this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Virtual Reality
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Virtual Reality - Quest, PCVR, PSVR2, Pico, Mixed Reality, ect. Open discussion of all VR platforms, games, and apps.
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A super expensive headset with no software didn't sell well? Who would have thought? Sony did the same shit with the same outcome. Even Meta stopped making games and is now watching their sales tank.
Every company wants to make a headset so they can get rich but not a single one is making software that anyone wants. And they don't understand the gaming industry apparently so they try to offer productivity and AR bullshit. What people want for a VR headset is games and porn. Why is that so hard to understand?
Steam gets it. I don't love them, but they get it.
When did Meta stop making games? Pretty sure they still have many of their studios working on stuff, Asgard’s wrath was the only one they released half a year ago.
I find Apple‘s "general purpose VR" approach interesting, but I don’t think it’s going to fly right now, as you said: gaming is the main use case so far and Apple‘s not playing along. Even if they were, I don’t know if it made a huge difference, it would still have a tiny market size with expensive hardware.
Perhaps it's just a lack of marketing then. I'm not aware of anything new since AC. And there didn't seem to be much before that. Did San Andreas ever come out? I bailed on their platform after a year so if they're only pushing ads to their own headsets I haven't seen em.
Steam is where all the good games are. Any headset that doesn't support it is basically doomed. At least in the adult market.
There are plenty of games coming out; it’s just that Meta isn’t making them themselves. So far in 2024, we have Underdogs, Medieval Dynasty, Riven, Mudrunner, Max Mustard, Ghosts of Tabor, Contractors Showdown, and many more.
Upcoming games include Skydance’s Behemoth, Batman Arkham Shadow, Hitman 3, Metro Awakening, and Alien Rogue Incursion.
I’m pretty sure Quest is where the money is, as it has the most users.
Quest is indeed where the money is at. But most (all?) of those games are also on Steam and look a hell of a lot better.
My point is that Meta isn't really offering anything compared to what you get with other headsets. Sure they were the clear winner in the Quest 2 days but now, not so much.
Batman and Hitman are exclusive, but I think it’s great that studios take the time to port games to multiple platforms. Games have always looked much better on PC/PSVR, but it’s both more expensive and, most importantly, more friction to play that way.
What Meta currently has is being the clear number one in standalone VR – the platform that most people prefer.
I think Meta's problem now is now that their headset is no longer super cheap. The Q3 is double the price of the Q2. It's no longer a cheap toy you could buy on a whim.
Its kind of left the PC without a super cheap headset as well.
Bad news for VR tbh. I was hoping the PS2VR PC dongle might do it, but it sounds like they've gutted it for PC users.
There's a cheaper version of Q3 coming soon to plug that hole on the market.
It definitely seems like sales are much much lower with the 200 bucks Q2/Q3 difference. Q2 is still fine for PC and even cheaper than before.
I don’t see the PSVR PC dongle doing anything or almost anyone.
It's not a lack of software that killed it, it's the lack of ability to use any meaningful library of software due to proprietary restraints, as always. I don't know when everyone made the switch from VR as a peripheral to strictly proprietary, "stand-alone" (and die alone) headsets, but it's literally killing VR as a whole.
Don't get me wrong, the current strict PCVR companies aren't any better. They see what's happening and are doubling down on the massive cost hike despite looking shittier and technically having less features than SA headsets. That being said, they work INFINITELY smoother with PC apps and game and movies, in addition to higher quality tracking systems and third-party hardware support. This alone should put them ahead by a long-shot, but being an unaffordable hobby niche doesn't help when large corpos can churn out headsets full of "stand-alone" bloat at a loss just to devour the majority of the VR market and lock people into hopeless, proprietary hellscapes.