News Best Buy closes 200 Oculus Rift demo stations

This makes me wonder if home VR is going to go the same way as that latest big thing of a few years ago, 3D television?

 

From people who've actually been to the demo stations, the biggest problems were:
- Scheduled demos only, regardless of whether the demo station was free or not. No just walking up to one and having a go
- Staff manning the stations generally clueless about even basic functionality

 

Well the capability hasn't really gone away, but the sheer lack of content certainly hasn't helped things. Plus wearing glasses to watch things at home? No thanks. I can put up with that in the cinema for 3D release but not for casual viewing.

I do fear that VR is in some weird catch 22 right now though. The tech is sort of there, but because it's expensive, there isn't a big enough install base for games that really use it properly. I mean you can't have a big AAA title come out designed around VR as it won't sell enough copies, but removing the VR dependence reduces the experience too much to warrant wanting a setup for one in the first place.

If we get some good games out that are worth plonking a lot of cash down for then VR might soldier on and be successful. Without that sort of hit though, it seems likely to remain too niche for the most part.

 

I have had my HTC Vive now for ages, but I just don't play it much anymore. It is still great and fantastic, and whoever plays it is still blown away by it, but my priorities are elsewhere. I am considering selling it now however I have spent loads of games from steam I wish I could sell steam games too.

 

Uh you should be able to, just make sure you get the payment and then gift them from your steam library?
edit: just checked the steam faq, indeed this functionality was removed...

 

Oculus have been dumping piles of cash onto devs (about $250mil so far) to polish VR games to a higher level than the current tiny market could sustain from sales alone. e.g. Epic's Robo Recall, 4a's Arktika 1, etc. Sony are doing the same thing for PSVR, and Valve and HTC have (after a few months delay after launch) also started doing so.
The PCMR crowd throw a bit of a wobbler over this as Oculus are only funding to develop for their SDK, not for SteamVR, so the "if I can't have it nobody should have it" mentality kicks in, but until the VR market grows at least an order of magnitude or two, it's the only way to fund production of games that aren't tech demos or Early Access: fund them as loss-leaders to speed the building of an install base that will eventually be profitable.

 

Thing is, VR needs the same sort of reaction that new console generations used to have in order to get there if you ask me. Rather than "Oh that would be cool to play like that" it should be "Oh I really need that to play this". Like how people reacted when they saw the Xbox 360/PS3 demos at E3, there was a leap from the xbox/PS2 that really shifted the gaming scene. That same buzz certainly wasn't around for the PS4/Xbone and has all but evaporated for the next gen stuff.

Even pumping money in like they are, it's not really enough. Instead it could end up a very expensive experiment, which would be such a shame. Case in point is that I don't have a VR headset yet. I liked the Vive, just not enough to plonk for one yet, and the games I've seen or tried haven't pushed me to make that commitment yet. This is despite owning multiple rigs now capable of running VR without issues.

 

When the hype started I wondered if VR would change everything or become a fad. Certainly some on here suggested we would no longer need gaming monitors one day. That may still come true, but nothing I've seen has convinced me to buy Oculus or Vive, yet.

 

That's basically Best Buy's ad slogan.

 

As somebody who fell in love with 3D in its heyday (and Fallout 3 and NV in 3D, oh, and L4D2 also) and then slowly watched it slip away I am just not up for spending £600 on it.

I have set myself a limit of £250. If they stay alive long enough until I can get one for that cool, 'cause if not they can go poke.

 

Hopefully shouldn't be too long considering Microsoft has already teased a £300 one.

https://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2016/10/27/microsoft-vr-headsets/1

 

Yup I might just stretch to that. Definitely not paying £600+ though screw that noise !

 

Too many monies. I was all set when they teased us with a price some time before release, then they pretty much doubled it on release day

£300 absolute max if I got excitable.

 

Yup, I was surprised to see it was quite the consensus really (the £300 thing). I think that people who create these ideas need to learn that the PC buyer is not the bottomless pit that they think we are.

 

Exactly.
I had a lot less spare cash when I first got into computers, but I used to spend a lot more than I do now... and I still wouldn't have spent £600.

It's not a crazy amount of money for something in the computer world, but I'd normally like to quantify a return on something (enjoyment wise) before spunking £600. On something so new I can't do that with a brief test, so spending £300 and having to flog it on ebay for a small loss wouldn't be as bad.

 

I was about to say that.

Of course, this article is literally how I found out Best Buy HAD Rift demo stations, so... that may also be a problem.

 

No surprises here. I can see the benefits of VR for 3D modelling but I have always been sceptical about it for gaming and recreation use. 3D films and games were destined to fail because it was a hassle having to put glasses on so the chances of the general public buying into something that is even more hassle and expense is very limited.

 

You'd expect that, but the PS4 and XB1 outperformed sales of the PS3 and 360 regardless.
.

 

VR is a long way from must have. Oculus and VIVE where double the expected price points most thought pre launch. If VR survives to hit £250 -£300 it might take off.

Currently you need a high end pc no matter what anyone says,(project cars needs a 1080 or above gpu to really be a good VR experience) and a expensive device for VR.