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More Proof Home VR Sets Are Struggling
maskedweasel
Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
According to HTC Reports, the Vive's very soft (and that's being generous) sales haven't helped grow HTC at all.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/launch-vive-flagship-smartphone-fail-222254579.html
"The April launch of the Vive and a new smartphone weren’t enough to bounce HTC back into the game as the Taiwanese company had a poor fiscal showing for the month of May, with year-over-year results down by 37.4 percent."
"The company saw a small boost of 17.4 percent in unaudited consolidated revenue from April to May, but it’s troubling that with the flagship HTC 10 available now, as well as one of the most well-received virtual reality headsets, HTC’s consolidated revenue still managed to go down by 58.5 percent in comparison to the same five-month time frame from last year."
It has been touted as the BEST VR headset .. and it by far is much better than the Rift, as it has motion sensors, a pass through camera, and actual controllers for it whereas the rift has... well.. none of that.
Just as I mentioned before, the Vive might be out of production before VR really even "kicks off" with content that is actually worth playing. Probably in.... 2 to 3 years. The real question is, with all of the missteps HTC has made, including the Vive and spending Millions on third party developers to develop for the vive -- will HTC still be around in 2 years?
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/launch-vive-flagship-smartphone-fail-222254579.html
"The April launch of the Vive and a new smartphone weren’t enough to bounce HTC back into the game as the Taiwanese company had a poor fiscal showing for the month of May, with year-over-year results down by 37.4 percent."
"The company saw a small boost of 17.4 percent in unaudited consolidated revenue from April to May, but it’s troubling that with the flagship HTC 10 available now, as well as one of the most well-received virtual reality headsets, HTC’s consolidated revenue still managed to go down by 58.5 percent in comparison to the same five-month time frame from last year."
It has been touted as the BEST VR headset .. and it by far is much better than the Rift, as it has motion sensors, a pass through camera, and actual controllers for it whereas the rift has... well.. none of that.
Just as I mentioned before, the Vive might be out of production before VR really even "kicks off" with content that is actually worth playing. Probably in.... 2 to 3 years. The real question is, with all of the missteps HTC has made, including the Vive and spending Millions on third party developers to develop for the vive -- will HTC still be around in 2 years?
Comments
How anyone can expect this to be a great success, I have no idea.
That said, I'm hoping it won't outright die again. I'd like it to be a first step towards proper VR.
So far, there's just literally no "real" games available. Maybe Elite: Dangerous? I think that's about the only truly notable game. Everything else released so far is just using the tech in a gimmicky fashion.
I think the launches should have been timed better with true game releases that would inspire interested parties and not just tech demos.
That said, it probably IS one of the best games out there with decent VR support. Well, since I don't own VR hardware - I can't say for sure. But just looking at the VR library on Steam - it seems the vast majority of titles is just a bunch of gimmicky crap.
Which is pretty telling, I'd say.
Current: BDO
Looking forward to: Crowfall & Chronicles of Elyria
I am happy I didn't jump on these sheep bandwagons and still rolling my analog TV and fixed landline.
Maybe sony has something up their sleeve to change this.
I mean, if you're serious about making money - you need to go all the way and motivate developers years in advance.
That said, I'm just as puzzled when new consoles launch and it takes years before we see the truly desirable exclusives.
You can't write VR off at this point, but we are also a long way from the devices being mainstream, that will take at least another generation of VR devices.
As for these headsets taking off, I agree with @DKLond - we need a standout game.
To create that standout game, you need to consider what advantages these headsets offer over a normal tv / monitor. It seems to be very few:
- 3D vision / depth perception
- Free-look linked to head movements.
That's really it. So, take these two advantages and try turning them into unique gameplay and then you've got the beginnings of your standout game. Personally, I can't think of anything that doesn't involve other unique peripherals.All the things I can think of where depth perception would actually be useful (driving, sport etc) would only really make use of the depth perception if you had other peripherals - e.g. playing baseball from wii sports where ball tracking / hitting was much more tightly linked with where you're standing, timing etc.
The only people who argue are people who bought into it and can't face reality.
That was the point Ramajama was making.
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I'm very much planning to get a VR setup later this year. I'll be getting a PS4VR setup, which will mark my transition to a console for gaming, as well as my entry to VR. I think that will be the litmus test for the immediate future for VR, so that is where I will invest.
