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[Alx]

Everyone expecting a VR headset to be the next iPhone are sorely out of touch.

Yeah iphones are objects you can carry around and show off to everybody around you, making it a trendy object and social status symbol. A VR headset is something you keep in your mancave and maybe try to push to your guests who thought they were invited for dinner. The mass consumer wants to carry around his technology with as few restrictions as possible, not be encased in it.
AR headsets might have a better chance to hit mass market for that reason, but I think it will be in competition with regular smartphones who can do decent AR too, sometimes even better (remember the Google Glasses reception at the time).

 

[THE DUCK]

I dont know why anyone would consider apple's device a savior of anything I'd they are building a paltry million units and charging 3k. Unless they have a trick up thier sleeves and a $500 unit powered by m2 and 10 million getting ready to be built....
That said, it still needs killer software, where is that coming from? Secret alliance with ms?
Nintendo?

 

[Fredrik]

unfortunately I think we (especially on this forum) are generally a bit conservative re changes so anytime there is something new then we don't like it. I think it applies to multiple topics in gaming and obviously everything else.

This is spot on.
Add walled-gardens and dedicated fans into the mix and then the discussions usually end up being about how much something suck or how it’s the best thing ever or how much it’ll ruin the whole industry or how anyone who don’t like it is a troll or fanboy. There is very little actual normal conversations tbh.

 

[Alan Wake]

VR will not be a thing until VR porn becomes available on it.

I'm not saying that's right or good. But it is reality.

Agree. It's not available anywhere yet?

 

[Sakura]

Well yeah, people keep making headsets, but where is the software? Are we all supposed to buy the latest and greatest headset just to play more Beat Saber? If they really want VR to take off significantly, they need to give people convincing reasons to spend hundreds of dollars on these things. The 1 or 2 hour tech demo VR "games" are cool to show someone who has never played VR before, but that's about it.

 

[sncvsrtoip]

not best news, psvr2 kinda killed flat gaming for me, after gt7 and village in vr standard games looks like moving not even 1 but more like 2 generations back, hope sony will support vr with hybrid games as this way is for sure less expensive than developing dedicated games

 

[nemiroff]

I don’t think it would’ve changed much, would’ve just sold to some PCVR enthusiasts that are now waiting for a new Index.

What would actually change things is big AAA devs jumping in and investing properly with their A teams.

* Microsoft jumping in and allowing us to use PCVR headsets on Xbox and having a real official VR version of Starfield at launch, and a Halo Infinite VR version with hand tracking grapple and aiming, Gears VR, DOOM VR, etc.

* Sony pushing the main teams at Naughty Dog and Santa Monica to make their next TLOU/Uncharted/new IP for PSVR2/3 at launch.

* Activision Blizzard making a proper VR version for the next Call of Duty day 1.

* Ubisoft making a VR version of the next big Assassin’s Creed day 1.

* Valve making Half Life 3 VR exclusive and available on PC with superb usage of the hardware and also on Xbox through the PCVR compatibility mentioned earlier and on PSVR2/3.

* Nintendo jumping into VR.

Better software helps the experience on the hardware we already have, but it wouln't make much of a difference in the market right now. Technology is the only thing that can eventually help send this to the masses (who cares btw so-to-speak). Form factor is essential, including cheap and reliable arm tracking, and of course locomotion. And there's a desperate race in the scene to get there (especially form factor) before funding runs out.

Until then all we can do is to become racing and flight simulator fans, and occasionally play Alyx and dream about the future of VR yet to come.

Disclaimer: VR enthusiast for decades.

 

[Codiox]

It's the vita all over again.

 

[Fredrik]

Better software helps the experience on the hardware we already have, but it wouln't make much of a difference in the market right now. Technology is the only thing that can eventually help send this to the masses (who cares btw so-to-speak). Form factor is essential, including cheap and reliable arm tracking, and of course locomotion. And there's a desperate race in the scene to get there (especially form factor) before funding runs out.

Until then all we can do is to become racing and flight simulator fans, and occasionally play Alyx and dream about the future of VR yet to come.

Disclaimer: VR enthusiast for decades.

Size, comfort, tracking is important but I think the biggest hurdle is to get people to actually see the need to try VR, and I think that will come through games.

But I have no receipts on that. I’m actually fairly new to VR, jumped in around the Quest 2 launch. In short I’m just one of those who’re out of the VR honeymoon phase where everything is awesome and I’ve stopped buying tons of small games. Now I’m in the frustration phase where I can see extreme potential while being annoyed at the bigger developers not seeing that millions of people are just waiting for them to release games. I guess the next phase is the niche acceptance phase.

