Could Apple or Nintendo make VR mainstream?

[Lenny93]

Jumpin said:

archer9234 said:

Any major company can make a killer app. It's not dependant on Nintendo or Apple.

Not necesarily. Many large companies are incapable of developing a killer apps due to shareholder constraints. They require proof of concept first. Nintendo, in particular, has a nack for producing killer apps, and they have done so over the last 35 years. Apple is the first company to ever release a killer app with the advent of spreadsheets.

A killer app is something that single handedly leads a platform to incredible/dominating success. Super Mario Bros, Grand Theft Auto, Pokemon, Wii Sports. To a smaller extent: Sonic the Hedghog. There are consoles that didn't need a killer app - the original PSX sold well because it had hundreds of games and a strong advertisement campaign, it wasn't Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy 7, Crash Bandicoot, Gran Turismo, Tekken that was a killer app, it was all of them combined, along with 200+ other games in the beginning, and 500+ games when Nintendo was struggling to get out 6 or 7 games on the N64; and they were half the price of N64 games, and gran Turismo games were free with the console after a certain point. VR doesn't necessarily need a killer app either.

Microsoft used to be that sort of company in the past, but have since become a much more cautious company, waiting for other people to do something first before jumping onboard; which has resulted in them lagging behind others who have already taken the market. They have found success by sitting on top of their gains from earlier timeperiods and releasing derivative stuff; but have not been able to break new ground in new markets for a while now. On the videogame front, Rockstar is about the only dev company outside of Nintendo who has released a killer app since about the year 2000. Rockstar began as a former Nintendo second party.

Also, small companies can create killer apps too, one good example is Myst, which sold millions of CD-rom drives.

The reason VR failed isn't a lack of a killer app, it's because the idea of a helmet/headset is a bad one. There are other ways to go about it, we don't have to be stuck with 1991's concepts.

Yes, a killer app isn't neccesary but it would help tremendously. Eventually a VR device will be as light as a pair of sunglasses, it's just a matter of time.