As an average VR enjoyer, I’m absolutely baffled by the current state of VR gaming.<p>2018-2020: barely limping along compared to the early hype, but still getting 2-3 “groundbreaking” titles per year that mostly live up to expectations<p>Spring 2020: Half Life Alyx is released to a flurry of (mostly deserved) 10/10s across the board<p>October 2020: FB releases the Quest 2 and proceeds to beat the combined lifetime sales of the rest of the VR industry in under 18 months. Essentially moving the same number of units as the PS5 during that period (to be fair, Sony had shortage issues)<p>Winter 2020-Present: imagine a tumbleweed lazily rolling through a deserted casino town<p>Most of 2021 was a cope period where enthusiasts believed the drought was due to game publishers pivoting to the Quest’s mobile chipset. But at this point, especially after the Quest Pro reveal and the second Connect with no updates on the two announced AAA titles (Assassin’s Creed and GTA:SA), sentiment seems to be shifting towards a desperate hope that PSVR2 will save the VR gaming industry.<p>What happened? 2020 brought the first AAA 10/10 VR exclusive title AND new hardware that absolutely demolished the sales of everything else released to date. And yet the market is SIGNIFICANTLY more dead than it was in 2019.<p>I can’t explain it. It’s not even a Nintendo Wii situation where it became clear the massive install base wasn’t interested in third party titles: there hasn’t even been a single big third party title released! RE4 VR and Bonelab come the closest and, by all accounts, they both sold extremely well.
I'm finding that I'm grumpy about most new videogames. Graphics are prioritized over game play. Everything is about loot boxes and skins. A lot of the multi-player seems like the person with the best connection always wins (connection has always been a factor, but seem like it got worse).<p>I have little hope for most VR stuff, especially the Metaverse. AR seems like a more interesting and useful realm to me.
The Carmack talk: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RealityLabs/videos/792254305349862/" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/RealityLabs/videos/792254305349862/</a><p>Looks silly as fuck. Why would anyone want to watch a half-body ghost avatar shaking like they're high on coke in a cartoonish 3D setting when you can just video stream the real guy?<p>God, that MZ avatar looks cringe af.
I can't blame him.<p>I really love VR. It's still in that period (maybe it never leaves?) where as amazing as it is, its just too much of a hassle to "set up" or "tear down."<p>Maybe I'm just lazy tho, lol