 

[Techies]

This is the bloomberg source btw, take whatever he says with a grain of salt.

 

[Henry Panic]

This is the bloomberg source btw, take whatever he says with a grain of salt.

I think youre getting confused with the other guy.

 

[PharaoTutAnchAmun]

Since vr causes me heavy motion sickness, selfishly i am glad that the future of industry is still far from adopting vr as main technology

It wil never be adopting as a main technology...

 

[Neff]

I've seen some dumb shit in my time but not making PSVR2 backwards compatible ranks as some of the dumbest shit ever.

Well yeah, people keep making headsets, but where is the software? Are we all supposed to buy the latest and greatest headset just to play more Beat Saber?

This view is a searing, brilliant beam of blindingly obvious common sense and logic which the makers of VR headsets seem not to have shared.

 

[adamsapple]

This is the bloomberg source btw, take whatever he says with a grain of salt.

It's not .. ?

 

[Techies]

I think youre getting confused with the other guy.

Seems so this source say 20%, Bloomberg stated half.

 

[Phase]

The only way I'm getting into VR is if the cost goes down and the product becomes way less cumbersome.

 

[Katatonic]

I still haven’t gotten mine. If it gets a price cut that would be nice.

 

[Crayon]

The only way I'm getting into VR is if the cost goes down and the product becomes way less cumbersome.

And has more games. That's like most people. Rn VR is just for those who find the payoff worth the hassle (I do). More and more people don't even want to get up to change a disk now so VR has a way to go. It'll need to be pretty small, comfy and cheap and have more aaa game support. Not that $100 sunglasses tard anthem but better than it is now.

 

[Nydius]

This is spot on.
Add walled-gardens and dedicated fans into the mix and then the discussions usually end up being about how much something suck or how it’s the best thing ever or how much it’ll ruin the whole industry or how anyone who don’t like it is a troll or fanboy. There is very little actual normal conversations tbh.

This is true but there is a glimmer of truth to the skeptics' argument.

Having multiple competing standards with multiple walled gardens does have a deleterious effect on widespread adoption. Look at the PSVR/PSVR2 situation. PSVR2 not being backwards compatible means people who spent the dough to buy in on PSVR are left with an obsolete item that will only work with past titles. If they want future PSVR content, they have to drop the $500 on a whole new headset. While the technological leap justifies this, if I were a PSVR purchaser, I'd feel a bit betrayed and far less likely to buy into a PSVR2 as I'd wonder if they'd just leave me behind yet again should they ever made a PSVR3.

VR in its current state reminds me of a hybrid of the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war and the 3DTV push. I don't think VR will ever see widespread mainstream adoption until/unless, like the disk format war, all parties end up using the same standards across platforms. Then walled gardens will matter less because your hardware would be usable anywhere and you could buy from anyone.

 

[mckmas8808]

Everyone expecting a VR headset to be the next iPhone are sorely out of touch.

Did anybody really think this?

 

[Topher]

Did anybody really think this?

 

[sono]

Have they got in-store demo units yet

 

[Dlacy13g]

But but but... it the future!!! VR will always be niche. Just my two cents

 

[Last Hearth]

Agree. It's not available anywhere yet?

I guess I should elaborate on what I said.

Yes I know there is some porn available on current VR platforms, but those are afterthoughts, that's not what I was talking about. I was talking about hardware that is designed with the use for interactive virtual sex encounters as one of it's design goals, and software that is made to take full advantage of those features.
You make a platform like that, and it will sell. And other software and games on that platform will also sell. Because now the platform itself becomes a must get, and people will tell you they are buying it for the games and not the VR sex. But they will be lying just like the people who said they bought Playboy "for the articles".

But companies like Facebook, Sony, and Apple, are too image conscious to do something like that. So it will end up being some new start-up that eventually will pull this off.

 

[mckmas8808]

But but but... it the future!!! VR will always be niche. Just my two cents

And is that really a bad thing? Does it have to be the NEXT BIG THING!!!!???

 

[StreetsofBeige]

But but but... it the future!!! VR will always be niche. Just my two cents

Niche, overpriced hardware, and almost all indie demo quality games. And also a brick on your face and possibly wires too (if it's a wired model).

