Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Facebook (FB), Microsoft (MSFT), Samsung (SSNLF), Sony (SNE). Each of these massive tech companies sells or is working on its own virtual reality headset. And yet, do you have one? I’m going to go out on a limb and say, “no.”
So what gives? If some of the biggest organizations on the planet are making a strong push into VR, why don’t more people have headsets in their own homes?
The answer? There are just not enough reasons to buy one … yet.
We need content for the masses
I’ve used nearly every virtual reality headset on the market. And while they’re all impressive — and equally capable of making you look like a giant goober while wearing them — none offers experiences the average person would want to dive into for hours at a time.
It’s not that they don’t have any interesting content. There are plenty of intriguing games and 360 videos, not to mention a good amount of VR porn, but nothing that has sparked the imaginations of the mass market enough to warrant shelling out anywhere from $100 to $500 for a headset.
Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen equates the current state of VR content to the dearth of high-definition content that existed in the early days of HD TVs.
“You have to have enough content so that you can appeal to a broad segment of the market,” Nguyen said.
“I don’t blame content producers or developers for that,” Nguyen explained. “I think they are on a good path, a good trajectory in terms of developing this new medium. This new medium meaning this new user interface for people.”
Feeling like you’re really there
Right from the start, video games and VR seemed like a match made in heaven. And while there are certainly a number of fun VR games out there, they’re still a bit clunky.
Take “Resident Evil 7” for Sony’s PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR. Moving around the environment in a circle requires you to both move your head and tap the PS4 controller’s joystick in the appropriate direction. But the joystick doesn’t move your character smoothly, instead you rotate a certain number of degrees, stop, then continue rotating like the second hand on a clock.
Other games like “Eve Valkyrie” look and play incredibly well in VR, but the movement of the space-based dogfighting simulator can make some people nauseous.
Nguyen says movie studios in particular have to focus on ensuring you feel like a part of the story. He cites an example of horror movies that could help guide you to frightening interactions or scenes, rather than letting you look around freely causing you to potentially miss the action.