Trying to understand the VR ecosystem

None · 2018-04-23T12:17:05

Playing around with the occulus touch, I am trying to understand the type of ecosystem that the VR market is trying to build. I am especially bewildered at the prices things cost: The Oculus Rift and PS VR have gone significant price cuts which would have me think they are not selling for a profit. Or at least not a reasonable one considering the risk. This is understandable with Sony, as console H/W has traditionally been sold at a loss. But what are Oculus/Facebook's motives here? It should be clear to FB by now that VR is not the next social platform. Or at least I don't see any convincing attempt by FB to write apps for VR (The videos app is worse than Youtube 360 on google cardboard...). So what's with the price cuts? Aside from that, the game authors have me bewildered: So far, I have tried only 2 "AAA" single player experiences. AAA is a relative term, because the VR market is smaller. I have tried "RoboRecall" by Epic, and "Archangel". Both games have high production values, are professionally made, and are fun to play. However both games have very repetitive content and short play times: Around 4 hours of play, and assets, and mechanics are repeated heavily. The lack of versatile mechanics and repetetive 3D models leads me to think that relatively not alot of work has been put into their game design and art department (Relative to a AAA game). However both games are selling for over 30$, and the common launch price for a AAA VR game is 40$. Yet the content is parallel to a (very good) mobile game. Knowing Epic, I wasn't expecting them to try and earn money with their game, but rather use it to showcase their engine. My personal thoughts are that it takes less effort to make a VR game. They tend to have smaller worlds (because it's hard to move), and less versatile game-play mechanics. The only thing more expensive is the risk factor. Although the current "AAA" VR library is so small, that you don't have alot of competition. So that partly makes up for the risk. VR integration comes built in with game engines with some very easy to use APIs. So the tech side of VR for a software dev is laughably easy. The challenge is in designing the game mechanics. So what's going on here? Both Facebook and Epic are big companies with well established revenue streams and business plans. What's the big idea? How are they expecting to make a profit by selling a VR helmet with 2 controllers for $400? Are they expecting the masses to buy 4 hour games for 40$? I am not writing this cynically. I am both a VR enthusiast and a hobby VR developer. I desperately want VR to succeed, even if it never becomes mainstream. I am also aware that VR has all of the chances of being a passing fad (like 3D TVs). But the way this is being approached by these big companies makes me feel that the bigger players are going to ditch this due to lack of profits. Or maybe this is the just the "launch" business model, and it will evolve... Afterthought: Multiplayer games are awesome in VR. Standing next to someone in VR and giving them "high fives", turning your head to talk to them, gives a whole new sense of presence to "multiplayer". Maybe this is really the next big thing in social networking. But I exepcted FB to have made a "FB hangouts" app like "Rec-room" by now...

Virtual and Augmented Reality Topical

Started by SillyCow December 23, 2017 09:38 AM

10 comments, last by RivieraKid 6 years, 7 months ago

RivieraKid

706

April 23, 2018 12:17 PM

1 hour ago, SillyCow said:

This is not really a problem for me. This is related to an "ancient" recurring debate which I experienced as a kid through flight games:
Do you want a realistic flight sim (with real delayed steering inertia, and lot's of stalling)?

Or do you want a arcade flight sim with controls that are just complex enough to allow you to fly in complex ways.

I personally enjoy the "arcady" types much more than then the real ones.

But neither genres are laughably !@#$ because of their control schemes.

I would argue the same for is true for VR: As long as your control is good for what it's trying to achieve, then it is a good control.

i wasn't comparing realism. My point was that the technology behind a good vr experience does not come out of the box. It does take quite a bit of work.

Trying to understand the VR ecosystem

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Trying to understand the VR ecosystem

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