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[Cruxador]

"Hey, so our main competitor just cut their price down to half of ours."

"Excellent. Wait for everyone who was considering VR to buy one of our competitor's products, then sell our product for 50% more than their sale price."

I think they're not really straight competitors. Oculus and PSVR are both seated experiences, whereas Vive is room scale. I can't currently use room scale VR - so I'd have to get Oculus or PSVR if I wanted to buy VR now.

Having tried both I think Vive is better, but many people just aren't going to have room. If you're a 18 year old living with your parents, room-scale VR probably isn't going to work - if you're a 30 year old mum with two kids having run of the house, it's probably not going to work out either. It's way easier to just find somewhere to sit and put on the VR.

Can't the Vive also do seated? I had the opportunity to use it in a demo, and although I was standing, it would have worked the same if I sat.

[Scripten]

Yeah, the Vive does seated just fine. Although I wouldn't get one if I couldn't do room-scale, honestly.

[GentlemanRaptor]

In my experience, Oculus room scale works just fine - you need to purchase an extra sensor, however. Three will cover a sizable play space.

[Folly]

I wonder if we will see a PSVR price drop next? Having lower resolution and fps and a much more limited library, price was really the only thing PSVR had going for it.

PSVR Price Drop

$400 for headset+camera, $450 for headset+camera+controllers.
Still feels like the worst VR product for it's cost.

[Cruxador]

These price cuts are nice and all, but they're kind of meaningless without some big system-seller software. Well, maybe falling prices will increase the install-base this Christmas and that will lead to something bigger, but it's looking more and more like the ship has sailed for now.

[Retropunch]

These price cuts are nice and all, but they're kind of meaningless without some big system-seller software. Well, maybe falling prices will increase the install-base this Christmas and that will lead to something bigger, but it's looking more and more like the ship has sailed for now.

There are already quite a few fun games out now - a lot more than just gimmicks and demos. I think you're right about a bigger install base, I just wish that one of the big companies would really give it a good shot at making a serious AAA VR game and doing all the marketing and stuff for it needed - I think that'll be the turn around point.

[Rose]

MS seems to have teamed up with HP and Acer to make two 'mixed reality' headsets that are both sub-$400, and both have stereo cameras on them. (controller sold separately)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/collections/vrandmixedrealityheadsets

[Cruxador]

These price cuts are nice and all, but they're kind of meaningless without some big system-seller software. Well, maybe falling prices will increase the install-base this Christmas and that will lead to something bigger, but it's looking more and more like the ship has sailed for now.

There are already quite a few fun games out now - a lot more than just gimmicks and demos. I think you're right about a bigger install base, I just wish that one of the big companies would really give it a good shot at making a serious AAA VR game and doing all the marketing and stuff for it needed - I think that'll be the turn around point.

The difference between a fun game and a system seller is the difference between Paris and Helsinki. In order to break into the mainstream, VR needs a Paris. At one point I had a suspicion that Valve would bundle Half-Life 3 with the second version of the Vive, but rumors are now that their 2013 layoffs killed all internal game development, so something like this may be impossible.

[PTTG??]

Let us not speak of The Betrayal in this thread.

But yeah, a system seller really is needed. I have a couple ideas, actually....

1: Mech Mechanic. You build, operate, and repair a combat mech. Projectiles damage components realistically, and you can pop suit mid-combat to replace damaged parts or even to scavange weapons from defeated enemies. If you're truly courageous and stupid, you could even try to cut your way into an active enemy mech....

2: A Good Story-Based VR Shooter. All the big names in VR combat are arena games. I want something like half-- no, like left 4-- no, not that either. Um, Red Faction? Something where there's progression from scene to scene with somewhat consistent resources and a highly interactive world.

3: An open-world RPG. Maybe synch it up to real-world props like chairs and such so that you can interact tangibly with them. But it has to be an RPG, in the sense of a role-playing game. More like Morrowind than Skyrim, for example.

4: Any city builder. I mean come on, this is perfect for city building. There's like three ways to display the city, and they're all awesome: The Model-City mode, where the interocular distance makes the city look a few meters wide; The Helicopter mode, where it's full size but seen from a distant hovering perspective; and Pedestrian mode, where you actually stand on the ground and the buildings actually feel like buildings. I personally would make it a themed city builder (industrial era, for instance, or a space colony builder), so that game abstractions can be more easily hidden and so that the resultant city is more fantastic to observe. But a modern city has its own charms.

[Cruxador]

4: Any city builder. I mean come on, this is perfect for city building. There's like three ways to display the city, and they're all awesome: The Model-City mode, where the interocular distance makes the city look a few meters wide; The Helicopter mode, where it's full size but seen from a distant hovering perspective; and Pedestrian mode, where you actually stand on the ground and the buildings actually feel like buildings. I personally would make it a themed city builder (industrial era, for instance, or a space colony builder), so that game abstractions can be more easily hidden and so that the resultant city is more fantastic to observe. But a modern city has its own charms.

