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posted by martyb on Monday July 15 2019, @06:17PM   Printer-friendly
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


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @06:50PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @06:50PM (#867284)

    I suppose from a big business perspective he's right but I would think there is at least a niche market. First off, you are limiting to the gamer market right now at the low end and maybe adding some niche design or research markets for VR where 3d visualization is imported. But in the gaming market you are missing out on:

    * anyone on a tight budget. When the VR headset is the same price as a monitor, the monitor is going to win on the added utility alone.
    * social games that like to play with others in the same room. it's harder to do a hey look at this when everyone is in their own isolated world.
    * people with cats. don't believe me? Get one. The first time it tries to get you to pet it and you don't even know it's there.
    * people who prefer keyboard-and-mouse controls. This covers not only people on a budget, but people who need a lot of buttons.
    * people with kids. Hey dad (mom, brother, sister, etc.), what are you playing? Can I see (pulls headset off your face).

    Even if we take away the budget issue, until the VR experience includes me being able to see my hands and the keyboard on my desk, the limited input options are enough to make me question why I would spend even the low-end price. Also, when my cat hops up on my desk, I need to be able to see her or things start to get painful around the whole "hey why aren't you petting me" thing.

    There is also the lack of decent support for legacy games (my favorite game is approaching 15 years old. The control interface doesn't really work with VR (it very much needs a keyboard and a mouse, game pad alone won't cut it). But beyond that because it was never designed with VR in mind, they took a lot of short cuts (despite being an over-the-shoulder 3D game) so it looks horrible in VR.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 15 2019, @09:25PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday July 15 2019, @09:25PM (#867326) Journal

    Does the monitor have "added utility"? A VR headset of sufficient resolution should be able to render virtual monitors of any "size".

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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday July 15 2019, @09:28PM

    by acid andy (1683) on Monday July 15 2019, @09:28PM (#867328) Homepage Journal

    people who prefer keyboard-and-mouse controls. This covers not only people on a budget, but people who need a lot of buttons

    I have to disagree with this. Obviously most of the designed-for-VR games will be expecting someone to use a controller, but for games that use it, you can certainly use a keyboard and mouse. It helps if you can touch type but some headseats will let you see a little bit of the keyboard if you look straight down.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Monday July 15 2019, @10:21PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday July 15 2019, @10:21PM (#867346) Journal

    For those that have issues with "I can't see my hands", "I can't see my kid", "I can't see my keyboard", "I can't see my cat", "I'm going to hit the wall!". The HTC Vive, and I assume the Valve Index, have the option to render the "Chaperone" using the Camera on the front of the headset. What this means is that you can use the camera, to create outlines of objects in the room, "ghosts"/ filled objects in the room, or even full color images of the entire room as your chaperone. (You can also vary the color, opacity, etc. of the chaperone. Depending on the mode.) So, you won't have to worry about stepping on the cat, can see your keyboard, if you want to, etc. You'd have a hard time seeing the letters on the keys, but I assume you can touch type at this point in your life. Otherwise, there's an app for that. Might I suggest "The Typing Dead" or whatever that Zombie typing game was called. Also, there's tons of tools out there for you to learn how to touch type. It's a very convenient and sometimes highly necessary tool in modern society.

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