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Were the critics right: Is VR just a Fad/Gimmick?

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I have spent more time "lurking" instead of "contributing" to VR discussions this year, between this forum, reddit, and the Facebook groups. I have found myself wanting to do more observing and reflecting in 2019, as opposed to the active contributions I was making from 2016-2019. And a big part of that is because the overall VR landscape seems rather stale in comparison to the amazing strides made during the first 3 years of the CV1 era (speaking to both the original Rift and Vive here).

In 2018, it really felt like things were going to explode from some galactic battle of the VR Giants with everyone promising to "move VR forward" and "set a new standard." But as far as I can tell, every competitor has failed at truly moving the needle beyond the hype coming out of the 2016 CV1 releases:
  • Apple still hasn't done anything meaningful in VR.
  • Amazon has only dabbled in VR with some supportive Software.
  • The Pimax 8K proved to be little more than an over-hyped kickstarter (this HMD is now selling in droves on E-bay).
  • Valve's Index HMD proved to be "more of the same" and Valve Knuckles completely failed to meet the 2+ years of hype leading up to it. While I would agree that the Index is, overall, the best PCVR offering on the market today, this is only true because of the failures of its competitors; not because of the advances Index is making.
  • HTC Vive Pro is all but obsolete. Rarely, if ever advertised, and now all attention is being pointed towards the next "dangling carrot," the Vive Cosmos.
  • Facebook and Oculus failed to deliver a true Rift CV2, and their biggest claim to fame - the Oculus Quest - continues to offer a very limited software Library, much of which mimics what Rift users can already experience.
  • After all these years, the Steam Hardware Survey still shows Oculus and Vive dominating the charts, with a minuscule number of competitors dangling at the bottom.
  • The HP Reverb had great potential (even I considered buying one) but fell short in multiple areas compared to current offerings and general industry standards.
  • Microsoft continues to dabble between Mixed Reality and HoloLens; with no flagship hardware nor a noteworthy software platform.
  • PlayStationVR continues to linger, with little confirmation about a Gen 2 VR Kit; leaving communities to debate over interpretations of hidden signs of the truth.
  • On the mobile front, GearVR and GO are slowly becoming vaporware. While Hulu drops support for Google DayDream.

These are my own personal observations based on my own sentiment and that of which I've observed across multiple VR communities. I will point out that the purpose of this thread is not to fuel a debate between VR products or competitors. I am putting every VR organization, sector, and product on the chopping block evenhandedly. In a nutshell: they are all failing to meet expectations in 2019.

There are a few other factors that has caused me to raise my concern about VR turning in to a Fad/Gimmick:
  • AAA Software is still nowhere to be found. With VR, at best we get "AAA-like" experiences. Even AAA games like Skyrim and Fallout turn out to be "AAA-like" in VR. This lack of true AAA investment seems telling since we are nearly 4 years in to mainstream VR with no one feeling compelled to make the necessary investments to move out of "AAA-like" experiences. In fact, we are still getting Early Access software experiences on both Steam and the Oculus Store.
  • Facility-based VR is becoming talked about more and more, which feels like a sign that VR is moving in to the fad/gimmick phase of modern arcades and internet cafes. I tried one of these VR "arcade rides" recently, and I can confirm that the experience is highly lackluster and does more to move VR in to a "gimmick" than a sophisticated platform. As a comparison, once upon a time we could play the Street Fighter arcade with Punching Pads instead of standard buttons. As we can clearly see... punching a pad never became a standard and was short lived. And if you see a game today that uses Punching Pads... you understand that this is a temporary fad/gimmick. Machines that move or vibrate while putting players in a VR HMD are the exact same thing.
  • Augmented Reality is becoming a hotter topic than Virtual Reality this year. We have HoloLens 2 and Microsoft's move in to the Military Sector. Recently, 5-Nights at Freddy's released their AR trailer. On top of which, most of the predictions about the upcoming Oculus Conference revolve around Augmented Reality (i.e. people are feeling that AR will get a big push and stronger focus).
Again, these are just my observations and general sentiments to help give insight in to why I feel that asking the question about VR's fad/gimmick potential seems pertinent at this moment in time.