Similarly, VR would be great with something that could be called a successor to Black and White, but with the voxel sculpting of From Dust and maybe some of the town and building mechanics of the wave of imitators that followed Minecraft.

[nenjin]

I just haven't seen any VR games (and I admit I don't watch a ton of video on them) that actually look...fun to play for an extended period of time. Part of that is the controllers, they still look unwieldy and terrible to me. I couldn't picture myself holding them for more than 40 minutes before going eh.

Still, an actual game with meat on its bones is what VR needs, a full game. I have seen every variety of object fumbling, brawling, shooting, swinging and teleporting in the last year or so keeping up with VR and in the end they all feel like gimmicks. Even the deeper mind fuck-y adventure ones. They've figured out how to make them interesting and visually appealing (some anyways.) They just haven't figured out how to make them genuinely fun.

VR needs two things in my mind:

A breakout title that really demonstrates the power of the VR experience. A Mirror's Edge in high fidelity VR (although with some actual game attached.) Something that makes people go "Yeah, I have to experience that." When systems were not a every three year kind of thing, it took a game and something you had to get in to that motivated you to buy it. Once you've bought it.....you've taken the most expensive step and are in.

Secondly, it needs multiplayer that isn't derpy. I've seen a couple MP games that were downright primitive, like bad physics jokes rather than actual competitive MP. Right now MP games feel too crude to be more than a novelty, there's no real space for the average person (i.e someone that isn't going "I wanna get really good at a VR game") to feel good and skillful and have an extensible good time.

Until VR is like a single laser and a pair of sunglasses, games people have to play is what brings people into an entirely new entertainment system. It's just too janky right now to be otherwise, it's enthusiast hardware. Parents probably aren't buying their kids Vives for Xmas, they're probably buying them Xbone 3 or whatever it's called. And as far as the games go....everything I've seen is that game makers are starting very small and humbly, trying to figure the space out, and no one has the funding to, you know, create a standard RPG that is actually playable in VR. So they make cute one off mini-games, or mind fucks, for $15 to $30.

[Folly]

I have a couple ideas, actually....

1: Mech Mechanic.
2: A Good Story-Based VR Shooter.

Historically, these fall into the niche catergory; surely enjoyed by a few, but not creating statistically significant sales numbers.

3: An open-world RPG. Maybe synch it up to real-world props like chairs and such so that you can interact tangibly with them. But it has to be an RPG, in the sense of a role-playing game. More like Morrowind than Skyrim, for example.
4: Any city builder.

A new Skyrim would likely attract more customers than a new Morrowind. I'm not judging your preference, just saying that a slow talkative experience isn't going to sell as well as a fast-paced action adventure.
For a city builder, we've got Minecraft. Though Minecraft is an ancient game they are trying to revive with VR, and I would agree that it needs something new to really sell systems.

VR needs two things in my mind:

A breakout title that really demonstrates the power of the VR experience. A Mirror's Edge in high fidelity VR (although with some actual game attached.) Something that makes people go "Yeah, I have to experience that." When systems were not a every three year kind of thing, it took a game and something you had to get in to that motivated you to buy it. Once you've bought it.....you've taken the most expensive step and are in.

You're describing pretty much every single gimmicky tech demo that already exists for VR.

[PTTG??]

I'd say that the story-based shooter genre has had some pretty decent success. Half-Life is one, as is Bioshock (the series) and Borderlands (to an extent). I think I've heard of this series called salmon or tuna or some other kind of large fish? Gadidae Gadus? Then you've got Deus Ex, Metro 2033, Red Faction, and arguably Serious Sam. Also the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series.

I figure a story told through the medium of shooting people in a linear gallery still has some life left in it.

[nenjin]

You're describing pretty much every single gimmicky tech demo that already exists for VR.

Yeah but:

1. These tech demos look like shit.
2. They don't have actual gameplay.
3. People know going in it's a short ride and so are dismissive of it.

Like, Superhot VR is a good start toward moving beyond the gimmick and actually expanding on the basic premise. Superhot VR isn't amazing and it's just adapted from regular ol Super Hot, but at least it's the kind of thing that's compelling enough to spend more than 30 minutes with it and never look back.

[PTTG??]

The key is, it does need to make use of VR in a way that makes VR an essential part of it. So the story-based shooter, for instance, needs to involve kinetic motion and intensive immersion. A puzzle game needs to rely on tactile manipulation of objects (maybe a myst-like puzzle involving assembling a puzzle cube?). An strategy probably needs to play with perspective and the quality of units.