And don't count the Vive out yet. The only reason VR is slow to take off is the lack of a 'Killer App', a game or program that will entice people that are on the fence into spending their money. Once that crowd makes their impact, I bet VR takes off, at least moderately.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
There is a very great, developed game coming out for GearVR any day now(tm).
Title is in my signature.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
/sarcasm off
Thanks for the tip, VR is the future and these headsets are great stepping stone to achieve a great entertainment tech. Can't wait for it tbh. Only tried for five minutes and knew that is the way I want to experience game worlds.
When CD players first appeared on the market, they were unaffordable gimmicks with a tiny selection of super-pricey discs. How that changed after a few years !
Additionally it makes watching movies at home great, including Netflix and Hulu. All while having huge potential for sports, esports, concerts, or any other live event. You can watch the recordings of the presidential debates on the Gear VR and it's 100x better than watching it on TV. Can you imagine being able to watch the Super Bowl from the field while in your home? Or how about being able to be on the actual Rift during LCS? There's a lot of potential that has nothing to do with the need for an actual game or anything gaming related itself. Then you have all the medical and research applications that are only beginning to be tapped into.
Not to mention the majority of people are probably waiting for 2nd-4th gen before investing. There's already things like eye tracking coming to replace head tracking which will be a huge deal and of course the price will drop significantly. Whether the Vive fails or not VR is here to stay.
Steam: Neph
As for not being a cash cow.. it's not that weird as there isn't enough VR content. It's like watching TV back in the early 90's. I remember that there wasn't enough content out to fill the continuous stream of television. Same thing is happing with VR, it's there, but the steady stream of new VR content isn't produced yet. Just wait 2-3 years and it will probably be booming.
It's a very niche game, and across all platforms it's gotten very mixed and fairly poor reviews.
Unfortunately, the saturation of VR hardware with little to no real software support for VR is a very good predictive measure for VR as a whole. I mean the Rift isn't making money either with hardware, Samsung is giving another round of headsets away throughout the month of June with an S7 purchase, and unfortunately HTC hasn't had Vives on Backorder and their new flagship phone isn't exactly selling well either.
It's a lukewarm launch of VR for every company, but it's taking a larger toll on companies like HTC that can't catch a break even when they are the leader in something (the best, most easily playable VR set).
Why it matter is, at the end of the year.. or two years.. we may only see one or two VR headset manufacturers, and those may be the ones who have invested so much at this point they need it to be profitable. I believe that the prospective influence of VR tech by 2020 is way overblown like how 3D TV's were supposed to be by 2018.
I don't think VR in general will disappear, but I don't think it's the revolution many of these companies were counting on.
Alright time to stop.
VR the concept and use have been around a very long time. I remember being tested in such things long ago well after lawnmower man and it's era.
I recall depth perception gimmicks like the virtual boy...oooohh ahhh depth perception. For everyone with two eyes that are 20/20.
Widespread use may be more "here now" but I use wide spread very very liberally as i know not one gamer who has or wants one.
So then you guys doing the console thing with VR. Prepare to have your ass pounded. Why?
Because you are incredibly stupid to trust a company that creates a tv for it's console and abandons support within months for it.
The guys buying console vr are going to be real pissed when sony stops supporting it and they will.
Allow me to cite the gimmicks just off the top of my hand that were abandoned...
Playstation move.
Play Station TV.
Play station 3d tv.
The playstation 3d glasses.
Ok so far I got only 4 and the glasses do matter because standard 3d glasses never worked right for the whole since screen 3d.
So yeah. Not to mention anyone buying a console at this time is a damned moron.
Why not just buy a ps3 when the launch of the ps4 hit? Because the ps4 we know is about to get buried.
Only stupid people buy into gimmicks from companies renown for pushing gimmicks.
The reason Vive sucks, is because of the software, not the hardware or technology behind it.
I remember when people said DVDs and Flat Screen televisions were also gimmicks, and that they were overpriced and would flop. These same people eventually bought them.
As i've said before, it's all about content, and pushing VR primarily for games was a big mistake. Hardware requirements is another factor. Give it a few years for PC hardware and VR headsets to drop in price, and VR will be commonplace. $99-199 is much more reasonable than $599+.