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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

So I think that VR headsets (the real ones) do need to come down in price before they (and VR in general) can become mainstream, even though the technology is still quite not there yet, which means it will be hard to make such devices cheap while also upgrading their technology (or at least slow/er).

However, this isn't really what Oculus is doing here. This isn't a "cheaper version of Oculus Rift". This is an expensive version of Gear VR/any Android Daydream headset.

It has some extra sensors and whatnot, but other than that, it should play the same content. So how are most people going to understand the difference between a $60-$100 Daydream headset and a $200 Oculus Go?

At least the $600 headsets actually offer you a different kind of experience (realistic 3D games, etc), even though their price means they'll be relegated to an early adopter market for a few more years.

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I don't even get who buys these cheaper VR headsets. I'm an early-adopter type and I can't see the purpose of Galaxy VR, Google Daydream or this new Occulus Go. I guess they are just like a $100+ novelty? At least the Vive (and to a lesser extent the Rift) are gaming hardware that can be put to use if you have a high-end tower, but the resolution and frame rates good VR requires need state of the art hardware to run any (albeit subjectively) interesting titles at this point in time. It seems to me like they are taking a product that isn't there yet and pushing it to market hoping to dupe consumers into spending money on a half-baked idea. Kinda like the push towards "tablet computers" in the early 2000's.

I get the same feeling when I see these products. I think they are targeted at the (surprisingly large!) segment of the population for whom their phone is their only computing device.

In the bubble that is HN, they make little sense, but I assume these companies must have done some kind of market research that indicates that these products actually drive demand in a consumer group that has basically zero overlap with ours.

I've considered buying a dirt cheap "VR" headset as I already have TrackIr[1] for 6DOF head tracking and the only games I'd use VR in (Racing/sim driving, sim aviation, spaceflight) use much more expensive external peripherals instead of touch pads and hands and are explicitly sit-down

[1] https://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

> I don't even get who buys these cheaper VR headsets.

A lot more people than buy the full-fat systems like Vive and Rift, that's who. Which would explain why Oculus is now focusing on that market segment rather than leaving it to OEMs like Samsung.

They also announced a new $400 permanent price for the Rift+Touch.

I have an iPhone, at least from that perspective it's a cheap version of the Gear VR.

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