200 — The number of Oculus Rift demo units being pulled from Best Buy stores in the US, reportedly due to a lack of consumer interest in trying them.
QUOTE | “We were happy to bring the titles to market because it was a reflection of the fact we have the R&D abilities to address video games in a VR format if and when that’s a meaningful part of the business. I have expressed scepticism in the past, and I think that’s been borne out by the fact that the market for VR in video games remains quite small.” — Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick discusses the performance of the publisher’s first two VR projects, Carnival Games VR and the NBA 2K VR Experience.
QUOTE | “2017 will be a bit of a re-balancing year. Last year was all ‘Yay, it’s here, everyone get involved,’ and there wasn’t… I am not saying there wasn’t any due diligence and thought, but it was a lot more ‘let’s go for it’. Whereas now people are starting to ask: ‘Actually, how long is it going to take?’” — Dream Reality Interactive founder and former Sony London head David Ranyard says he fully expected the VR hype to drop off a bit this year.
QUOTE | “What was the killer app for the App Store? I would argue it was flexibility; the ability to become different for each person. If you’d have asked me 20 years ago what feature do I most want on my phone, I probably would say something about making phone calls; now I rarely make a phone call.” — Valve’s Chet Faliszek disputes the notion that VR needs to have a “Killer App” in the traditional sense.
QUOTE | “Right now we’re building three VR games. When I say we’re building three games, we’re building three full games, not experiments.” — Valve’s Gabe Newell details the company’s commitment to VR.
QUOTE | “Once set up, developers will pay a recoupable application fee for each new title they wish to distribute, which is intended to decrease the noise in the submission pipeline.” — Valve’s Alden Kroll explains why Steam is replacing the Greenlight process with Steam Direct.
QUOTE | “The move is long overdue as we have all seen the tremendous success that is Gamescom Europe.” — Team17 co-founder Debbie Bestwick welcomes the Entertainment Software Association’s decision to sell 15,000 tickets to the Electronic Entertainment Expo directly to the public.
QUOTE | “The feedback we heard was clear — they wanted to play the games inside the convention center. In addition, exhibitors inside the convention center wanted to have access to the fans. So this year we’re bringing the two together.” — ESA VP of communications Rich Taylor explains why the organisation abandoned last year’s poorly received attempt at incorporating the public, E3 Live.
QUOTE | “It’s clear for a portion of our audience, the space setting just didn’t resonate.” — Activision Blizzard COO Thomas Tippl explains what went wrong with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the disappointing performance of which was a drag on the company’s otherwise shining financial results.
QUOTE | “Not as dynamic as expected.” — Ubisoft describes the launch sales of Watch Dogs 2. Despite that, the game still performed better than the previous year’s big holiday Ubisoft release, Assassin’s Cred: Syndicate.
QUOTE | “A platform where players can be entertained, and also entertain others while blurring the lines between reality and a simulated world.” — Former Rockstar developer Leslie Benzes describes his latest project, Everywhere, which now has three different studios working on it.
Comments
One response to “This Week In The Business: VR We There Yet?”
As awesome as VR is, and it is, …..very much so…….it’s just too damn expensive. I’ve had the Oculus DK1 and Dk2 for years now and they were fun as all get out but now I’m waiting for software to backup the prohibitive price on these new systems. It just isn’t there. Give me a reason to spend $1200 on a vive or oculus then another grand on a computer to run it…..
I really REALLY hope it doesn’t shit the bed, because unless you’ve tried it, you have absolutely no idea. Nobody can tell you what VR is like, you have to experience it for yourself to get it. Right now though? Too pricey and not enough content to back it up. I’m happy to pay big dollars providing I have plenty to play. I’ve done my 4 years of tinkering with the Dev tech, I’d like consumer level support now thanks