As of now the profitability for VR is in arcade experiences (as in amusement park style ride, not arcade-style games). Those make money.
Console VR probably does not lose as much as high end PC, but basically there are not enough VR users to be able to sustain PC or console game development yet (and adoption has slowed a lot).
This has been going on for a while, at least 6 months ago most VR developers advice was to not get into it. People are finishing project and closing studios fast, or switching to traditional platforms.
I still think Magic Leap and other devices might see a faster growth and I remain optimistic on AR, but VR will have a hard time coming on it’s own before AR is adopted, at the current rate at least.
I can’t imagine many people expect to make money on VR at this stage (least of all Facebook). I could see people just starting to try stuff out and learn what works. Fingers crossed for another hardware generation.
Fallout 4 VR is a slapdash port even for its targeted SKU, Bethsoft doesn’t deserve success but I hope they get it anyway. I haven’t heard of anything else ambitious for VR on the horizon.
PSVR isn’t doing too bad. 2 million PSVR units sold and 12.2 million in game sales. https://uploadvr.com/psvr-now-sold-two-million-units-12-2-million-psvr-games/
I’m not sure what the stats are on rift and vive, but I’d be surprised if rift hasn’t picked up a lot more users with the price drops.
As for PC VR games, I think a major problem is that there just isn’t that much quality content out there. Lone Echo was the first game I actually felt compelled to buy. For the higher end content, much of it is amazingly over-priced - if you looked at a lot of the game’s trailers and compared them to regular PC games, you just wouldn’t spend that much money on them if they were for PC.
And then there’s the FLOOD of cheap VR games on the steam and oculus stores that dilute the market and I wouldn’t even pay $1 for.
Galadin
1591
So wait, people aren’t buying games that are a bad port of previously bought and played games? I really like playing in VR. Star Trek Bridge Crew, AudioShield, Job Simulator and VR Ping Pong are some of my most played games. But guess what, they are also games built for VR, not just ported over.
Make these VR ports a DLC and I might buy them.
I wonder if they could have done one of the DLC areas more thoroughly and sold it as a smaller standalone. Then use lessons learned to do the next one…
Caveat: that figure probably includes numbers for Resident Evil 7, rise of the Tomb Raider, Tekken 7, Gran Turismo Sport… All of them “PSVR titles” (but most of the sales unrelated to PSVR use).
Mind you, I think this is the way. Make VR compatible (but not VR only) products to keep the market growing without risking too much.
So, uh, the Purple pack for the Oculus Winter sale is showing as “free” right now. Most likely they’ll just remove it for all transactions without payment, but I’d grab it on the off chance that they honor the freebie and pay the developers with facebook money. Here’s hoping!
Hm, damn. Seems to be hit and miss. Some users are reporting that the Green Pack is showing as free as well (though not for me.)
I just noticed that the Oculus Store has the same refund policy as Steam, ie < 2hours. That seems pretty helpful.
I buy a lot of VR games. But I have no interest in Doom or Syrim or Fallout or LA Noire in VR. Especially as a standalone full price game, rather than a patch to something I already paid for. That said, other people with headsets I’ve spoken to seem interested, so maybe I’m the outlier. But not that much of an outlier, apparently.
Zenchess
1599
So I’ve been hearing about the magic leap technology for quite a while, yet it’s been kind of a secret what it actually is. This may be the next big thing: https://uploadvr.com/magic-leap-finally-reveals-ar-headset-magic-leap-one/
wumpus
1600
Has VR completely changed the world yet, guys?
No. Although I maintain I think there is a really cool art form to be explored here. I just think its going to be different to regular games and business wise is unlikely to be self sustainable for a long time , years or decades.
The exception being cockpit games, which I think “VR support” is going to be fairly standard going forward. Which works for me.
wumpus
1602
The physics simply aren’t there yet to do proper VR, and won’t be for a long time (decades). Strapping one or two garden variety high end smartphones to your face was I guess novel enough to make Oculus into a short term phenomenon, but overall doesn’t cut it as an actual experience.
True enough. Although its probably a hopeful sign that even the current janky ass low res VR headsets like Oculus & Rift really are amazing to a lot of people who try them.
Once that changes from the current tech of a couple of smart phones strapped on your face to a genuine high res experience I think thats going to be even more badass.
Again not popular but lots of great things can never be popular due to price or other gating factors.
I read the article about Magic Leap on Rolling Stone’s website this morning. The go into a little detail about the tech- it seems they specifically aren’t putting screens in front of your face in a paralax view. It all sounds kind of wild, really. That said, it’s cutting-edge tech, with a computer actually coupled to it- this thing ain’t gonna be cheap.
Interesting thanks! Although I dont know where the price can go. It is already prohibitively expensive for most people. Maybe magic leap is going to unlock a new market that can handle higher prices? It will be interesting to see,
RichVR
1606
I am so ready to get that jack in the back of my skull. Let’s get on it okay?
