My reasons for why I think VR isn’t right for the Switch 2 is mostly because of price for cutting edge tech. While labo was creative, it was a small niche product. The cutting edge VR tech is going into hardware that is substantially more highly priced than video game console hardware. Right now, the direction is more toward multimedia and professional application usage, and those are going to be substantially better for video game software than the older model VR sets.
Nintendo’s “secret sauce” has always been about doing cutting edge stuff that costs very little: the NES, SNES, N64, and Wii all had cutting edge controllers that changed the way we play games. The reason the N64 failed wasn’t because of that, it was because the game cartridges were too expensive for consumers and developers; consequently leading to fewer games at high prices.
Maybe I lack imagination, but I don’t see how Nintendo could get a VR headset that would excite me for anywhere near the price that would be acceptable for a video game console. Don’t get me wrong, if Nintendo released a 1000-5000 USD console with cutting edge AR/VR tech and decked out with extraordinary power and such, I’d buy it—but I’d be one of 1-4 million people who’d buy it. And I’d be incredibly worried about support.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
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