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Techtelegraph: VR Headsets Don’t Sell Well. Sony and Apple May Not Change That

The media's expectation for VR is what is off. Not everything in tech is going to blow up and be the next iPhone at retail simply because Meta has opted to lose billions to drive adoption.

PSVR2 is an accessory to the PS5 and should be viewed as such. And until we see what Apple has in store, I'll defer speculating.
 

mckmas8808

Banned
I agree with the thread earlier that Sony should have released a handheld instead of vr.Same for Xbox.They are missing out and are letting Switch establish a monopoly of sort.All the kids care about is Switch.This can be damaging long term for both brands.
We have another company trying and it's called a Steam Deck. And that sold 1 million units in year one. So what does that tell you?
 

mckmas8808

Banned
The media's expectation for VR is what is off. Not everything in tech is going to blow up and be the next iPhone at retail simply because Meta has opted to lose billions to drive adoption.

PSVR2 is an accessory to the PS5 and should be viewed as such. And until we see what Apple has in store, I'll defer speculating.
Truer words have never been spoken.
 

reinking

Gold Member
marge simpson GIF





Modern VR has been chased since the 1950's. It is not going away now that it has gotten affordable enough to bring to consumers. It does not matter if it ever becomes mainstream enough to be like cellphones. It will have enough support to be available for those that want it.
 

Neilg

Member
What’s you guys views on VR demand due to the other things we’ve seen?

1. Meta trying to drum up demand via social media metaverse way

2. MS promoting the corporate metaverse with people putting on goggles and pretending to be at the office.

Chance of success? Dead as a doorknob?

The stuff we’ve seen so far looks like shit.

Both dead.
Normal people that use social media dont want to spend more than 5 minutes in VR at a time.
The corporate metaverse is less efficient than purely digital tools. Software like miro is super efficient for collaborative whiteboarding - in physical offices in 2022 you'll see a meeting with 8 people heads down on laptops collaborating on a shared document. It's not that different to being on a zoom call and doing the same thing. Moving that into VR only serves to make it less convenient and slower.

I'm using it for presentation purposes in real estate. Even got asked to do some contract work for facebook - for a while now zuckerberg has refused to sign off or review any product / architecture design unless he can see it in VR. so they have a huge manpower issue and are frantically outsourcing a ton of work, so once someone in house has finished designing and got something ready to present, it then needs to go out to a third party to get optimized and wrapped up into an experience just so zuck can comment and give feedback on it. when they called us i thought it was the dumbest fucking thing i'd ever heard and we refused to work on it because the last-minute changes and turnaround times would be a nightmare.
A large part of what people are doing in VR is making a traditional working process more convoluted and difficult for everyone involved. maybe it will get streamlined, but we're a long way off.

Architectural review in it can be very useful - there's a tool called prospect where you can dump a model into it, get into a shared meeting where you can all see each other, and walk around measuring and marking things up. The only people who need this are those that dont understand how to read floorplans and cant judge scale very well though - so it's only useful for packaging up a 'finished' design to ask for more comments and changes. Within architecture, there's a fine line of how much you let a client fuck around, and it can open a door to endless reviews and changes. Sometimes it's better if the client doesn't fully comprehend the design, you know?
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
I don't really understand the point of this article. They might sell, or they might not. We don't know exactly what will happen, and will have to wait and see. You mean like everything else?
 

ByWatterson

Member
I don't see it expanding to more than a niche in gaming. Guessing it'll be far more successful in medical and elder care industries.
 
In shocking news, sales of expensive electronics peripherals slowed during major economic inflationary crisis! Totally shocking!

Milk is 6$ a gallon, I can’t imagine why people aren’t buying expensive add on toys for their already expensive toys!
 
I don't see it expanding to more than a niche in gaming. Guessing it'll be far more successful in medical and elder care industries.
It will get well beyond niche when the tech improves. We’re in the 3rd generation. The new set’s coming are the SNES of the tech industry.

When its down to the form factor of expensive ski goggles for a reasonable price, it will see wide adoption. It’s nacent tech. And frankly, once people use a properly set up PSVR2, they are going to see just how impressive it is. Seriously, GT7, RE8, CotM. They are true showpieces in a way nothing except HL:Alyx has ever been, and HL:Alyx requires a minimum of 2000$ worth of hardware, or play a completely gimped experience on Quest 2 without a pc, which is definitely cheaper, but also much worse experience.
 
