Must play games aren't the problem and people keep getting this wrong. It's the content and how long that content can keep someone using and coming back to a headset.
On consoles, you have various experiences online and off for SP and MP games big and small, of varying lengths, and content from sub programs, movies, streaming, dlc support for a long time, clip sharing, so much to keep someone coming back, especially if they are interested in the content.
VR doesn't have this. It's poorly executed media capabilities makes people sick, or has a limited appeal for VR movie watching for a few weeks and then it becomes a hassle.
There's few games, and what's there gives little reason to come back to the headset frequently after a few weeks.
There's barely any additional content to hold users over. People don't want to browse the internet in VR after the excitement wears down.
Anything you can do on your phone will excite people in VR at first, but then ends when that excitement dries up and they can not let the inconvenience slide any longer.
The reason VR is failing isn't because of lacking must play games. It's failing because it's not being treated as a serious media and entertainment platform. Or an information and communication platform like phones, which can do all 4.
VR is being treated like a Tamogatchi. Those were popular because of marketing promises not kept, the perception of it being the future, and it being a new uncommon thing that got people's attention.
But then people stopped using them once they realized there's not much you could do, content was light, it was poorly implemented, and the actual devices sucked when you took a step back.
With VR you can add a hassel to set up, can make you dizzy, and a lot of low polish depthless content, all that resulted in many headsets being thrown in storage.
VR has not been treated like any new major tech platform since the betamax, it's treated worse. We hear about the billions put in, but companies are still unconsciously not taking VR seriously even if they think they are.
Every leading VR headset was part of a boom and bust fad cycle:
Samsung and Google Cardboard = I can use my phone for VR it's the future.
Sony = I can play mobile and console games in the game, it's the future.
Quest = I can be in the "metaverse" by chatting, viewing media, and playing games on a wireless VR headset because future! It's also cheap and won't damage my phone!
This is why the leading headsets sold what they did. Not because of content. That's why we had a decline last year and nothing in VR currently is encouraging serious investment and real growth. Those leading platforms still didn't sell much for being fads except Quest 2, but with many of those sitting in storage.
Apple will be the next fad = Premium VR with motion controls and iOS integration in my headset. Cool.
No one is treating VR as a platform with its own industry. They are treating it as a race to see who can catch on first with an individual product.
The race on who is going to be the next Tickle Me Elmo or Chia pet is why VR is in the situation it is. Quest 2 fad was accelerated by a PR stunt by Facebook who is now Meta. But nothing changed from what they were doing before.
Zuckerberg himself renamed his company on a concept he's not even taking seriously and has yet to act on.
Sony is treating VR no differently now than their first headset.
Chinese brands are just making incremental headsets with no content and just using what already exists. Which is almost nothing.
VR has been a gimmick since this new phase started, and has only been treated as such. People will go ooh and ahh and might buy it, then they stop using them and don't come back, outside of the group that gets sucked into the next fad.
If VR is supposed to be like the smartphone, and a tool for social and communication as well as entertainment, then where are the companies who are serious about VR? Even in enterprise, VR is still not taken seriously outside a few helpful applications in very specific career fields. But companies are rushing to adopt. Something. Because they don't want to be left behind. Something.
Who knows, maybe Apple or one of those other guys will actually push VR as a serious platform, but I have doubts.
