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from the predicted-sales-of-6-or-7-mainframes-by-IBM dept.
Facebook will never break through with Oculus, says one of the VR company's co-founders
Five years after its $2 billion purchase of Oculus, Facebook is still pushing forward in its efforts to bring virtual reality to a mainstream audience. But one of the company's six co-founders now doubts Oculus will ever break through.
Jack McCauley told CNBC he doesn't think there's a real market for VR gaming. With Facebook positioning its Oculus devices primarily as gaming machines, McCauley doesn't believe there's much of a market for the device. "If we were gonna sell, we would've sold," McCauley said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
[...] The $199 Oculus Go has sold a little more than 2 million units since its release in May 2018, according to estimates provided by market research firm SuperData, a Nielsen company. The Oculus Quest, which was released this May, has sold nearly 1.1 million units while the Oculus Rift has sold 547,000 units since the start of 2018, according to SuperData.
[...] Since leaving in November 2015, McCauley has enjoyed a semi-retired life. He's an innovator in residence at Berkeley's Jacobs Institute of Design Innovation and he continues to build all sorts of devices, such as a gun capable of shooting down drones, at his own research and development facility.
The cheaper, standalone headsets are selling more units. Add foveated rendering and other enhancements at the lower price points (rather than $1,599 like the Vive Pro Eye), and the experience could become much better.
Related: Oculus Rift: Dead in the Water?
HTC: Death of VR Greatly Exaggerated
As Sales Slide, Virtual Reality Fans Look to a Bright, Untethered Future
Virtual Reality Feels Like a Dream Gathering Dust
VR Gets Reality Check with Significant Decline in Investment
Creepy Messages Will be Found in Facebook's Oculus Touch VR Controllers
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Monday July 15 2019, @07:19PM (1 child)
It's like saying, DVDs aren't a thing, when they were first introduced to the market. Yes, it cost $1k for the initial devices, but they don't now and the format is leaps and bounds better than VHS.
I re-purchased Fallout 4, specifically for VR. Yes, VR has some rough edges, but this isn't your daddy's Virtual Boy. The initial investors in VR were in a sweet spot (Valve/HTC/Oculus/Facebook). No one had created a viable consumer VR product. Within a short time period, there were 2. Now there's a bunch of me-too bits of hardware out there.
VR gaming is here to stay and that's a very cool thing. Sure, there's a bunch of arcade like games for it, but look at Fallout 4 VR / Skyrim VR, for what could be. Fallout 5 built for VR, would be a thing to behold. I akin VR to the Wii's smash hit with the Wii-Mote. The problem is that VR in it's current state, costs quite a bit to do well. Unfortunately, that means you're going to be seeing console like pricing on most everything, because there's just too few people to economize the sales. That didn't stop DVDs from essentially killing off VHS, though.
Given all of the compromises and cost, VR is a very fun experience. Some of the funnest games I've played on VR, weren't detailed masterpieces, but fun game mechanics with proof of concept models. I'm a gamer. I love to play games. Eye-Candy is just Eye-Candy, not necessary, for a fun experience.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday July 15 2019, @09:54PM
lol