| HoloDust said: All fair, but I think that it's the VR "core" audience, folks who don't mind the bulkiness and all the sweat and discomfort of current VR headsets (no matter how expensive/good they are), along with being more than willing to pay high costs of headsets along with PC/PS5 for such experiences, it's them who are more sensitive about visuals than other, much bigger audience (at least currently) who are just impressed with VR experience alone and are quite happy to enjoy even Quest 2 level of graphics. Now, Quest 2 made a splash, but it didn't have something like Mario Kart VR to help it push to stratosphere - but even if it did, and attracted Wii crowd, I very much doubt it would do even half of Wii numbers - cause, again, in their current form factor, VR headsets are nowhere near as comfortable as they need to be to gain more traction with mainstream/casual market - which, fortunately, will be solved sooner or later. The only way I can see VR perhaps doing anything resembling "standard" console sales numbers until then is if Nintendo releases one, and that only for strength of their IPs, and I doubt they will do it with current tech. So, my take is we're waiting for better tech (either much cheaper or much more comfortable, preferably both) in order for better mass VR adoption to happen, cause, currently, I don't think games alone, even AAA, can do much to move the needle that much. |
That core audience are who are trying to get more people into VR. However that core is also greatly divided.
There are the VR purists, that want every VR game to be the total VR package, room scale, play standing with everything made for motion controls, body inventory, realistic gun play etc. They go for the fitness games (which suck, sweating with a VR headset on is the worst), the horror games and dismiss 3rd person VR games. HL Alyx gets all the praise.
And those that want to relax with VR, sit on the couch and enjoy their favorite games while being able to look around in the virtual worlds. They're not into all the VR mechanics and are just as happy with 3rd person VR games as 1st person. That crowd is only really catered to by the modding scene on PCVR.
There are kart games (Galaxy Kart), there are Mario like games (Max Mustard). But yes people look for the name, why is Astrobot not on PSVR2.
Quest 2 sold a ton of headsets, yet reality is that PSVR2 generates a lot more income from games. That hardcore crowd is also the one that is more inclined to spend money on games. But is currently pushed toward the PC adapter to be able to get what they want.
A friend of my oldest has a whole bunch of Quest headsets as he buys another one when a controller or something else breaks. Yet all he plays on it is Pavlov.
Quest is losing 3 to 4 Billion each quarter on their VR platform, that alone scares off any other company interested in VR.
But as you said it's the strength of IPs that will get people to try and stick with VR. Meta doesn't have that, Sony could go a long way yet isn't actively supporting their headset. Nintendo can make it popular.
Yet the other problem, comfort, has a long way to go. My oldest and his friends aren't all that interested in VR because they mostly play games like Rust together while on their phone, laptop etc. It seems the current generation is addicted to their secondary screen while gaming, or do their homework while hanging out in Rust. No idea how to 'solve' that. More multiplayer games to start with, PIP, link your phone, improved see through mode maybe. And should be as easy as putting reading glasses on/off. But then again home 3D failed as well which was as easy as putting cardboard glasses on.
So we have a niche hardcore audience that wants more than Quest games, and a casual audience that is wowed by VR but ultimately sticks with flat gaming for the games they actually want to play, comfort, friends and secondary screen included.
Conclusion, hybrid games are the way forward. Perhaps in future SDKs it becomes as easy as Praydog UEVR injector makes it look. Eye tracked foveated rendering standard in the SDK as a toggle so there's no performance loss to VR with VR headsets that support VRR since getting that locked frame rate is the hardest part of porting games to VR. (GT7 on PS5 pro still drops frames, I had it again last night with 5x time acceleration, sun going down on a wet track, very jarring with the new reprojection as the image 'jerks back' when the next frame arrives too late)
Full motion VR games will always stay a niche like motion controls on consoles. There were big breakout hits and with tons of marketing Kinect made a big splash. Yet every motion game has ultimately not led to general adoption of motion controls. 3 hour gaming session while standing, ducking, avoiding, grabbing all around your body as 'UI', it isn't for me. No matter how much I like VR, I like to sit down at the end of the day. My game time is 'limited' by what my back can endure. Plus I much rather go for a run outside than get sweaty in a headset, worst feeling there is.