On the plus side, at least the games are cheap. They're mostly $20 kind of games. But even despite dirt cheap gaming, even VR users dont bother. Meta's report last year said half of VR users stop using it after 6 months. So it shows the games are so bad and VR motion and 360 degree gameplay are so unworthy, even $20 games arent worth buying to at least get their money's worth out of it before it collects dust.

Just imagine if the typical decent budget console or PC games were all $20 instead of $60-70. Every gamer would be stockpiling 10 years worth of backlogs. With VR, rock bottom $20 games arent enough.

 

[Paperclip Killa]

I think people may be jumping the gun on the kill.switch too early. Sony has several big titles lined up to release in the coming months. Let's wait for those games to release first.

They have a few titles releasing this April and May.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

It costs $6 for milk here. Fuck PS VR2.

 

[Crayon]

I think people may be jumping the gun on the kill.switch too early. Sony has several big titles lined up to release in the coming months. Let's wait for those games to release first.

They have a few titles releasing this April and May.

As far as sony is concerned, they should be looking at continued engagement from the users who can afford the headset in the first place. One of the most common complaints you hear from people about vr is that they stopped using it. Often chalking it up to a novelty wearing off. The real problem is the pipeline of games though. If there werent enough or not enough variety of normal games, that would be looked at as a novelty too.

They really need to keep it up with the re8's and gt7's. If the thing is not going to sell any more than the first one, it should hopefully have the users use it more and buy more games. That's as good as selling more both for profit and progress.

 

[ahtlas7]

Hope you people who spent top dollar for this thing aren’t discarded, like a 2 hour tinder date, by Sony.

 

[poppabk]

Better software helps the experience on the hardware we already have, but it wouln't make much of a difference in the market right now. Technology is the only thing that can eventually help send this to the masses (who cares btw so-to-speak). Form factor is essential, including cheap and reliable arm tracking, and of course locomotion. And there's a desperate race in the scene to get there (especially form factor) before funding runs out.

Until then all we can do is to become racing and flight simulator fans, and occasionally play Alyx and dream about the future of VR yet to come.

Disclaimer: VR enthusiast for decades.

Yeah I don't think it is the lack of software as in games, it's mainly the form factor, hardware capabilities and the underlying OS functionality.
Playing 'Cubism' with hand tracking and pass through, or watching Netflix with tracking gives me a sense of where we are going but we need some tech advances to get there.

 

[Ansphn]

How come people are so happy about Steam deck sales but not impressed with PSVR2 sales? Did Steam deck blow it out of the water or something?

 

[Corndog]

Size, comfort, tracking is important but I think the biggest hurdle is to get people to actually see the need to try VR, and I think that will come through games.

But I have no receipts on that. I’m actually fairly new to VR, jumped in around the Quest 2 launch. In short I’m just one of those who’re out of the VR honeymoon phase where everything is awesome and I’ve stopped buying tons of small games. Now I’m in the frustration phase where I can see extreme potential while being annoyed at the bigger developers not seeing that millions of people are just waiting for them to release games. I guess the next phase is the niche acceptance phase.

The problem is it’s a peripheral that costs more than the system. It will always be a small portion of the ps5 user base. The Kinect was a niche on the Xbox and it sold more than psvr.

 

[Crayon]

How come people are so happy about Steam deck sales but not impressed with PSVR2 sales? Did Steam deck blow it out of the water or something?

Well, I can tell you it doesn't matter how many games psvr2 has or how many it sells. Anyone can still just declare a failure if they want it to be. The first one was a quite high selling headset and had several impressive games like firewall, wipeout, and London heist but there's no shortage of people who will tell you it was some crash and burn failure with no support.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I think some of these PSVR2 games need to be reworked into regular console games before it's too late.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Did anybody really think this?

Meta did. And by extension WSBets followed.

 

[TGO]

You know what sells units?

 

[Kvally]

Not surprised. RIP..

 

[fermcr]

And some people were bitching about Microsoft not launching a VR device...

I'm curious about the rumored $3000 VR device by Apple.

 

[Paperclip Killa]

Did anybody really think this?

Most people did 6 years ago. Was a great time to be in VR lots of excitement and enthusiasm and now it's gone for some reason.

Now people think a headset has to sell several million every year to be a success.

But all headsets really need to sell is 500,000 a quarter, that means 2M a year, and 10M in 5 years. That sounds like a more realistic goal to me then trying to sell 40M headsets in a year like a Samsung Galaxy 23.

