Miyamoto Still Has Doubts About Virtual Reality

"When I see people play virtual reality, it makes me worry."

Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto--and other Nintendo executives--have questioned the appeal of virtual reality in the past. In a new interview with Time, Miyamoto said some of the issues with VR he saw years ago are being worked on, but he still has some doubts and worries.

"In terms of being together online in virtual reality, I think a lot of the problems have been solved or are starting to be solved," he explained. "This is something that we're looking into, too. But when I see people play virtual reality, it makes me worry, just as for example if a parent were to see their kid playing virtual reality, it would probably make them worry."

He added: "Another issue and challenge that I think everybody faces is how to create an experience that's both short enough while also fully fleshed out in virtual reality."

In June 2014, Miyamoto said he's worried that virtual reality might be an isolationist activity--and this goes directly against the kinds of games Nintendo wants to make.

"When you think about what virtual reality is, which is one person putting on some goggles and playing by themselves kind of over in a corner, or maybe they go into a separate room and they spend all their time alone playing in that virtual reality, that's in direct contrast with what it is we're trying to achieve with Wii U," he said, at the time promoting that system. "And so I have a little bit of uneasiness with whether or not that's the best way for people to play."

Here is a picture of Miyamoto trying Oculus Rift at E3 2014:

Nintendo's next home console is the Switch, which comes out on March 3. There have been rumors and reports that claim the system may support virtual reality in the future, but Nintendo has not made any official announcements.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/miyamoto-still-has-doubts-about-virtual-reality/1100-6447827/

I don't agree much with miyamoto these days, but this time I do.

I don't like the idea of being this closed off to the rest of the world, I think it's going too far. I would understand if VR was something you do on rare occasion, but to replace a TV? No, that's too much.

So instead of playing games all alone at home, with the power of nintendo handheld, you can even play on your office, commuter, everywhere and ignore every human being around you. But I forgot: there always is somebody sitting beside you, who watches you play - with a smile on his/her face.

Miyamoto should also be complaining abt mobile phone, cos that exactly what mobile phone brings to our community today.

I'd be worried about VR too if my companies new console wasn't powerful enough to do it properly

This is not a problem. This is why the PS4 outputs what the user [with the VR headset] see on the TV. For everyone else to see what he's doing and interact with him, or to let them know what he's reacting to. It's part of the fun.

There are many ways this feature could be used with multi-player ideas. 

So Super Mario Odyssey is local co-op confirmed? Making that single player surely would be against his policies. BotW better have co-op too, can't be playing that alone now.

Does he know there's a secondary screen for other to watch while playing VR?
Does he know it works without headphones and you can communicate normally with a VR headset on?
Does he know these things aren't bolted to your face and you can take it off, share etc?
Does he know staring into a handheld/phone with headphones on is just about as isolationist?

He added: "Another issue and challenge that I think everybody faces is how to create an experience that's both short enough while also fully fleshed out in virtual reality."

Why?


As a parent I'm much more worried about what my kids are listening too (on youtube) so headphones are a far greater concern. I can't see their screens all the time anyway plus the sound is a much better indication what they're watching/playing. Unless there's a lot of torture porn with happy kid songs on you tube (wouldn't surprise me tbh)

Ofcourse they can't play VR without close supervision, it's a $400 headset! My precious :)

When I played the HTC Vive I tought it was close, with wireless and using the right game it might be right for me but with bot occolus and PSVR which I both played for around 8 hours I felt like it wasn't there yet, to much set up time and sometimes I did feel a little sick, altough I liked some games others felt way out of place and overall after both those experiences I really longed to just play on my monitor or tv at the end of it, and that should never be the case.

Like I opened up with HTC was really close especially when I played Elite: Dangerous on a 1080GTX it was amazing and everything just seemed so much better but after a few hour I did stop but the next time I booted that game up on my own pc I did miss the headset a little lol.

Anyway, price wise the HTC isn't there yet and experience wise the other headsets are not there yet in my opinion.

The Vive is the best VR set you can try. If you tried that one first, I can understand your reaction to the other two.

That being said, my brother tried the Vive and talked to me a lot about how it was and the effect VR has on you and whatnot. When I finally got the chance to try VR myself, it was with the PSVR and I understood what he meant after my session. I was sold on VR instantly. And since then, I wish I had a set because I really liked how different the experience is compared to regular TV gameplay. So basically, my experience with the PSVR was different from yours, and I was sold on the tech instantly. There's room for improvements, for sure, especially when it comes to the input method (I want a system that tracks your entire body movement so you can use your real hands instead of using controllers of any type), but the immersion is still unmatched, and that's what the developers need to center their energy on. Making you feel diverse experiences (not just centered around fear and anxiety).

Isn't the Vive the most work to set up right?

Besides when that's done, putting on psvr now is nothing more than pressing the on button and putting the headset on. I don't want to play on a screen anymore but indeed the tracking leaves a lot to be desired. I played Loading human Chapter 1 last night with 2 move controllers. Ugh horrible control scheme, glitchy and can't reach the keyboard in the game cause my physical couch is in the way. It works a bit better while standing, yet for some reason the game doesn't like you to actually move about, blanks out when you duck instead of using the cumbursome crouch option.

I feel motion controls are still as limited in VR as without. You continually grab through things or limbs spazz out as they're forced into impossible configurations, no physical feedback, those problems simply can't be solved. I expect you to die makes the best use out of it yet also has to resort to telekinesis to solve certain problems.

Yet with a normal controller, RE7, DC already work fantastic, same with all the games that use headtracking as a primary input. It might not be the holodeck, yet VR isn't going to be able to deliver that anyway. Without the, but we must have better motion controls, VR can already do so much for games than a traditional screen can provide.

He thinks too much in a "out of touch" way imo, VR is amazing for the gaming industry. ^^