We've known about Google Glass, Oculus and Morpheus for over a year now, but it was announcement of Samsung's Note 4-powered hybrid Gear VR headset that kicked off the debate in the PocketGamer.biz Skype window.
Maybe it was the muscle of a company like Samsung getting involved.
Maybe it was the rush of developer support - ranging from DeNA to Imangi and ustwo.
Anyhow, a heated debate ensured about whether VR could ever become more than a niche technology.
We thought it deserved a wider audience....
Have you seen this announcement from Samsung?
It's just announced Gear VR, a VR headset using its Note 4 tablet.
Wow.
That's VERY interesting.
Huge
Really? I'm not sure.
It could be 3D TVs all over again.
VR is still dead in the water.
Great prospect, no real delivery.
As long as you have to isolate yourself to use it, it's running in the exact opposite direction of what people actually want.
Looks just like that Dive headset I've got.
Works surprisingly well with an S4, so I imagine a Note 4 will work even better.
All comes down to the games and apps in the end, I guess.
As pants as Google Glass is, that's a better direction for any kind of in-vision wearable. As long as VR blocks out the real world, it'll always be a niche thing.
Because at the end of the day, no-one wants to strap on a pair of goggles in order to play a game.
You think people don't want to isolate themselves?
And communicate via digital media?
That does run contrary with my experience.
I wonder if something like Samsung's can make use of the Note's camera, so you can "see" through the headset.
I think that even games we would have typically thought as "solo" experiences are opening up to the social side of gaming. Even The Last of Us allowed people to tweet photos and so forth.
People want to share these experiences now and that's where the whole industry is going. Blocking yourself off by wearing a headset that means you can't even communicate if someone asks if you want a cup of tea is just not a realistic mass-market prospect. It's not something people have any desire for in the home.
I think 3D TV is totally different
The experience wasn't that great
It wasn't a leap forward
It was the same sort of thing, with a bit of a blurry sort of 3D effect
There's no real compelling reason to use Smart TVs for apps, etc yet
But I don't think it's the same for VR
This isn't to say that VR from Samsung will work
The tech for VR headsets has been running at trade shows for over 2 years now. It works. It's impressive.
But how or why would you actually use it in a day-to-day setting?
You'd use it to play games
I did at Gamescom, pretty much for 1.5 hours
It was phenomenal
At a trade show
And you're not an average consumer
None of us here are representative of the mass market.
I don't play games.
I'm not a super techy person
But this experience impressed me
The tech makes something possible, but the tech curve is well ahead of consumer demand and there's no actual way it can be used in the home.
Until someone does something with VR that augments it into actual reality in some way - as long as it's about isolation - it'll always be niche. An impressive niche, but not a mass market prospect.
Has anyone read Ready Player One? Great insights into the future of VR.
VR could even be another Wii
Bought for Christmas, and in the cupboard by Easter
I can see the tech being used by Facebook to be employed in different devices years or decades down the line, tbh
Does Oculus have a release date yet?
Oculus will never launch in its current state.
I don't really think they have much interest in launching a games VR headset
I can see the tech being used by Facebook to be employed in different devices years or decades down the line, tbh
But Morpheus has got a good chance of coming out.
Clearly Facebook have bigger ambitions, I agree
But games will be the vanguard and proving ground
I think it says something that neither Oculus or Glass has a public release date.
I'm less bullish on Glass
Glass will need reworking for several iterations if it ever makes it
It's flakey, overpriced and without clear benefits
The saving you get on 'hands-free' versus a mobile device is totally absorbed by the clunkiness and cost at the moment
But the one good thing about Glass, and about all wearables (as shit as most are) is that they're trying to fit in with things consumers already do. Trying to enhance it, successfully or not.
VR headsets are a marketers nightmare because they're trying to fit into a space that doesn't really exist. Trying to be the be-all-and-end-all.
I believe that was Jobs mantra. Try to fit in with what consumers already do and incrementally improve it
Oh no, hang on
But Jobs was never about addressing niches. He was about making something everyone could conceivably use.
