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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
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Anonymous
Not applicable
If the next generation headsets can provide GOOD enough resolution, it doesn't need to be retina just good enough that you don't really notice it and it runs on a reasonable but not top end computer then that will do it.  There are lots of things that will gradually enhance our VR experience but if there's one thing that is mentioned time after time after time it's resolution.  If that's no longer an issue then there will be no reason not to go VR.  People will find the money, they find it for phones, holidays, etc they will find it for VR.  Rather than withering in some vicious downward spiral it will snowball,  it isn't 3DTV, VR offers something genuinely new and people with pay for that.  The Resolution needs to be better though, in the forums I inhabit it's the one and only thing that's causing people to delay,if the resolution was better, enough that you don't notice the pixels then there would be no doubters period.
 

Anonymous
Not applicable

KillCard said:


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 the until maybe the 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.


I think the only reason video games today are considered mainstream is because the userbase all grew up with it. The generation that were kids in the late 70s - 80s have been exposed to video games the most, and it always appealed to them. You rarely see anyone in their 50s and up interested in video games because they never grew up with it. And as for everyone knowing what COD, Madden and all the repeat stuff is because they are adertised like crazy, the marketing budget is huge. Video games are not mainstream like your grandma and grandpa need it, unlike how mainstream cell phones, facebook, the internet is - everyone most likely has it.

As for VR, the same might apply. It may only become very popular with the younger generation, and older may see it as just another techy entertainment thing. Until it reaches a point in which it is very effective at daily tasks will it become fully mainstream. 

DarkTenka
Trustee


As for VR, the same might apply. It may only become very popular with the younger generation, and older may see it as just another techy entertainment thing. Until it reaches a point in which it is very effective at daily tasks will it become fully mainstream. 

Yea, that's pretty much what I'm getting at. It feels like were back in exactly the same situation as the early 90's. Back then few house-holds even actually had PC's, despite it now pretty much being a necessary part of life for everyone.

As VR finds new applications and the entertainment gets better, we may be in for another 5-10 years before everyone sees it for it's true potential.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Depends on what you mean by mainstream. I can see VR becoming a part of mainstream gaming in around 5 years time. The vast majority of gamers will be playing VR games and experiences by then. As far as general mainstream use goes, as in VR used in the average household rather than just in gamer's households, it's probably going to take a good few years extra. I would guess another 3-5 years.

So most gamers will be playing VR from 2022 onwards and most households will own a VR headset(s) from 2025-2027.

The things that are REALLY going to bring VR headsets into homes are VR social media, VR sports coverage and VR films and satellite/cable television, but we won't see that until 2025-2027 I reckon.

The price of entry is really going to affect things, both for the headsets themselves and for PCs able to run them but it won't be long before we'll see the prices of these things coming down low enough for everyone to be able to afford them.

ParadiseDecay
Rising Star
I think we're at the stage were we are the surfer on a Cusp of a Wave!
☆ YouTube 'Content Creator' and 'Steam Curator' ( https://www.youtube.com/user/ParadiseDecay ) ☆ Devs! I'm always on the look out for new and interesting VR experiences! ☆ Oculus Rift CV1 ☆ Windows 10, 64 bit ☆ Intel Core i7-3770 ☆ 16.0GB Ram ☆ GeForce GTX 1060

Anonymous
Not applicable

kevinw729
Honored Visionary
All interesting observations.
Just to add my 2cents - the mainstream was too much of a undefined target when promised back in 2013 in the KS and later following the acquirsition(s). As we have seen the internal numbers muted by certain executives proved a busted flush - and even the large install number of GearVR's has been countered by minimal active account numbers, and the admitance that a large number of the 5M+ claimed were given away in contract or are gathering dust (in some cases never even activated as operational accounts).

For me this seems to be a re-run of the 1996 VR attempt, but now with the added benefit of an install base of educated and vocal users. I do not see this failing, but I do not see this following the plan that some indie devs who have based their business model on the consumer adoption plans of DK2 days, will result in a dip and mini-collapse. In the background however an audience is getting educated to the opportunity and wonder of VR and that is building momentum.

For me 2018, and the apperance of the first true Mixed Reality HMD's will mark a bigger development - the "see thru" VR/AR systems offer a much bigger opportunity (as we will see at the Facebook Tech day soon), for greater interest and adoption, and expalins why more and more HMD developers are adding AR teams to their R&D investment. What we in the Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment (DOE) sector are seeing, is that much of the interest /  investment in consumer VR is pivoting towards joining our business (as best illustrated by the presentation at VRWC from the AMD and HTC directors).

Short term, more people will experience VR in the DOE sector, while the consumer sector starts to restructure its business plan based on profressional business strategy, rather than hyperbole of uneducated executives, who have left the field early, [IMHO].
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