To give some thought as to why I am choosing the words "fad" and "gimmick," here is a quick view at outside sources:
An article from 2018
Is Virtual Reality a Fad or Is it the Future?
http://www.workspace.digital/is-virtual-reality-a-fad-or-is-it-the-future/

A blog from 2019
Virtual Reality is officially a fad. I am out
https://skarredghost.com/2019/04/01/virtual-reality-is-officially-a-fad-i-am-out/

An article from 2016
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/10/15/virtual-reality-is-just-an-over-priced-gimmick/#484...
Virtual Reality Is Just An Over-Priced Gimmick, Nothing More

A recent article from 2019
Virtual Reality: The Future of Entertainment or Gimmick of the Wealthy?
https://www.dailyamerican.com/entertainment/highschoolhighlights/virtual-reality-the-future-of-enter...

Each of these articles, both old and new, point out similar factors that I've outlined here.

So... do you think that VR is still "the future"? Or do you think that VR did in fact turn out to be a Fad/Gimmick??
226 REPLIES 226

inovator
Consultant
I think the 2nd stage will happen sooner rather than later.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Zenbane said:


snowdog said:
I don't think anyone in their right mind was expecting every household to have a headset in their home by now, it's going to take time for this to happen.


Maybe not every household, since that is quite extreme. Not even the computer or smart phone has entered every single household on the planet. So a bit of a moot point there.

But in a realistic sense, I did think that at least 100,000 million households would have some sort of VR Headset by 2019. I base that on the fact that they all became so affordable between Mobile and Console (specifically, anyone who already owned a PS4).

I am surprised that VR HMD's continue to sell in the "thousands" instead of the "millions." Well, I guess based on the observations I'm making in this thread... I'm not all that surprised anymore!

As you said, we are only in the first stage so far. Looking forward to watching stage 2 begin! Any day now...





Not sure if that was a typo? 100 billion? There are only 7.7 billion people in the world. Did you mean 1 billion? Even if you meant 1 billion that's still WAY too many to expect at this stage of things.

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
@snowdog - I never typed "billion." Look again, my friend! And my post is not edited. ❤️

MowTin
Expert Trustee

Zenbane said:

@snowdog - I never typed "billion." Look again, my friend! And my post is not edited. ❤️


1,000 million = 1 billion 

100,000 million = 100 billion 
i7 9700k 3090 rtx   CV1, Rift-S, Index, G2

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

MowTin said:


Zenbane said:

@snowdog - I never typed "billion." Look again, my friend! And my post is not edited. ❤️


1,000 million = 1 billion 

100,000 million = 100 billion 



ooh wait, I see it. I made the typo!

I was trying to say 100 million (100,000,000). I typed 100,000 million.

FML

Protocol7
Heroic Explorer

Zenbane said:


snowdog said:
I don't think anyone in their right mind was expecting every household to have a headset in their home by now, it's going to take time for this to happen.


Maybe not every household, since that is quite extreme. Not even the computer or smart phone has entered every single household on the planet. So a bit of a moot point there.

But in a realistic sense, I did think that at least 100,000 million households would have some sort of VR Headset by 2019. I base that on the fact that they all became so affordable between Mobile and Console (specifically, anyone who already owned a PS4).

I am surprised that VR HMD's continue to sell in the "thousands" instead of the "millions." Well, I guess based on the observations I'm making in this thread... I'm not all that surprised anymore!

As you said, we are only in the first stage so far. Looking forward to watching stage 2 begin! Any day now...



You wrote "100,000 million households"

There are nowhere near that many people let alone households on earth.

jayhawk
Superstar
I still read these forums but I got rid of my VR. Biggest reason why is because I was really expecting basically VR options within AAA titles, at least by now. It didn't help that we got teased with Alien Isolation, still my favorite VR experience to date. In short it failed to go where I was hoping it would, instead the focus went all on motion controls (gamercising).

