Sony will show a HMZ Prototype AR HMD at TGS

[AlphaWolf]

Dunno about VR, but when there are actual affordable see through AR glasses with high FoV in the form factor of normal glasses you'll soon become the odd one out for not wearing it ... unless you're old

We'll all be old by then.

 

[Nesh]

These things are never gonna go anywhere besides perhaps arcades and the bedrooms of the most nerdiest gamers.

Two reasons:

a) They aren't cool and are super nerdy. The stigma will keep the mainstream away, relegating these devices to a small and very dedicated nerdy niche.

b) They only serve one person - thus in an age where the best selling console (Wii) and highest selling peripheral (Kinect) were all about local-based social gaming, these types of devices are to restricting to be mass market.

I can see a) not really changing unless a company like Apple somehow manages to convince US hipsters otherwise, which is unlikely given how little Apple care about games.
b) could be overcome, but either at too high a performance cost for the HW rendering the games (rendering to both the headset and TV, ala WiiU), or too high a monetary cost to the consumer (having to buy multiple headsets).

I kind of agree with you but I think once a product is cheap enough, functional enough with the right design people will be adopting it a lot more. Probably mass accepted too.

When we see Move, Kinect and the Wiimote today and go back a few decades ago to check how these ideas faired in the market, they looked nerdy too, ideas that had no future as they were tried and failed to reach any momentum.
Today they are the next step in gaming

Internet on consoles? I remember Saturn's Net Link. It looked nerdy,costly, not so user friendly and not a much sought after feature on consoles. Certainly not a system seller. DC kind of made it more accessible although it wasnt a feature which was massively used. Internet features was not a system selling feature in the 128bit era either. With the 360, PS3 and Wii, internet functions and online play is now a standard, integral feature

Some products need to be released at the right time to become massively adopted.

How I see this one? Well the frist VR sets in the 90s were a nerdy thing thats for sure. Today's revisions are a massive improvement. I believe the current efforts are evolving steps towards that design which will be massively used. At the beginning it will be just a niche market where only the ones that have the budget will acquire it.

But this is expected to get cheaper in time. Cheap enough that people will be willing to try it and if the experience is great enough, more people will be adopting it. John Carmack is already moving towards that path and I wouldnt be surprised if it becomes a console peripheral or if this is implemented with every TV in the future along with special features and connectivity with consoles right out of the box :smile:

 

[Arwin]

Apparently the system is still limited - like the Oculus Rift test version currently doing the rounds, there is no lateral movement yet. But it seems they are doing some very impressive realtime effects, because if I'm seeing it right it's pretty much impossible to tell if you're seeing a real person or a virtual one, and it seems to be all in 3D ...

 

[DieH@rd]

They are faking it. User sees video feed of the same room that was recorded previously form the camera [>4k rez] that filmed entire room with 360degree lens. This is no AR, this is watching video stream with freedom to move your head.