PSVR will remain an expensive toy accessory that people will splash out on and use to play a few games and to show off to friends/family. I mean it's like £480 for a PS5, £520 or something for the headset, and the library of games isn't good. It doesn't even play PSVR1 games lol.
So much ignorance. “It doesn’t play psvr1 games lol”… no shit, that’s because it’s completely different technology and works in a completely different way. PSVR did tracking by shitty tower sensors and worked from the outside. PSVR2 tracks from thr headset, hence is being called “Inside-out tracking”. The games aren’t compatible because the only thing the two have in common is that they sit on your head and have screens in them.

Seriously, I would expect a lot less ignorance of how the tech functions on a forum dedicated to gaming and gaming technology. Instead we get, “lolzors psvr2 can’t play PSVR”.
 

UnNamed

Banned
VR is a difficult subject.

VR is not for everyone, and except for videogames, few applications left.

Companies have to make products that make you think "I can use this to do new things I can't even imagine before". VR headset now are just inspired by the previous headset which was inspired by its previous headset and so on. There is no real difference in the approach, only specs are changed from Oculus 1 to PSVR2.

Apple can't just release a normal VR headset, it would be just another headset with better specs. They need to make a VR/AR device which make new things and exploring uncharted territories. AR devices are more flexibles, they should start with them.
 
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It’s baby steps. Isn’t it time to move away from that by now? What generation of VR headset are we at now? 4? 5?

As long as we only get these rapidly iterated and isolated platforms, with mostly experimental smaller titles, and tiny userbases competing and locking each other away VR will stay niche.
It’s 3rd generation. We’re literally in the SNES part of VR. This is such a ridiculous take.
I think the best form of VR was those huge late 80's early 90's arcade cabinets, a real joy for those times
Today, nobody wants to use a helmet that causes motion sickness in some players and isolates you from the world
I mean, except for the millions and millions who do want that helmet?

I’ve never understood this dumb “Isolates you from the world” argument. Oh no! Not an hour of fun in a world that doesn’t exist anywhere else! How awful!!!!

No, those vr cabs were absolute shit. Awful by any modern standard (fun at the time), just likr these headsets will be in 10 years. And just like the first generation is compared to the current sets. But comparing VR than PSVR2 to those cabs is clown talk. Sounds to me like yoy haven’t actually used a modern vr headset or experienced the immersion they create. RE8, GT7, Half Life Alyx, and even CotM are not just full featured games, but true experiences unavailable anywhere but VR.
 
It‘s weird to me how VR is getting more expensive over time, instead of getting cheaper like every other technology.
Yep smartphones get cheaper every iteration... Oh wait... Televisions become cheaper every iteration... Oh wait... Projectors become cheaper every iteration... Oh wait... I could go on and on and on. Almost all top of the line tech is becoming more expensive over time. There are base models for most things though for the not discerning eye or ear, and those products mostly are cheaper in comparison. Tech is not getting cheaper anymore like in the past. Which is a bit unfortunate with for some people difficult economic conditions.
 

CGNoire

Member
So much ignorance. “It doesn’t play psvr1 games lol”… no shit, that’s because it’s completely different technology and works in a completely different way. PSVR did tracking by shitty tower sensors and worked from the outside. PSVR2 tracks from thr headset, hence is being called “Inside-out tracking”. The games aren’t compatible because the only thing the two have in common is that they sit on your head and have screens in them.

Seriously, I would expect a lot less ignorance of how the tech functions on a forum dedicated to gaming and gaming technology. Instead we get, “lolzors psvr2 can’t play PSVR”.
This is way too harsh.

It isnt crazy to assume that there "might" be a way to take the data frominside tracking and convert it to what ever format the PSVR1 used. Its not crazy just cause they "collect" that data differently.
 

CGNoire

Member
It’s 3rd generation. We’re literally in the SNES part of VR. This is such a ridiculous take.

I mean, except for the millions and millions who do want that helmet?

I’ve never understood this dumb “Isolates you from the world” argument. Oh no! Not an hour of fun in a world that doesn’t exist anywhere else! How awful!!!!

No, those vr cabs were absolute shit. Awful by any modern standard (fun at the time), just likr these headsets will be in 10 years. And just like the first generation is compared to the current sets. But comparing VR than PSVR2 to those cabs is clown talk. Sounds to me like yoy haven’t actually used a modern vr headset or experienced the immersion they create. RE8, GT7, Half Life Alyx, and even CotM are not just full featured games, but true experiences unavailable anywhere but VR.
What is CotM?
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
This is way too harsh.

It isnt crazy to assume that there "might" be a way to take the data frominside tracking and convert it to what ever format the PSVR1 used. Its not crazy just cause they "collect" that data differently.

It would however be a shitty half baked solution which would mean none of the enhancements brought with the PSVR2 would be utilised, and would most likely be worse than just using a original PSVR.

