm's video.

I assume the reason Meta are doing this prototype show and tell is to placate investors. "We're working on lots of worthwhile stuff. Honest!"

 
I played it a bit but it is more like the arcadey Rogue Squadron series than the Xwing games unfortunately.
 
Let me add that it's possible to play X-Wing Alliance Upgrade and also their TIE Fighter Total Conversion in VR but it is rather involved to set up. And the downloads are large.
 
Steam VR Fest Coming July 18 - 25
Register your interest now to participate in Steam VR Fest
Get up, get moving (safely!), and join Steam VR Fest, a celebration of games that drop players face-first into their favorite worlds. With thousands of VR titles on Steam, we're excited to host this event celebrating the world of virtual reality.

Steam VR Fest runs July 18, 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7) to July 25, 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7). Join us (virtually*)

Wonder if they will announce Deckard at it
 
Back
Top