The AA to AAA 'like' (which are few and far between) games all centered around motion controls just got old, and I went back to flat panel AAA games. I just wanted to chill in a chair (motion control or gamepad) and engross myself in a deep video game, basically what AAA offers. A small part of my decision was the Rift S issues at first, but as they fixed them I still didn't mind that I returned mine. None of it had to do with Rift S specs. I thought it was a fine upgrade, especially for the price. Maybe next gen. Maybe not.

basically I lost interest in VR, and that's coming from someone during the DK2 days that swore I'd never flat panel game again. Also, I got so used to VR that being in VR or flat panel gaming felt the same as far as immersion. Weird I know. I don't think VR is going away. With future improvements in hardware and software it should take hold, that is if we can last that long.

inovator
Consultant

jayhawk said:

I still read these forums but I got rid of my VR. Biggest reason why is because I was really expecting basically VR options within AAA titles, at least by now. It didn't help that we got teased with Alien Isolation, still my favorite VR experience to date. In short it failed to go where I was hoping it would, instead the focus went all on motion controls (gamercising).

The AA to AAA 'like' (which are few and far between) games all centered around motion controls just got old, and I went back to flat panel AAA games. I just wanted to chill in a chair (motion control or gamepad) and engross myself in a deep video game, basically what AAA offers. A small part of my decision was the Rift S issues at first, but as they fixed them I still didn't mind that I returned mine. None of it had to do with Rift S specs. I thought it was a fine upgrade, especially for the price. Maybe next gen. Maybe not.

basically I lost interest in VR, and that's coming from someone during the DK2 days that swore I'd never flat panel game again. Also, I got so used to VR that being in VR or flat panel gaming felt the same as far as immersion. Weird I know. I don't think VR is going away. With future improvements in hardware and software it should take hold, that is if we can last that long.


You have my condolences.

PhoenixSpyder
Rising Star
I'm completely convinced that VR is the future (how long that will take is definitely an open ended conversation).

Reason for my view is that pancake gaming didn't happen over night and really didn't start to take off until companies like 3DFX made it possible to experience games at reasonable fps (at the time). Anyone gaming back then will understand what I'm talking about (not that I'm just referencing fps as what catapulted it, just an example). Compare this with VR presently, we have a similar situation happening, except that the industry already has the experience of pancake gaming (now) plus the technology that put it there. If you put that all together, one can see that we are just beginning to learn what can be done in a virtual environment using past experiences and present technology. We have the technology to pull it off (for the most part), but it takes time to implement just how to use it (same as what I meant with the hardware 3DFX presented for pancake gaming at that time) and to use it efficiently. No doubt VR technology will advance and there will be new interactive ways to react with it. Unfortunately, presently, there are companies who are only in it to make money...which happens in every business...and aren't really catapulting anything towards VR...and keeping it expensive. Despite this, there will always be someone who has a vision of what they want to do and will do it...and that will catapult VR...and will make it cheaper. We all know that pricing, AAA, sickness and other things are keeping VR from becoming mainstream...it will just take more time to overcome these obstacles (same as what happened with pancake gaming). I remember feeling sick after playing an hour of Descent way back when (wow, that long ago)...due to fluctuations in fps at the time (even with a 3DFX card). Despite that, most everyone who played couldn't stop playing because it was so immersive. Point being, pancake gaming solved the fps sickness at that time with advancements in tech, just like VR will in time. Anyway, enough soap box.

I've been quite silent for the past many months due to spending all my spare time (outside of career & GF) to working on my present VR project (haven't been playing any games period). I won't be releasing any details anytime soon (except with very close friends) but I am very happy with what I'm working on so far (I'm actually addicted to my own project presently in it's present state...LOL!!! gotta resist fun and create). The ton of ideas I've collected over the past 35+ years of gaming will make to be a very compelling product. Please stand by!!!

i7 8700k; 5ghz (water cooled), Asus Rog Strix Z370-E Gaming, Corsair 270R case, EVGA 3090 FTW3 Ultra, 32 GB Corsair Veng DDR4 2666 Ghz, Adata SX900 SSD, 1TB M.2 SSD, Adata Su800 SSD, Adata SU650 SSD, BarraCuda 2TB HD, Toshiba 3tB HD, Rift (dead), Rift S, Win 10 Pro 2004, Inateck KT4006 USB3.0

blanes
Rising Star
I think in its current form it is a fad and only can succeed if there is a massive improve in visual quality - however I can never imagine mainstream gaming being dominated by VR because the issue of motion sickness probably will never be totally overcome.  But I am biased in that I only ever bought a DK2 then CV1 for motor racing which for me is where it excels.  If I am not racing then my Rift sits in its box. My other gaming time is with open world shooters, most recent Borderlands3, on the 65inch 4K Sony. VR is always gonna be niche imho.