Whenever you ask the internet about new tech, at least one term keeps coming up: VR. The headset that allows you a fully immersive experience has been talked about alongside every advancement in technology. Experience rooms feature VR games, you can travel with VR without ever leaving the sofa, Zuckerberg wants you to host meetings in VR, Ready Player One wants you to relive the 80’s in VR: there doesn’t seem to be a single thing this headset can’t do.
Then why is it so rare to see a physical VR headset. So far, only the most avid of gamers have one, and on it, they’re playing a few dozen games. No one is hosting meetings, no one is traveling, a few are going to experience rooms. Where is the hype?
Well, if you were to ask the tech giants, the hype is coming. The global VR market is expected to grow to $209.2 billion by 2022, even though global VR revenues reached only $22.9 billion in 2020.
But there are setbacks. Are VR companies and the gaming and tech industries ready for this predicted substantial jump in revenue?
Will it go mainstream?
Industry giants are sure hoping that is the case. Mainly they are looking to China, who is projected to spend the most on VR worldwide, at a total of $72 billion by 2024. It is historically the case in tech that China and Japan do something, and the rest of the world follows suit.
But it still is the case that these numbers will be made up by gamers. There are a number of reasons the gaming community hasn’t fully embraced VR and even more when you are aiming for everyone else. If you’re looking for a great iGaming experience, head over to most popular Amatic casinos to try out their new games for a much, much lower price.
However, so far VR has only been marketed to gamers. A product can only live and thrive through marketing. Word of mouth can only go so far when the demographic you’re aiming at aren’t typically communicating with the demographic that is buying your product. And for now, aside from Zuckerberg adamantly giving speech after speech about the Metaverse, no one outside of gaming has been marketed to.
What’s holding it back?
Beyond the price issue, of which there is more detail, below, VR has a few issues that are holding it back. The biggest of which is a chicken and egg situation that is causing trouble with their most promising demographic: gamers.
Developing VR games is very hard. Harder than the average console, PC and even mobile games that can take years to develop and are often released half-baked because it’s unreasonable to make fans wait any longer. Plus, the extra strain makes them more expensive.
Because of this, there are few games made for VR, and therefore it isn’t worth buying a VR headset. If people aren’t buying the headset, companies can’t afford to make more games.
There are a few games for VR released, but there has yet to be that one that captures the attention of every gamer the way Minecraft or even Pac-Man did. In the meantime, there are a lot of little-known games, especially in the horror genre, that make for a brilliant night of gaming.
In the meantime, travelers, office workers, and your average Joe have not yet been convinced of the uses of the VR headset. Why would you “explore” the Amazon rainforest via VR instead of physically going there? Or simply Googling a few images. The full capability of the VR headset and its ability to put you somewhere you’ve never been hasn’t been fully explored.
Are companies ready?
Over the past couple of years, VR headset after VR headset has been hitting the shelves. Facebook, sorry, Meta, has one, Valve has one, Sony PlayStation has one: we can go on. Some are very affordable for what it is.
And yet, no one outside of the gaming community is embracing it. It seems the idea of dropping a cool hundred dollars – or a few – is too much for the privilege of hosting a meeting with a VR room full of Wii knock-off avatars.
The Venn diagram of the two demographics of who is using VR for gaming and who the social media and travel industries are aiming for is two separate circles. One is willing to pay out for their entertainment, having been groomed by an industry that charges the equivalent of a couple of tanks of gas for one game, and the other is used to intrusive ads that they freely scroll past – which might be why Zuckerberg is talking about introducing ads to VR.
He got a lot of backlash for it, but the industry is in its early stages, and experimenting is necessary to move forward. At the moment, the industry is throwing a few things at the wall to see what sticks.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/janine-sherman-barrois-interview-the-kings-of-napa/
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