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Comment by ravst3s | Hacker News Reader

Although these devices will be compared to each other ceaselessly, I think they're targeting two distinct markets. Apple believes that Vision Pro is the future of personal computing. Meta keeps marketing the Quest as social-connected VR gaming device. The former market is far larger and anything that displaces the PC will be transcendental.

Although Meta will sell more units in the short-term due to Apple's pricing, I do think they will have a tough time catching Apple on the hardware. The eye-tracking, <12ms image processing and display, and the M2 are things that Meta is well behind on.

Zuck mentioned that activity and "doing things" are Meta advantages, but people don't want to exercise while gaming or consuming entertainment.

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> people don't want to exercise while gaming

Quite a few do. I use Beatsaber, Pistol Whip, and Superhot (more yoga-y than exercise) for this. Boredom during exercise is my primary issue with sustaining it; VR has removed that obstacle.

Sure, some people do, but the majority of people are not looking to exercise while gaming. It's a niche use case. The Wii lost its novelty pretty quickly.

If you're gaming for 3-4 hours, watching a movie, or using the device for productivity you're going to be seated or standing still.

Also, Vision Pro can be a mobile device, albeit for <2 hrs. Imo, Gaming will not be the primary use case for these devices.

> The Wii lost its novelty pretty quickly.

It really didn’t. Ring Fit Adventure, a successor to the Wii Fit titles, sold 15 million copies for the Switch. Nintendo Switch Sports sold almost 9 million. Those are solid numbers. The kind of motion control the Wii used is still used for those titles, and they’re still popular.

That's decent for single games, but overall those are low figures.

These companies are aiming to have installed bases in the hundreds of millions if not billions.

Active gaming will be a nice use case, but will not be the reason 40-50m people buy a headset every year.

Don't forget Just Dance. Just Dance 2 was the best selling 3rd party title for the Wii. Just Dance 3 was the 2nd best selling title of 2011, behind Call of Duty. As of 2013, Just Dance is Ubisoft's 2nd biggest franchise, behind Assassin's Creed. Teenage girls nowadays are still playing Just Dance all night at sleep overs.

Just because it sold a bunch of copies doesn't mean that it wasn't a novelty and got actively used. Fidget spinners sold like hot cakes. 15 million copies is also less than half of what Wii Fit pulled, so it sounds like people did in fact lose interest in Nintendo exercise games.

> Fidget spinners sold like hot cakes.

Fidget spinners sold like hotcakes for a very brief window of time. Nintendo motion games are continuing to sell millions of titles even 15 years after they first debuted.

> less than half of what Wii Fit pulled

Hmm, what numbers are you looking at? I see 22 million for Wii Fit, and 21 million for Wii Fit Plus (a separate title).

Having used VR, I actually think I would rather move around for 3 hours than stand still for 3 hours

That's certainly true but sitting for three hours is better than either.

As someone who used to stand or move around while gaming, I'd much rather go back to that than sitting. Unfortunately for me I love the precision of a keyboard and mouse. One day I'll find the right compromise.

> Zuck mentioned that activity and "doing things" are Meta advantages, but people don't want to exercise while gaming or consuming entertainment.

A lot of people actually do. There is a whole community built around it.

Yup, I think the main difference is the default use case:

- Oculus <=> content consumption

- Apple Vision <=> productivity

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