Virtual reality isn’t a new fad in the gaming world. Since its earliest inception, there have been hilarious depictions in popular culture of kids entering some futuristic deathtrap masquerading as a VR machine. There has already been many failed examples of trying to immerse players in a virtual environment, such as the quasi-VR Nintendo Virtual Boy that doubled as a retina destroyer.
Regardless of how successful past products have been, the dream of one day creating a popular, effective VR experience is seemingly closer than ever. Sony just detailed their brand new Project Morpheus last week at the Game Developer’s Conference. The long in-development Oculus Rift has been in developers’ hands for a while now and is hailed as the possible savior of VR technology. Multiple other companies have their own distinct, smaller products, but the message is clear: VR is legitimately pushing for viability.
Having never touched one myself, I can’t speak directly to their quality. By all accounts, the Oculus really does enhance particular game experiences and I would love to hop into some exploratory games to crawl around in peace.
That said, I’m incredibly skeptical of these products’ financial possibilities. If there’s any time to launch them, it is probably now, while the home console market is still experiencing a noticeable uptick in the wake of a new generation launch. The time may be right, but I certainly don’t think the price of these components will be.
Rising game development costs have essentially created an unsustainable economic model with a boom-or-bust system that destroys middle level studios. Devoting resources to a single console is costly enough, but having to shell out an additional $400 seems like a costly proposition.
The motion-sensing fad may have worked out swimmingly for Nintendo with the Wii and Microsoft initially with the Kinect, but Sony’s Move never really took off. Indeed, that entire movement has essentially faded from relevancy despite the fact it’s still an integral portion of modern consoles.
The entire history of console peripherals is spotty at best. Sony’s EyeToy seemed successful at first but ultimately became an irrelevant add-on. Microsoft pushed its Xbox Live Vision in response, but that wound up on more garbage heaps than living rooms. We all lament the loss of Nintendo’s Vitality Sensor for the Wii, but they’ve also had some fantastic bombs, ranging from the Game Boy-GameCube connector all the way back to the perpetually malfunctioning R.O.B. accessory.
In short, peripherals flame out more often than not. Most of these were less costly offerings as well, falling far from the price tag of an Oculus or Project Morpheus. I will admit the novelty of VR and people’s ingrained fascination with its capabilities may give it a leg up on these other products, but I don’t foresee that translating to gangbuster sales.
Not to mention the ludicrous product proliferation that is already emerging in the VR sale space. I fully expect the Oculus to come out on top, but the glut of failing video game consoles like the Ouya or inevitably terrible NVIDIA Shield is already destructive enough. Expanding platforms isn’t going to help the cause of pushing forward a fringe facet of the industry that still hasn’t taken off considerably.
I highly doubt VR will ever take off on consoles, but I can see a strong passion beginning with Oculus implementation on PC. Always several steps ahead of its household counterparts, the PC has had plenty of Oculus developers show off the power of the machine using Steam games or whatever other fascinating indie game has come out lately.
There’s always the threat of motion sickness underlying VR, and trying to rectify that feeling has always been a huge barrier to entry. In reality I would be super excited to be trying out games on the Oculus, but at this point I don’t see VR becoming anything beyond a brilliant tool for a small contingent of the industry.
Is virtual reality the real thing or a tragedy of error? Email your opinions to Adam at arparis@wisc.edu.
