Oculus Co-Founder Doesn't Believe in VR Gaming Anymore

Our son urged us to get an Oculus Go a few weeks ago. My wife and I and some of our friends probably got enough entertainment value in the first week to make the purchase worthwhile. Our son then got an Oculus Quest and we also got one on Monday. The device blows me away. The first steps training module gets you up to speed in picking up objects like a ping pong paddle, hit balls, and generally get to the point where you function in VR without thinking about it. The Star Wars Vader Immortal experience is a real treat. When I materialized in a small space freighter with an incredibly detailed android assistant, I was hooked.

I did some work in VR for SAIC and Disney (through Angel Studios) in the 1990s and I am happy that something as good as Oculus is now in the market.

As someone who has been playing games for well over 25 years and who has a Vive, I DO think that VR is the future of gaming, just not in its current state. I think the biggest barrier is the price. The most affordable VR option is the Oculus Go at $200, but if you want to play actually decent content, you're better off going with either an Oculus Quest or a Vive. Even the base Vive model is currently $500. That's a lot to drop on a headset when there's such a lack of good content out there. And it's not even that the content we have available is necessarily bad... it's just short and gimmicky.

If VR is to be the future of gaming, some serious strides need to be made in making it easier to put together a VR experience that isn't just a 30-minute demo. I can name on one hand the number of VR titles I've played that have more than a couple hours of original, worthwhile content.

Another argument to be made is that Oculus is the more well-known VR headset among the general gaming market because it was the first, and being that Facebook owns it, and with all the recently scandals... why would you want to own a device managed by Facebook? Maybe it's just me, but it's bad enough having a profile -- I don't want hardware made by them anywhere near my apartment.

If we can knock down the price of VR and get some better games, I absolutely believe it would explode in popularity.

I'm stunned about the fact that VR soccer experiences aren't a thing yet. Most teams in the big soccer leagues in Europe have their stadiums maxed out, and they can't raise their prices because they'd exclude the population who actively support the club, thus the experience inside the stadium would degrade even more.

Good VR experiences could change that dynamic, the stadium with its atmosphere could become the commodity that drives VR ticket sales. By making stadium tickets cheap they ensure that the most dedicated supporters get access which also betters the atmosphere inside the stadiums and creates an incentive for originality when it comes to support, it would help the ultra scene a lot, and future stadium architecture might focus more on character than these lifeless and same looking arena types.

For VR to become a thing in sports, clubs need to be able to sell their own virtual tickets per game somehow, independent from television rights.

Early adopter of PC and mobile VR. The issues IMO are that other than charging an upfront price I don't see an easy way to monetise mobile VR (i.e.: ads don't seem to be an option, and most people won't pay a dime), while the PC market is relatively small - thus the incentives for content creators are simply not there. I do occasionally see youtube videos of scared girls playing horror VR games, but I rarely see games that offer more than WOW graphics - there is no game that makes me want to spend hours in VR. I thought Doom VR might be a good candidate, but jumping from one place to another just makes people dizzy and quite annoying. If Oculus and VR are to succeed they need to focus on developing proper games, with engaging gameplay, because the hardware is pretty decent but it seems to be a solution in search of a problem.

When augmented reality (AR) first materialized in the public’s awareness, it was often dismissed as “eye candy” – an engaging but superficial way to make a product or brand sizzle.

Even Pokémon Go, the smash hit mobile game that helped usher AR into the mainstream three years ago, is AR-optional and relies more on its innovative GPS-based gameplay than augmented reality. Readmore: https://citrusbits.com/the-race-to-launch-augmented-reality-...

How are the hand tracking controllers? Tracking your hands accurately in real time was a holy grail even around the time of the Wii. Now it is here in a more refined version of Nintendo and Sony's attempts but it gets swept under the rug a bit because it comes with VR masks.

Is Hololens - providing an AR experience - more likely to be the champion here? Or will it run into the same problems as VR?