VR on steam grew 0.06% in july and 0.02% in august
store.steampowered.com
store.steampowered.com
And the software offering is so abysmal that developers are going to have to work a bit harder if they want new interested users.
Sony is releasing their own VR system soon, we'll see what comes out of that.
If Steam really wanted to make VR adoption shoot up through the roof, it'd be simple: release a VR exclusive Orange Box 2: Half Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, TF3 or Portal 3, and a new IP. Boom, 10 million sold the first weekend.
Of course, the hardware is still a bit immature, expensive, and the computers required to drive it need to be beefy- so they might be saving that card up their sleeve for 18-24 months from now.
I'm not convinced. In my small sample of ~10 friends, all would like one, but no-one can afford one.
I read that roughly 100,000 sold. I guess I'm a good chunk of that 0.02%
Also, I'd love to try it, but I'm not motivated enough to shell out $1400+ to do so (I'd need to upgrade my computer too), when I suspect I'll play it a lot for a month and then shelve it for a long time. Maybe my mind would be changed if I could actually try it, but I don't know anyone who has one.
The closest I've gotten is watching some annoying personalities on Youtube gush and gawk over them while displaying a video of what they're seeing, and that hasn't been enough to win me over yet.
So one thing I think should be done, that isn't, is these things need a place that people can go to try them, like a setup in Best Buy or something. If I could see it for myself how much it changes things, maybe I'd be more motivated.
And this is coming from someone who used to be in the game industry and wants the next hobby game I develop to be designed with VR support in mind. That's how bad these companies are at getting these systems in front of people to try them out.
I'm sure it's not easy to get in the big stores, but Sega did a 'bus tour' to show off the Genesis to people 20+ years ago, they can figure something out if they want this to succeed long-term.
I was thinking more specifically the Oculus or the Vive, though. If those are demoed at the Microsoft stores too, then I'll happily check them out, but I don't know why they'd have them.
You are building an ecosystem and it's all about getting critical mass which is hugely expensive. Even new peripherals for already successful console systems are quite hard to launch because you can't put the marketing behind them that you'd put behind a whole new system launch. VR tech obviously has great potential but the ecosystem, the mass market product and marketing, the titles are all not there.
After the headset, the graphics card(s), and a couple of the few VR games that are out, you're easily over $1,000.
Now if you can track one's fovea fast enough to render just where you're looking at, then you don't need anything as far off like 8K+; your eye is not nearely that dense.
You do still need a screen with such a density though...
I'm sure most of you are aware that right now VR is suffering from a chicken/egg problem. There are too few VR owners to attract large studios to make great content for the platform. Similarly, there is too little content to attract a large number of VR hardware purchasers. I went into my purchase understanding this, and that even though the hardware is now being marketed to consumers it should still be considered an "early adopter" piece of kit.
I do feel like I am getting my value out of it, however. I have tried several games and demos, and I am regularly impressed as I find various developers' new and innovative approaches to the platform. I've also demoed the Vive to several friends and family, and so far everyone has found something to love about it. Just about everyone that's put the headset on has been caught with their mouth agape at one point.
Some of the older folks were reluctant, afraid of handling the controllers or trying to figure out what to do. In those cases I would show them a more "experiential" application, especially the ones with little to no interaction. theBlue, Kismet, Impossible Travel Agency, and The Lab's "Secret Shop" were big hits in that regard, though each one of those is largely a one-trick pony. Once you've experienced them once or twice they have relatively little to bring you back.
The younger crowd found enjoyment in Space Pirate Trainer and Fruit Ninja, but there is little variety in the gameplay. The games prove a mechanic, but don't have a huge amount of content or plot to speak of. You could chase after high scores in an arcade-like fashion, but apart from incrementing numbers there's not much reward or progression.
There are some games that are Oculus-exclusive which I would really like to try, such as the newly released Obduction (from the makers of Myst & Riven). I understand the developers are working on Vive support right now, which is nice. I haven't looked into Re-Vive yet, which is supposed to offer limited support for Oculus exclusives on the Vive headset, and honestly I'd like to try to avoid such things if I can. I've been pretty disappointed in Oculus for how it's trying to create platform lock-in by paying developers for exclusivity. I understand it from a business standpoint, but at this early stage in the VR market a shared game library would be vastly more beneficial.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/50vst9/vr_on_steam_gr...
you can see this previous discussion. many people who own both claimed they shelved oculus.