https://dispatches.cheatcc.com/3737
It's bizarre to me that some people that get paid to know these industries, customers etc. just pass over a lot of critical information in addressing certain topics.
It's pretty plain to see that from a userbase standpoint Vive/Rift is one audience, Mobile VR is another audience and PSVR is yet another audience. Once you actually identify and accept this fact it becomes pretty straight forward to realize that obstacles to entry on the PC side plus lack of VR gaming interest are what has waylaid PCVR. On top of that the Wild Wild West of an innumerable variety of PC configurations leaves developers coding to the lowest common denominator for a smallish interest group of power users that are generally game enthusiasts instead of actual gamers running beefy desktops and maybe even a few laptop users. This is a small group and it was a small group before the re-invigorated consumer VR craze materialized. To me there was an unrealistic expectation that a multi-billion industry for VR could be built using the PC as the foundation to begin with.
For people that like to game a little (as far as AAA games anyway) and are more enthusiasts all that expense and effort is too much to also get spotty quality game polish, overly simplistic design and short games.
Gaming is still definitely VRs killer category but only for the right audience...people on the same platform that game a lot, buying probably between 5-10 AAA games per year or more mostly with some enthusiasts around the periphery. Because there's only a very small group of those kinds of users in the PC space that are also interested in VR it's unlikely that VR on that platform will ever take off or atleast move sufficient numbers to support progressive development.
//Maybe when the baseline of graphics of laptops are around GTX 1080 ti level there may be a chance, but that's a long way off and the overall interest in VR on the PC would have to grow substantially.//
In the meantime PSVR will continue to grow on a steady diet of more polished PC ports and other titles mostly because of higher interest in VR, uniformity in hardware for developers, the relative simplicity in set-up/requirements and the comfort of the HMD. The nature of that audience over there is that it buys 3-15 AAA games annually and a significant chunk will see additional value in augmenting/enhancing the large investment of time and money into the kinds AAA games that they already have been buying for years with VR. Even 10 million of an 80 million+ userbase is realistic but the number could go a lot higher than that.
Obviously large third party development and mainstream game media coverage would help, but there's also something to be said for the slow, gradual but consistent growth that PSVR is getting from standout games like Resident Evil 7, Wipeout VR, Farpoint and Skyrim VR. It's better to be stable than to have huge explosive growth upfront only to run out of gas early and collapse. It seems like the PSVR releases are getting more numerous and the devs are getting more adept with their VR development techniques.
With Visceral gone and Deadspace essentially dead as a franchise The Persistence looks well ahead of the curve and may be the game that fills that void and then with VR innovates where Deadspace couldn't, but only time will tell.
It's bizarre to me that some people that get paid to know these industries, customers etc. just pass over a lot of critical information in addressing certain topics.
It's pretty plain to see that from a userbase standpoint Vive/Rift is one audience, Mobile VR is another audience and PSVR is yet another audience. Once you actually identify and accept this fact it becomes pretty straight forward to realize that obstacles to entry on the PC side plus lack of VR gaming interest are what has waylaid PCVR. On top of that the Wild Wild West of an innumerable variety of PC configurations leaves developers coding to the lowest common denominator for a smallish interest group of power users that are generally game enthusiasts instead of actual gamers running beefy desktops and maybe even a few laptop users. This is a small group and it was a small group before the re-invigorated consumer VR craze materialized. To me there was an unrealistic expectation that a multi-billion industry for VR could be built using the PC as the foundation to begin with.
For people that like to game a little (as far as AAA games anyway) and are more enthusiasts all that expense and effort is too much to also get spotty quality game polish, overly simplistic design and short games.
Gaming is still definitely VRs killer category but only for the right audience...people on the same platform that game a lot, buying probably between 5-10 AAA games per year or more mostly with some enthusiasts around the periphery. Because there's only a very small group of those kinds of users in the PC space that are also interested in VR it's unlikely that VR on that platform will ever take off or atleast move sufficient numbers to support progressive development.
//Maybe when the baseline of graphics of laptops are around GTX 1080 ti level there may be a chance, but that's a long way off and the overall interest in VR on the PC would have to grow substantially.//
In the meantime PSVR will continue to grow on a steady diet of more polished PC ports and other titles mostly because of higher interest in VR, uniformity in hardware for developers, the relative simplicity in set-up/requirements and the comfort of the HMD. The nature of that audience over there is that it buys 3-15 AAA games annually and a significant chunk will see additional value in augmenting/enhancing the large investment of time and money into the kinds AAA games that they already have been buying for years with VR. Even 10 million of an 80 million+ userbase is realistic but the number could go a lot higher than that.
Obviously large third party development and mainstream game media coverage would help, but there's also something to be said for the slow, gradual but consistent growth that PSVR is getting from standout games like Resident Evil 7, Wipeout VR, Farpoint and Skyrim VR. It's better to be stable than to have huge explosive growth upfront only to run out of gas early and collapse. It seems like the PSVR releases are getting more numerous and the devs are getting more adept with their VR development techniques.
With Visceral gone and Deadspace essentially dead as a franchise The Persistence looks well ahead of the curve and may be the game that fills that void and then with VR innovates where Deadspace couldn't, but only time will tell.
