The Gear VR is dead, and it's long past time we said goodbye

kevinw729 · August 11

"....Samsung's VR aspirations, both for the Gear VR and for the nearly equally inactive Windows Mixed Reality platforms, are done for now. In both situations, Samsung was just the hardware partner, and not really involved in the parts of the ecosystem that made the most money in the end. And at this point, if Samsung were to try to spin up its own system to replace what it has lost, it's not immediately clear the company would be able to successfully pull it off....."

https://www.androidcentral.com/its-time-say-goodbye-samsung-gear-vr

kevinw729 · August 11

Sadly the author of this article was a little "invested" and seemed to gloss over some of the issues in the OculusVR / Samsung split.

Also totally missed that Samsung and OculusVR had developed together a Standalone GearVR headset prototype as far back as 2014 (image)

RuneSR2 · August 11

My Samsung S10+ phone is much faster than Quest - personally I would have loved if Samsung/Oculus made a new Gear VR with some sort of Touch, at least two (bluetooth?) controllers. Shouldn't be that hard - and then you may be able to easily port the Quest games to a potentially much larger audience.

Playing Quest games on my S10+ could be great fun.

KlodsBrik · August 11

With that logic one could say the same about arcade VR.

Techy111 · August 11

kevinw729 · August 11

Zenbane · August 11

kevinw729 · August 11

kevinw729 · August 11

KlodsBrik said:

With that logic one could say the same about arcade VR.

You were not good, and your argument died !

Zenbane · August 11

kevinw729 said:

Skeletor represents the VR Arcade industry in this meme.

https://www.theverge.com/2013/1/16/3740422/the-life-and-death-of-the-american-arcade-for-amusement-only

The video game industry relied on novelty, and on games that challenged its players. One person could only pump so many quarters into a cabinet before he mastered the game and began to look around for the next challenge.

It’s a simple truth of the business that "all games become unprofitable after a while," so new machines are always a must

Gear VR remains more successful that any of your own ventures, Kevin. Which is why you post stuff like this. Jealousy is so unbecoming.

kevinw729 · August 12

bigmike20vt · August 12

I have not followed closely the Gear VR as i have always been too tight to buy a good enough phone for it...

however I believe i read the oculus go titles were going to be ported over to the oculus quest store..... I wonder how much work it would be for gear vr titles to also move over (or is this already a thing??) (ideally with gearvr emulation so that the software itself would not need any work doing to it)

I am guessing here but i doubt oculus would lose too much sleep about gearvr dying any way now given they have mobilevr covered with go and quest... but it would be a shame of the software devs who spent time making the gearVR games to lose out.

I am guessing here but i think the hardware in the quest is similar to the hardware in the samsung phones which run gearVR isnt it???

RedRizla · August 12

So has Gear VR died a death because of the Oculus Go & Oculus Quest, or is mobile VR not selling enough or something? I thought the Gear VR was quite popular, so why stop it if it gets people into VR?

kevinw729 · August 12

RedRizla said:

So has Gear VR died a death because of the Oculus Go & Oculus Quest, or is mobile VR not selling enough or something? I thought the Gear VR was quite popular, so why stop it if it gets people into VR?

From the Samsung executives that spoke after the Note 10 launch (in confidence), it seems that the GearVR was killed off back in late 2017 with a parting of the way between OculusVR and Samsung over a mixture of issues that had arisen - some linked to the legal suit, some due to conflicts of interest, and some due to differing perspective on how the market was shaping. Samsung still sold OculusVR displays, but the reality was that there were no plans to move forward on the GearVR even though some vested sources claimed the relationship was still intact. There is also some issue with how many of the GearVR apps will be ported to Go - but details are still vague on this.

Zenbane · August 12

Gear VR died for the same reasons arcades died: Better and smarter options.

kevinw729 · August 12

nalex66 · August 12

From FB's point of view, GearVR doesn't serve much purpose now that Go exists. It's hard to guarantee a good experience on varying hardware (not to mention the cooling problems running on a phone stuffed into a face case). PhoneVR has the potential to hurt the Oculus brand if it provides a subpar performance for some users, and Go offers an all around better entry-level VR experience as an affordable, purpose-built device.

From Samsung's point of view, being a hardware-only partner doesn't offer much value, since the software ecosystem is where the money is made (the same hard lesson that HTC learned working with Valve). PhoneVR was an interesting experiment that has run its course.

Zenbane · August 12

nalex66 said:
PhoneVR was an interesting experiment that has run its course.

Precisely. We're headed in to year 4 of mainstream VR, and so much has changed. Anything that might have served as a catalyst to get the VR ball rolling is now over. And VR is moving far beyond gaming. Just look at how it was used for the new Lion King film.