I expect Sony to sell these numbers. Let us assume that the numbers from the now locked thread were true and Sony sold 270,000 in 1 month. That means they are very likely to sell more than 500,000 this quarter.

If they do the same the next 3 quarters they will sell more than 2M VR headsets by years end. If they do that for the next 5 years they will have sold more than 10M. Double their previous attempt.

I think many people have unrealistic expectations because of Meta being lucky ONE time, and at what cost?

 

[Crayon]

Most people did 6 years ago. Was a great time to be in VR lots of excitement and enthusiasm and now it's gone for some reason.

Now people think a headset has to sell several million every year to be a success.

But all headsets really need to sell is 500,000 a quarter, that means 2M a year, and 10M in 5 years. That sounds like a more realistic goal to me then trying to sell 40M headsets in a year like a Samsung Galaxy 23.

I expect Sony to sell these numbers. Let us assume that the numbers from the now locked thread were true and Sony sold 270,000 in 1 month. That means they are very likely to sell more than 500,000 this quarter.

If they do the same the next 3 quarters they will sell more than 2M VR headsets by years end. If they do that for the next 5 years they will have sold more than 10M. Double their previous attempt.

I think many people have unrealistic expectations because of Meta being lucky ONE time, and at what cost?

You think most people thought it was going to be comparable with phones?

 

[Paperclip Killa]

You think most people thought it was going to be comparable with phones?

People were expecting them to be heading in that direction by this point yes.

I agree, unrealistic expectations.

 

[rickybooby87]

Eddie when he sees this post from purgatory:

 

[Crayon]

People were expecting them to be heading in that direction by this point yes.

I agree, unrealistic expectations.

Uh who are these people exactly?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I think some of these PSVR2 games need to be reworked into regular console games before it's too late.

The best chance of success is all the mainstream traditional games add in a VR mode. So gamers can buy it once and play it the normal way, and also VR mode if they buy a headset. GT7 is a perfect example of killing two birds with one stone. Its clear the current way of budget $20 VR games isn't successful unless all a VR gamer wants are these kinds of games. And going by everyone saying check out GT7, HL Alyx and RE8, its clear that's what gamers really want (full budget games with VR mode), but they got no choice but play the waiting game hoping other big name games release a VR mode.

 

[OuterLimits]

Most people did 6 years ago. Was a great time to be in VR lots of excitement and enthusiasm and now it's gone for some reason.

Now people think a headset has to sell several million every year to be a success.

But all headsets really need to sell is 500,000 a quarter, that means 2M a year, and 10M in 5 years. That sounds like a more realistic goal to me then trying to sell 40M headsets in a year like a Samsung Galaxy 23.

I expect Sony to sell these numbers. Let us assume that the numbers from the now locked thread were true and Sony sold 270,000 in 1 month. That means they are very likely to sell more than 500,000 this quarter.

If they do the same the next 3 quarters they will sell more than 2M VR headsets by years end. If they do that for the next 5 years they will have sold more than 10M. Double their previous attempt.

I think many people have unrealistic expectations because of Meta being lucky ONE time, and at what cost?

I think you may be a tad optimistic on the numbers. Those initial sales of 300k or so are the hard-core fans who likely preordered the device or wanted to buy it Day 1. Expecting it to continue selling at that pace may be difficult especially at the current price.

Sony certainly isn't helping matters in some countries like the United States where it isn't sold in any stores currently.

 

[Jimmyisback]

Why are so many reporting that Sony have cut production numbers when Sony already denied this.

 

[reksveks]

Why are so many reporting that Sony have cut production numbers when Sony already denied this.

1) it's good to remember that Sony actually answered the bloomberg report with an answer about their current at the time position around shipments and not the future at the time position around production iirc.
2) this is a secondary source (imo a much better one) who came out recently, Ming-Chin Kuo is talking about the current change.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

Sony went full retard by not having it be backwards compatible. They would have had people who purchased PSVR1 upgrading their hardware as well as people who are new to the PS VR environment. Now they just have people who are hard-core only. I bought PS VR1 and now my library is stuck on it so why would I buy PS VR2 if the games I purchase for it are just going to get stuck to it too? So many stupid mistakes are being made. Why not youtube 360 VR compatible? Why no PC integration? They sent it out to die but why they did I don't know???

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

VR doesn't need to be the next big technology FAD.

PSVR2 just needs to sell enough to support some truly epic games being developed on it. If the device delivers a handful of true masterpieces over its lifetime, I'd be more than happy that it's justified its purchase.