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Samsung Cuts Final Ties with GearVR

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

Now that Gear VR is no longer available, Samsung XR service is being killed

Samsung discontinued the Gear VR headset last year. Now, the company has announced that it is killing Samsung XR, a service that offered VR content such as 360-degree images and videos. The company will also remove the Samsung VR Video app from Microsoft’s and Oculus‘ stores.


https://www.sammobile.com/news/gear-vr-no-longer-available-samsung-xr-service-killed/

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
39 REPLIES 39

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Kinda sad, with evolving phone gpus I was hoping that the masses could get easy and constantly better VR experiences through phone VR... Also the number of ratings indicated quite strong sales for some GearVR games and apps, I never got the impression that the GearVR users base was small, maybe even much bigger than Rift... So GearVR is a lost great opportunity? 

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

RuneSR2 said:

Kinda sad, with evolving phone gpus I was hoping that the masses could get easy and constantly better VR experiences through phone VR... Also the number of ratings indicated quite strong sales for some GearVR games and apps, I never got the impression that the GearVR users base was small, maybe even much bigger than Rift... So GearVR is a lost great opportunity? 



I have to agree this seems a major missed opportunity - I also feel for all those that had supported the platform and put so much effort and work into creating content for the Samsung GearVR, partnered with Oculus - I am not sure the amount of effort needed to port this onto the Oculus Go - but it has been suggested on other forums that its best to start from scratch rather than carry anything over. Seems this news may be a bit old, as the dropping of GearVR by Samsung was last year, but there seems to have been something going on in the background - hopefully we will find out more soon?

Oh, and the size of the community was VERY large, but not that active. The GearVR is always held up as the number two most successful VR platform with a estimated 5m unit penetration (though a large portion were given with contracts rather than sold). I agree, to throw away an audience of that size, with no updates, no new releases or support sounds like a serious rift between partners. I wonder how much Oculus Texas [Carmack departure, etc.,] closure was the final straw in all this?
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
In a way I don't see this as a miss opportunity. A few factors we have to keep in mind:
1) Oculus is/did release GO and Quest - making it a better value for VR that should only get cheaper
2) Phone VR is still limited in terms of having to have a good phone in the first place
3) Phone VR I am sure is harder on the phone it self as well - these devices are not really design for long duration for running at high performance without heat build up or killing the battery faster thus more warranty claims I am sure.
4) Etc etc

While phone VR could still move forward in some ways, it just over all would require a lot of time and money and I dont think thje major phone providers are going to want to spend that long term - yet - as sales continue to drop across the board as newer and newer phones last longer and longer because they are "good enough" already.

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

Mradr said:

In a way I don't see this as a miss opportunity. A few factors we have to keep in mind:
1) Oculus is/did release GO and Quest - making it a better value for VR that should only get cheaper
2) Phone VR is still limited in terms of having to have a good phone in the first place
3) Phone VR I am sure is harder on the phone it self as well - these devices are not really design for long duration for running at high performance without heat build up or killing the battery faster thus more warranty claims I am sure.
4) Etc etc

While phone VR could still move forward in some ways, it just over all would require a lot of time and money and I dont think thje major phone providers are going to want to spend that long term - yet - as sales continue to drop across the board as newer and newer phones last longer and longer because they are "good enough" already.



Precisely. Not to mention the lack of 6DoF in the original GearVR. It was great value for the release of VR, but it wasn't enough to convince people to drain their battery all day lol

kojack
MVP
MVP
They are pulling the video app from oculus stores on june 30, then it will cease to run on september 30. The MS store is losing the app on september 30.
Any purchased premium content will be lost too on september 30, with no refunds according to the eula.

Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
Hardware: Threadripper 1950x, MSI Gaming Trio 2080TI, Asrock X399 Taich
Headsets: Wrap 1200VR, DK1, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, GearVR, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Reverb G2

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

kojack said:

Any purchased premium content will be lost too on september 30, with no refunds according to the eula.




Ouch!



kevinw729
Honored Visionary
Please under the agreement with the moderator can you remove your posts from this discussion - thank you. 
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

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

Mradr said:

In a way I don't see this as a miss opportunity. A few factors we have to keep in mind:
......

Some great points, let me have a go at my perspective on them:

1) Oculus is/did release GO and Quest - making it a better value for VR that should only get cheaper
Yes they did launch Go, but all of the opportunities of GearVR (Go fundamentally being a phone-less GVR) was lost - a factor why Go sales have "...not performed as we had initially expected"[paraphrased]. Add to that the number of apps that were not able to be used from GVR on the Go and you kinda see the point.

2) Phone VR is still limited in terms of having to have a good phone in the first place
Agreed. The limiting of the GVR to only one phone, and even then limit even more to a particular year of phone was a level of built in obsolescence. Even though in Asia Samsung did make a number of "variants" [image] of the GVR that accommodated their other makes,  For the Western audience it was not a path too glory.

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3) Phone VR I am sure is harder on the phone it self as well - these devices are not really design for long duration for running at high performance without heat build up or killing the battery faster thus more warranty claims I am sure.
Again, phone VR was a dead end, and I was always amazed by the level of ingenuity that was achieved to make it viable. The phoneless 6DoF platform was the obvious route and Quest, rather than Go should be been the true focus post Samsung partnership. I still wonder what market share Oculus was after with the Go, either-way it seemed to be elusive. 

.....
While phone VR could still move forward in some ways, it just over all would require a lot of time and money and I dont think thje major phone providers are going to want to spend that long term - yet - as sales continue to drop across the board as newer and newer phones last longer and longer because they are "good enough" already.

The work that Oculus Texas and Carmack did to keep the GVR and then Go relevant is nothing short of superhuman and have my respect for what was achieved. I recently saw a emulator on a converted phone VR system that benefited from some of this optimization and was truly impressed. . But agree, best drop all support of GVR (as well as Go) and focus on Quest2. 

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
The idea of GO - a cheap entry into VR - will live on - GO in terms of simple media will die though. Granted, a lot of people that got GO knew it was a media a very limited experience device with being a cheaper option into VR - it was just too limited for the broad public looking to really >USE< VR. This is why GO will live on into Quest-2-GO with the extra features Quest 1 offers - but still on the cheaper side with many limits to come yet still with enhancements into hand tracking and possible single controller access (or the ability to upgrade to controllers when needed/wanted). 

The > USE < of VR is one of the major limiting factors a lot of the vr phone companies face and why you don't see 100 and 1 of them today. Why its neat on the surface and could be useful in some areas (like media) it just doesn't tickle the wiggle for enough people in the long run that makes it with worth its value.

Its the problem VR in general is going to be force to face sooner or later as well if it wants to jump into the next level. VR NEEDS to grow out of its teenage - gaming phase - at some point and into business class software. Even if its only to run Microsoft Office. Make it RUN Microsoft Office and then offer more on the side. The point being - VR can't stay as a simple HMD - it will need to also go into AR as well. It also needs to start offering more for the public too to want to use it more. Like as an everyday monitor or even make VR Phone calls to talk and walk with people you know. Going to Quest is a great start - small jump - but the ability to use VR anywhere is already a giant leap in the making.

* I might be a bit bias against GO and phone VR. I never saw the point in the release of these devices other than it being a cheaper option into what VR is like. Same with Google Cardboard.