Disney's New Lion King Is the VR-Fueled Future of Cinema

The Lion King was filmed entirely in virtual reality (well, save a single photographed shot). All the locations you know from the original—Pride Rock, the elephant graveyard, Rafiki’s Ancient Tree—exist, but not as practical sets or files confined to an animator’s computer. They live inside a kind of filmmaking videogame as 360-degree virtual environments, full of digitized animals, around which Favreau and his crew could roam. Headsets on, filmmakers had access to all the tools of the trade, just in virtual form. Say you’re getting ready for a scene in which young Simba talks to Zazu, his father’s adviser, and the “sun” isn’t falling on Simba’s face the way it should. Favreau or visual effects supervisor Rob Legato could just add a “light” to boost the intensity.

https://www.wired.com/story/disney-new-lion-king-vr-fueled-future-cinema/

And look at the revenue it brought in:

"The Lion King’ tops $1 billion at the box office, becomes 4th Disney movie to hit billion-dollar benchmark this year"

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/30/disneys-the-lion-king-tops-1-billion-at-the-box-office.html

GearVR was great for what it did at the time. It was even used at many of the Amusement Park "VR Rides" for a time. But all of that is old news. VR is going mainstream because it has gone beyond gaming as its primary platform. So any business model that relies solely on gaming is going to struggle to hit those high numbers in revenue.

hoppingbunny123 · August 12

the time of the gear vr is not over, vr is not mainstream with n number of vr headsets and vr headsets prices soaring. now is the apex for gear vr to shine and its muted. and on top of that the microstutters from videocard fps to monitor not in sync still causes vr sickness or lowers the quality.

sometime truth isnt good enough to quote batman, in light of the index and reverb quality.

https://youtu.be/tRkNNeETaAo

Zenbane · August 12

I'm pretty sure that "mainstream" isn't even mainstream either lol

kevinw729 · August 12

nalex66 said:

.....
From Samsung's point of view, being a hardware-only partner doesn't offer much value, since the software ecosystem is where the money is made (the same hard lesson that HTC learned working with Valve). PhoneVR was an interesting experiment that has run its course.

Interesting perspective @nalex66 - I would assume that Samsung's success in selling the only popular WinMR headset (Odyssey and Odyssey+) as well as their soon to be announced Standalone VR system are examples of the value they have seen - along with the benefit Samsung has in selling the displays that are used by the majority of the manufacturers (must be great selling both OculusVR and Sony the displays they use in their headsets!)

I think its interesting to learn that the relationship between OculusVR and Samsung had ended a lot earlier than some alluded too, and that we will now see Samsung launching their own Standalone - so competition will be good for the consumer.

RedRizla · August 12

kevinw729 said:

Interesting perspective @nalex66 - I would assume that Samsung's success in selling the only popular WinMR headset (Odyssey and Odyssey+) as well as their soon to be announced Standalone VR system are examples of the value they have seen - along with the benefit Samsung has in selling the displays that are used by the majority of the manufacturers (must be great selling both OculusVR and Sony the displays they use in their headsets!)

I think its interesting to learn that the relationship between OculusVR and Samsung had ended a lot earlier than some alluded too, and that we will now see Samsung launching their own Standalone - so competition will be good for the consumer.

What is this Samsung stand alone VR system you speak about? I've seen you mention this before, but I've seen nothing on the internet about it?

kevinw729 · August 12

RedRizla said:
What is this Samsung stand alone VR system you speak about? I've seen you mention this before, but I've seen nothing on the internet about it?

This was mentioned during the VR Arcade Conference held by Microsoft back in April - the speaker from Samsung, and their Asian R&D team confirmed they are working on a Standalone headset using the SD855 and what was laughingly called the "Quest-Killer" - it was also during conversations that they revealed the real issues that lead to their abandonment of GearVR relationship and moving onto the WinMR platform, (details of this revealed in The Stinger Report).

Zenbane · August 12

Microsoft had a VR Arcade conference and Samsung was there bragging about building something that was going to kill one of the most popular products available? LMAO

So... a bunch of second-rate VR competitors at a conference for the most rejected implementation of VR. And they are all placating each other over being a "killer" ??

Reminds me of a favorite cartoon skit.

kevinw729 · August 12

Zenbane · August 12

ooh, found the generator Kevin is using. this is fun!

*No real names please*

Friendly mod

kevinw729 · August 13

"BINGO"!

Techy111 · August 13

Come on boys, keep it friendly please.

bigmike20vt · August 13

I cant unsee that!!!!

kevinw729 · August 13

RedRizla said:
......
What is this Samsung stand alone VR system you speak about? I've seen you mention this before, but I've seen nothing on the internet about it?

Okay back to the OP - before the derail.

To the point @RedRizla about seeing nothing. I am also fascinated that Samsung did not roll any official statement out about the end of the GearVR till they were questions at the conference, and now in the interview with media at the Note10 launch. I was surprised by their candidness off the record regarding the OculusVR partnership, but if they will not go to print I have to wonder? Also if their new Standalone does not materialise any time soon, I will have to call out their claims.

Zenbane · August 13

If Kevin is allowed to create a Bingo card that includes information about private messages he and I have had, as well as other personal attacks such as my previous bans, then I expect the Mod's to edit either both Bingo cards, or none of the Bingo cards.

I removed his name from the Card.

The Gear VR is dead, and it's long past time we said goodbye

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