This way I know what I'm buying is set up for PSVR2, you can already see this with with the developers from Moss.


Who said due to the time investment getting the new version running there will be no free upgrade.

It sucks, it always does but this is just like how PS3 games didn't get free PS4 upgrades, the technology behind it is just very different and requires a good amount of man power.

What I can say is that every PSVR2 game I have played feels perfect and the headset rumble is surprisingly immersive.
 
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LimanimaPT

Member
They don't sell well? How could they? 650 euros for psvr2? I'm out.
This things would sell well if they cost 150 tops.
I want one, but I'm not dropping 650 euros on that. I'll eventualy get one when I can get it second hand for 150.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
100% agree on the article despite owning the PSVR2. It is amazing and I am loving the games, but at its price and limited games it will never have a large install base.

The only way VR will become mainstream is if a games console comes with it as standard, it's why the quest 2 is the most popular by a country mile.

However they would need to battle the increase in price in the same way the Xbox One suffered the same fate due to mandatory kinect at launch.

Consumers don't want to pay £600 for a console, never mind £1100 PS5 + PSVR2 costs.
 
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They don't sell well? How could they? 650 euros for psvr2? I'm out.
This things would sell well if they cost 150 tops.
I want one, but I'm not dropping 650 euros on that. I'll eventualy get one when I can get it second hand for 150.
I also want things for free. It's nice to get things for almost free. No one says they don't sell well, we have no numbers yet. Maybe they sell better than expected, maybe the same, maybe less. We don't know anything yet though. I wouldn't be surprised if it sells more than expected for Sony's baseline predictions since word of mouth is very good on this device.
 
100% agree on the article despite owning the PSVR2. It is amazing and I am loving the games, but at its price and limited games it will never have a large install base.

The only way VR will become mainstream is if a games console comes with it as standard, it's why the quest 2 is the most popular by a country mile.

However they would need to battle the increase in price in the same way the Xbox One suffered the same fate due to mandatory kinect at launch.

Consumers don't want to pay £600 for a console, never mind £1100 PS5 + PSVR2 costs.
I wanted to pay for it and I did. And you know what? It's totally worth it. If you want the world to become a Ready Player One movie then yes, it needs to be as effortless and cheap as it can unrealistically be. Maybe we get there in 50 years :). For now, the price you mention is incredibly cheap for what you get. It's like buying a Ferrari for only 30K Euros. Can everyone afford it? No. But you get extraordinary value for the money you spend on it.
 
OK, and? The light gun was niche but boy oh boy was house of the dead a lot of fun.

You know what else is expensive and Niche? Ferraris.
 
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Neilg

Member
It isnt crazy to assume that there "might" be a way to take the data frominside tracking and convert it to what ever format the PSVR1 used. Its not crazy just cause they "collect" that data differently.

On PC you can switch between headsets that use inside out, lighthouse tracking etc without any issue. Any PC VR app that supports one also supports the other. There's no difference to the end user, you're entirely right and his post is weirdly aggressive.

The reason why you can't play psvr1 apps has nothing to do with the tracking, it's because sony want to push a higher quality experience. They don't want people trying it with their old low res basic first pass at VR games and coming away dissapointed.
 
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ksdixon

Member
Too many shit "VR experiences" where you have to lasso the ground to even walk.

Something like a Resident Evil 7 where it's still a real game with controller and you're just in the room and your head is the camera; or something like TWD: Saints and Sinners, where you're reaching behind you to draw weapon out of imaginary backpack.

Every other style of VR gamelan/VR games just isn't up to snuff yet.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
VR isn't gonna become mainstream until they're very lightweight and just work. Casuals don't want to bother with IPD adjustments, finding the sweetspot, etc.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
On PC you can switch between headsets that use inside out, lighthouse tracking etc without any issue. Any PC VR app that supports one also supports the other. There's no difference to the end user, you're entirely right and his post is weirdly aggressive.

The reason why you can't play psvr1 apps has nothing to do with the tracking, it's because sony want to push a higher quality experience. They don't want people trying it with their old low res basic first pass at VR games and coming away dissapointed.

I used to think that way, but I'm actually not sure it's quite that simple. The tracking of the old headset is completely different, it's all relative to the single camera used. The controllers are also completely different, and tracked (poorly) in a completely different way. I guess you could argue that the PSVR2 can do everything the original can so you should be able to emulate the original tracking setup, but there might be cases where a game is very specifically based on how the old tracking worked in a way that simply cannot be translated 1:1 to inside-out tracking. There would also be a lot of cases of games showing Move controllers (and maybe even the camera) in-game, which would be a huge disconnect. Basically, there are a lot of reasons why it might be a very poor experience even if it could technically work.
 
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