In light of all the technical problems with regular VR, it should surprise no one that Magic Leap is in trouble.<p>Consider all the information about reality you need in order to pull this off at scale ( as shown in the video at least ). Yeah, it's possible get this information, but we're nowhere near having it right now. Of course this is before we even discuss the hardware problems, and it sounds like there are serious issues there too.<p>You have Google trying to make Daydream into some kind of Prada-inspired objet d'art, and you have all the headset manufacturers trying to port games to stimulate demand. The fact that they are spending so much time and energy trying to stimulate demand is the biggest clue that it's going to fail. Yet all the proponents think that the industry is just 1 'killer app' away from huge penetration.<p>The amount of resources being exhausted trying to stimulate demand tell me that there's absolutely no consumer thirst for VR in general. Early adopters don't constitute large, liquid markets. People in VR talk about game-sized or iPhone sized markets, but I see no evidence of this in the real world. How long did it take Oculus to sell 1 million units? How long did it take Sony to sell 10 million units of the PS4?<p>In Seattle, I hear plenty of people talk about phones and computers and apps and web stuff, but no one in my tech heavy circle of friends ever talks about VR. There are one or two graphics blogs based in Seattle that have mentioned VR stuff a few times now and then, but that's it.<p>People have said the exact same things about 3D televisions and VR. Yet I don't know a single person who bought one and I've never even seen one in the wild.<p>The tech just doesn't excite enough people.