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How long before VR is mainstream?

Paddy234
Protege
Looking at the sales of VR it's clear PSVR dominates in the units being sold. Between both the vive and oculus there is nearly 1 million units sold but PSVR has sold a million on it's own in half the time. The competition is a good thing as it means prices will be pushed down faster and companies will be racing to add newer and more immersive features to stand out. When the prices of the oculus and Vive were first announced i was afraid VR in the mainstream will be off for at least 5 years or maybe more as if there is little investment perhaps companies may dump the idea to being solely an arcade experience. Oculus dropping the price by a large amount is a good thing but for most people it is still too expensive and for the lack of quality content not really worth it either. How long do people think we will have to wait until we start to see a good catalog of quality games for a affordable VR system at lets say $300. I really hope at E3 this year we see a good few big games announced for VR
16 REPLIES 16

Anonymous
Not applicable
Based on some things I have read over various forums it sounds like they are expecting a very significant increase around 2019. Maybe with the next generation of VR units.

inovator
Consultant
I don't know what your talking sbout. There is alot of great content now and it gets better all the time and continues to increase. Oculus said from the beginning things would start very slowly. I can't even begin to keep up with all I want to play. 

Paddy234
Protege

inovator said:

I don't know what your talking sbout. There is alot of great content now and it gets better all the time and continues to increase. Oculus said from the beginning things would start very slowly. I can't even begin to keep up with all I want to play. 


Yes but it isn't priced for the mainstream market just yet and is still kind of a niche product. Most of the content seem to be quite quirky games that merely show off what VR can do rather than offer you a fully immersive story experience you get with many AAA games. This is because no developers are investing alot of time and money into it just yet due to the small userbase 

2nd gen, 2020 - they'll come out in 2019 but 2020 it will explode, i think.
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

Anonymous
Not applicable
I doubt it will ever become mainstream. People will remain reluctant to strap something to their face. Massive AAA support is also unlikely due to the small userbase, and the userbase will remain relatively small because of lack of AAA support. It's a vicious cycle really.

Now I'm not saying VR in general is doomed. The few experiences that are currently available are nice, and there are a few practical/business uses for VR as well such as showing clients the insides of new buildings before they are even built, or having surgeons perform their business at a distance. Just don't expect a VR headset to be in every house in the near future or ever for that matter.

I bought my Oculus Rift with the mindset that I only wanted to play 2 games that were announced for it, and that I would see if the headset would get any further support from devs. That way I can't really be disappointed if VR flops.

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
I can't see VR catching on big time until the larger franchises and especially TV etc start promoting it.

Why? Because I have spent the last couple of days looking around various gaming forums - and Steam forums  - and I just can't believe the amount of utter crap that ill-informed people are posting about how bad VR is.

You have people asking legitimate questions about VR and others who obviously have zero idea coming back and saying how rubbish it is. Couldn't believe the garbage I was reading.

It needs promotion from reliable and popular sources. Including AAA publishing houses.

i5 9600k @4.5GHz; 16GB DDR4 3200; 6xSSD; RTX2080ti; Gigabyte Z390D Mobo
Rift CV1; Index; Quest; Quest 2

falken76
Expert Consultant

Paddy234 said:

Looking at the sales of VR it's clear PSVR dominates in the units being sold. Between both the vive and oculus there is nearly 1 million units sold but PSVR has sold a million on it's own in half the time. The competition is a good thing as it means prices will be pushed down faster and companies will be racing to add newer and more immersive features to stand out. When the prices of the oculus and Vive were first announced i was afraid VR in the mainstream will be off for at least 5 years or maybe more as if there is little investment perhaps companies may dump the idea to being solely an arcade experience. Oculus dropping the price by a large amount is a good thing but for most people it is still too expensive and for the lack of quality content not really worth it either. How long do people think we will have to wait until we start to see a good catalog of quality games for a affordable VR system at lets say $300. I really hope at E3 this year we see a good few big games announced for VR


I still think there's at least 5 years minimum and even then I don't think it will be "main stream".  It's too expensive for one.  The biggest problem I see is Motion sickness.  Until that is actually solved, this will never gain traction.  Once they get passed that, then I think things will pick up so long as GPUs that perform well don't cost $800+  GTX 1060 prices are pushing what a regular consumer would consider paying. When quality cards can be purchased for $150 or less it would help a lot, but even that price tag on top of the computer itself is asking a lot of a regular consumer.  The Playstation user base is already installed and they don't need to upgrade their hardware in order to just play it.  Whereas Desktops are not nearly as popular as they were years ago.  I would NEVER consider doing all my work from a Cell phone or tablet but A LOT of the kids these days do so they don't even have a decent computer in the first place.  Unfortunately I believe PC VR will forever be a "Niche" category because of the expense, the lack of desktops and the motion sickness issues.

DarkTenka
Trustee

andyring said:

2nd gen, 2020 - they'll come out in 2019 but 2020 it will explode, i think.


I think this is about right.

You gotta remember, just gaming in general took about 10-15 years to become "mainstream". I suppose it really depends on what you consider to be mainstream though. Right now every jockey and his dad knows about something like Call of Duty or Fifa, but back in the 90's even though things like DooM/Quake or Mario/Zelda or Sonic the Hedgehog were well known gaming icons, gaming in general was nowhere near what is now considered "mainstream". Gamers were considered "outcasts" all the way through to until maybe the very late 90's or early 2000's.

People want the entire fanbase to port over to the new flashy platform but in reality .. its more like starting again from scratch. There will be extremists and early adopters for several years before there is a VR device in every house hold. The wierd thing about being a VR user right now is it feels like I'm a kid again and I'm enjoying the thing that everyone else scoffs at ignorantly.


Paddy234 said:

Looking at the sales of VR it's clear PSVR dominates in the units being sold. Between both the vive and oculus there is nearly 1 million units sold but PSVR has sold a million on it's own in half the time. The competition is a good thing as it means prices will be pushed down faster and companies will be racing to add newer and more immersive features to stand out. When the prices of the oculus and Vive were first announced i was afraid VR in the mainstream will be off for at least 5 years or maybe more as if there is little investment perhaps companies may dump the idea to being solely an arcade experience. Oculus dropping the price by a large amount is a good thing but for most people it is still too expensive and for the lack of quality content not really worth it either. How long do people think we will have to wait until we start to see a good catalog of quality games for a affordable VR system at lets say $300. I really hope at E3 this year we see a good few big games announced for VR


Two things - which sales figures are you looking at?

We need to define mainstream.

If 50% of PC gamers had a VR HMD would that be mainstream?

Do we put a figure on it or do we say if you see them for sale on the high street, that is mainstream?
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3