What timeline would they have done that in?

Is it?

I feel like we're after this peak, where there is less excitement for VR, but more people are using it than ever. Quest 2 is reasonably successful. Apple Vision Pro has garnered a lot of excitement (even though it won't sell).

I think we're still 5 years away from VR being notable. 

We have had 40 years of people saying just wait a little longer and VR is the future! No matter how much better the visuals get. It has the same restrictions that hold it back. VR will always be niche.

Do you feel that way about AR?

I think the main restrictions holding back VR are:

- bulky headsets

- isolating headsets

They both get solved by better tech. The former by smaller screens, better lenses, etc. The latter by tech like pass through, AI that lets you customize the experience. We're still off on both.  

In the streets no one cares about VR anymore and even gamers i rarely see people talk about it. Even i, which i maybe would have liked Nintendo to get into it in 2019-2021 but nowadays i feel like it's just not a good venture for a gaming company. It's too expensive and will always be too niche for them to justify the money put into the development or adapting games.

AR yeah it's been around forever and it's just a novelty. Practicality wins out. What is the most practical for a consumer and most affordable or mass appeal? If you can find a way to make AR/VR as cheap and practical as just a cable to my TV without wearing headsets/glasses or some bulky device. You got something. Until then it's niche.

Speaking of "popularity", it will be interesting to track the performance of the upcoming Oculus Quest 3 (*sigh* Meta Quest 3) this October cuz the predecessor is currently atm the best selling VR headset on the market. If it manages to do better, VR will considerably go upward on it's silent trajectory as usual.

Although, I still feel like standalone VR headset are sadly limited by their form factor because we have yet to see another Half-life Alyx moment with the medium but with standalone headsets in mind.
PC VR is not truly where the medium is aiming at.

I feel like the biggest issue with VR in the short term is that there aren't really any big use cases for it.

There's a few notable games like Half Life Alyx and Resident Evil 4. 

But at least on the games side, until VR is seeing like several Half Life Alyx games every year, it's going to be hard for that to keep up any momentum.

Even as someone who is very interested in VR, I legitimately can't remember the last time an announcement made me feel excited about it. 

Something like Nintendo with Mario Kart VR or something could go a long way for that, but consistency is hard.

I've held for the past 10 years that VR/AR won't be successful until:

- it's the size of a pair of glasses, which we're getting there:

- is able to replace your glasses. People bring up the 3D glasses thing. Most people wear glasses, they don't have an issue with wearing glasses. Awkwardly wearing two pairs of glasses on the other hand, is definitely a garbage experience.

- has some strong use cases. Whether that's games or productivity.  

- is affordable

- AI reconstruction that lets you make the experience non-isolating. AR/VR can replace your monitor, but that's not an optimal experience if you can't see your desk and utility things on it. 

I don't think we're that far away from a pair of glasses that basically replace your phone, maybe even your monitors, maybe even your desktop computer, etc.

It will be interesting to see if Meta has a good push with it. They announced a GTA game 2 years ago, and it never came back up again. 

I think that was the Same Andreas port they spoke of early, still San Andreas is crazy old. Not the kind of game I'd actually use to push the hardware side of things.

Anywoo, I think Facebook is supposed to have another kind of Direct before the Oculus Quest 3 launch to showcase more upcoming content for the launch window period. Of course, I'm gonna mostly profit from the upgrade in specs to play games I wanted to on the Oculus Quest 2.

Red Matter 1/2 are still amongst the best games on the platform to showcase it's advancements in tech and performance.

Prolly gonna grab myself the Oculus touch pro controllers too since it seems like the new ones are weirdly downgrading from the predecessor 

I think VR would be fairly awesome by Nintendo. But I don't think this is the way Nintendo is going. I'd say they're going to focus on building the Switch ecosystem. Although, I'd not be surprised if Nintendo is at least dabbling.

If they do, they should be innovative and charge a subscription for it.