cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

I fear vr will flop if it doesnt get sold in stores

in6seconds
Expert Protege
right now not a lot of people know about the cv1, most people still think when you're saying oculus, you're talking about the dk2, a lot of people don't even know any vr headset exists, oculus and htc needs to sell it at popular retails like the ouya, otherwise, no matter how much of a potential it has, vr will flop, because most people are NOT willing to spend such a high price to wait a few months for it to arrive.
58 REPLIES 58

kevinw729
Honored Visionary
From our observations, the retail route to market seemed to have been abandoned internally from the beginning - OVR execs feeling they had a better plan to market.

Now after closer examination, we see much of their planned market penetration depended on signing unique deals to corner market presence (such as the BestBuy agreement).

Of the $600m invested in OVR, very little went into marketing - promotion at exhibitions, free publicity through figurehead interviews, and the obvious exhibition presence (CES, E3 and Connect), was the plan.

Sadly this blinkered approach has bordered on complacency, and had no plan in place regarding the feud they engendered with Valve. Seeing HTC Vives in Microsoft Stores a case in point (very embarrassing). E3 and the Touch positioning announcement, will now become vital events to save the stategy!

In not being open to the VR community, in being ignorant of Google, and HTC's aspirations in this sector - and the whole issue with Sony - OVR may now not be able to leverage their position. But for VR the momentum seems to be growing (with or without retail).
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

Anonymous
Not applicable

smilertoo said:

Oculus could be building future problems for itself with a lot of bad feelings from hardcore users between backtracking on DRM and having the pre order thing, then adding delay after delay so they could ship the units to stores instead.


Yes and no. Right now it seems that way, but a lot of this will be forgotten over time. The other problem is the demand is soo high right now they can't even keep up. Even if they open another planet for it, it might create other problems in that there will be soo many units out, but not enough software to really support that many users. Right now, other than a few set games and apps I use, there still a desire unfilled because of the hardware limits of gen 1. Not that I blame gen 1 or Oculus, but that it's still new tech and it'll take time to get everything right.

In lots of ways you see it as a problem, but I can see it as a way for them to be sure they can still live on after the hardware sells. As in my example above, without some income from another source, there will be too many hands in the pie at some point and you have to make sure you have the bigger share of the pie or else you will be push out and thrown away.

kevinw729
Honored Visionary
"> Mradr said:In
lots of ways you see it as a problem, but I can see it as a way for
them to be sure they can still live on after the hardware sells."

I think we are all hearing from the 'Oculites' phrases like "...this will blow over", or "...its all going to work out". I would expect that on a OVR forum or the echo chamber that is Reddit. But there is some revisionism being added to the Koolade that is uncomfortable.

The comment about all the DRM and walled garden approach being done to "...[en]sure they can still live after the hardware..." smacks of trying to defend the indefensible.

OVR was proud to state they were making no money off of the hardware, and had a plan in place to ensure no walled garden approach but an open community - "...no one wants to buy a TV and not be able to watch whatever they want on it...!"

Obviously things have changed internally, and we can expect a new positioning statement post DRM and launch problems any time soon. How OVR addresses the obvious backlash that the Touch announcement will ensure is a way we can all judge their deeds against their claims.



https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

MeioJo
Expert Protege
Do we have information that tells us that the Rift will not be sold in stores?
I assumed that by Christmas both Rift and Vive would be on store shelves...

Anonymous
Not applicable

Always a good post by kevinw729 🙂

Point stands is that as long as they don't make a big profit off the head set and sells it at cost ~ then that's like saying the product was "Free" to the market. In the long run, that means more software sells, more market shares, and that over time generates more money. Now, they limited it to their software sells to their hardware at this time, but I for see them releasing DRM just a bit so they can still make money off even Vive. I have a feeling the move was a bit rush into place, but there are a few reason you would want to go for a DRM in the long run as well.

I'm not as good as you are Kevin when it comes to marketing:) so it's hard for me to say what I am thinking to you ^__^; but welcome to comment 😛 So far I been able to keep my PC business going for 4 years now 🙂 so hopefully I am doing something right in the understanding of how a market works 😛

Anonymous
Not applicable

MeioJo said:

Do we have information that tells us that the Rift will not be sold in stores?
I assumed that by Christmas both Rift and Vive would be on store shelves...



No, it's just that demand is going to up before Christmas. I posted a comment to lovethis over the same thought. Demand will start to [re]increase by Oct and Nov. Good luck getting it in stores as well. There will be a limited amount, but they will be pretty much all gone on Black Friday or solid out way before then.

kevinw729
Honored Visionary
"> Mradr said:In
lots of ways you see it as a problem, but I can see it as a way for
them to be sure they can still live on after the hardware sells."

I think we are all hearing from the 'Oculites' phrases like "...this will blow over", or "...its all going to work out". I would expect that on a OVR forum or the echo chamber that is Reddit. But there is some revisionism being added to the Koolade that is uncomfortable.

The comment about all the DRM and walled garden approach being done to "...[en]sure they can still live after the hardware..." smacks of trying to defend the indefensible.

OVR was proud to state they were making no money off of the hardware, and had a plan in place to ensure no walled garden approach but an open community - "...no one wants to buy a TV and not be able to watch whatever they want on it...!"

Obviously things have changed internally, and we can expect a new positioning statement post DRM and launch problems any time soon. How OVR addresses the obvious backlash that the Touch announcement will ensure is a way we can all judge their deeds against their claims.



https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

MeioJo
Expert Protege
Well the price is down to $800 on eBay so I'm guessing that it won't go above $900 on Black Friday and then closer to $700 just before Christmas.



Assuming there is still production issues as production issues are the only things that I can imagine are holding this up.



The LCD screen being the most likely culprit.

However given that Apple just lowered their release cycle to 3 years it would seem that there should be a huge chunk of LCD capacity opening up as that suggests that all smartphones are declining in sales so LCD's should be freed up for VR.

Dreamwriter
Rising Star




GearVR is sold in tons of stores, and I'd be willing to bet DayDream will be too, and even sold in cell provider stores. And if *anybody* thinks you're talking about DK2 when you mention Oculus Rift, they definitely know about CV1. Only real enthusiasts have even heard of DK2.


no, most famous youtubers ( example: jacksepticeye) compared the vive to the dk2, in a way that I assume meant that they didn't know about the cv1, and the gear vr is the most famous in the media because it comes with the galaxy and is actually advertised in best buy stores, gear vr is about the most popular vr headset in the media as of yet.


I don't get what you are saying, what does it matter about GearVR being famous? You said VR will flop if it's not sold in stores, I pointed out that GearVR is already sold in tons of stores and has been for a long time, so going by your logic, VR will not flop because it is already easily accessible in stores.

And I challenge you to provide proof of a single person anywhere in the world who utters the name "DK2" who doesn't know about the CV1's existence.

MeioJo
Expert Protege


And I challenge you to provide proof of a single person anywhere in the world who utters the name "DK2" who doesn't know about the CV1's existence.


That is an easy one: