PSVR Sells Through 3 Million Units

[potato_hamster]

Soundwave said:

potato_hamster said:

The difference is, in all of those examples, the internet, HDTV, whatever, there was a clear and obvious improvement to people's lives/entertainment experience. Are you so sure that an entirely new way to communicate with people online, or HDTVs becoming so common and so cheap that you couldn't easily buy a CRT TV in 2013 is the same as people being willing and content to wear a virtual reality headset to have an enhanced, more immersive experience in some games, or even view porn? Are you sure that average person will see the value in that and will be willing to pay for that?

I know 10 years is a long time. I still don't see why it's "inevitable that VR will become mainstream". Even with all of those companies making much more advanced VR headsets, I really, really don't think the average gamer is going to want to own one. There are tens of millions of gamers on this planet right now that can add a PSVR to their PS4 for $200-$300 and have chosen and will continue to choose not to. Why do you think most of them, or even half of them would be lining up to buy them if they were suddenly sold at $100? I know I've brought up racing wheels before. A $100-$200 racing wheel of today kicks the shit out of a $800 wheel of 10 years ago in every way imaginable. Almost every gamer I know owns a few racing games, yet almost none of them own racing wheels, and they haven't gotten significantly more popular over the years, despite all of the improvements and lower costs, mostly because at the end of the day, your average console gamer doesn't want to store a racing wheel, and spend all of the time and effort bringing it out, and setting it up just to use a few times a month or whatever. The game pad is "good enough". What makes you think VR is going to cross that threshold where it's worth the pain in the ass and the cost of ownership to the average gamer?

P.S. You can already get VR porn. In signifcant quanities. Probably with the uhh...add-ons you speak of. It doesn't seem to have made a dent in VR sales. Porn pushed internet sales because it was far easier, cheaper and more convenient than driving down to the local video store, going into the porno section, and getting judged by the cashier as you rented it. VR might offer a better experience, but how many people are going to be arsed to break out a VR headset just to get their rocks off when regular porn is "good enough"?

Because VR is more dependant on technology changes due to immersion being kinda the point. The better the tech, the better the feeling of immersion. Someone could look at the internet in 1993 and say "yeah that's cute, but I don't see it being very appealling to anyone but computer dorks, sending electronic mail and checking stock quotes will get boring after a week, I'll stick to my newspaper" but many tech advances and user interface changes quickly made that from a "kinda neat" thing to "must have". 

I actually think Ready Player One is not that far off from the what the future is going to be. 

People aren't going to just have VR porn, they'll have virtual relationships online. What's going to happen at some point is the meeting point of increasing technology + user friendliness. 

Touchscreens and "smart phones" were around for ages before the iPhone, but the iPhone combined it all into one sleek, easy to use package, that really pushed the user experience and the technology also had caught up to allow a fast/fluid mobile OS.

IMO that moment is coming for VR. Someone, sooner or later is going to make a single unit that is 

1.) Cheap

2.) Light/not heavy, faaaaar more comfortable. 

3.) Doesn't have tons of wires. 

4.) Have visual fidelity and can create worlds on a technical level that will make what we have today look like a PS2 game and begin to match/look like Hollywood CGI. 

It's just inevitable. The technology is only going to get better and better with time because processors keep getting better. 

The whole thing about Sega VR or Virtual Boy is just silly. Those systems couldn't even process really 3D graphics, they're analogous to the Famicom/NES having an online service in 1987. PS4 VR of today is more like where online was with Dreamcast/early PS2 days. Still very raw, but you can see where it will go. 

You're still not answering the question. What makes you think the average console gamer is going to decide that VR is worth the time, money and effort to own one and keep using one for years and years to come??

100 million people bought Wiis because they were cheap, easy to use, and fun to play. How come that didn't usher in a new age of primary controls for most video games and video game consoles being motion-based?

Over 24 million people bought a Kinect add-on for their Xbox 360 because it was cheap, easy to use, and fun to play. How come that didn't user in a  new age of primary controls for games and consoles being camera/gesture/voice activated?

Both of those new, more immersive ways of gaming existed in primitive forms for years and years and years, and saw no real success. Then Nintendo/MS "got them right", sold tens of  millions of them, and less than a decade later? Tumbleweeds. Nintendo/MS aren't even as committed to it as they used to be.

Even *if* VR hits a critical mass, becomes a hit product and sells, say, 50 million units over a console "generation", that *still* doesn't mean that VR has surpassed even more than a "fad" status if 5 years after that VR units are being sold on buy-and-sell ads for $20 like millions of Wiis and Kinects are sold for every single day today. How do you know that VR isnt going to follow suit? What makes VR different?

P.S. You know how the "whole thing about Sega VR and Virtual Boy is "just silly" because they couldn't do most of what VR headsets can do today? Then you go on and say the technology for VR is going to become *so advanced* that it makes current VR "look like PS2 games", aren't you doing the exact same thing? It's only silly in hindsight. All you're doing is just pushing the measuring sticks down the line. Aren't you just letting yourself off the hook so that if/when some new VR unit comes out in 10/20 years time that blows PSVR out of the water in an currently indescribable way, yet only sells, say, 5 million units over 3 years. Are you going to say that PSVR/Oculus/Vive "weren't really commercially viable", and that "VR is taking baby steps"? What then?

Let me put it to you this way: What does VR have to do in the next 10 years order to be considered "a niche product" in your eyes?

P.P.S. Doesn't the Oculus Go meet 3 of your 4 criteria?

Last edited by potato_hamster - on 19 August 2018