Will a Fractured Market Stunt Virtual Reality Game Development?

Hardcore Gamer: Just as Harmonix and Activision were smart enough to make sure their music games worked with the plastic instruments of their competition, the manufacturers of these VR devices should take care to create some parity with their competition. If any developer is going to take a risk and make something specifically for virtual reality, knowing it can be ported to all the available devices without too much trouble would likely go a long way in encouraging virtual reality development.

[ValKilmer]

This is a really good point. If this becomes an HD DVD/Blu-ray situation where essentially the same product is nabbing up exclusives and studios and boxing the other out, it could be very dangerous for VR development and adoption.

[Fireseed]

Agreed. Especially considering that both devices ATM are unique to a platform, boxing out competition would just kill interest in it all around.

[nukeitall]

I think once people get their hands on it, the majority will reject this anyhow.

People didn't want 3D because of the glasses, and it was lightweight glasses.

Imagine a heavy headset on your head that gives VR sickness:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ocu...

That is not considering the price to boot!

As a person that is interested in technology, this is exciting, but I won't delude myself into thinking this will be mainstream.

If it is a success though (which is highly unlikey), developers will find ways to get on as many platforms as possible that is worth it. Oculus Rift, PS4 and XB1 will all likely be supported out of the gate.

[justSumDood]

@Nuke

Although they share some similarities, in no way can 3D be compared with VR. It's like comparing Little Tykes with a Bugatti.

And from my experience, people are MORE interested in VR after having tried it.
VR makes people believers. Even those that aren't into gaming and have NO interest in technology whatsoever. It's that convincing.

[AgentSmithPS4]

I'm not worried, Sony has/had financial problems so they'll want to do this right and at a great price so they can make tons of money selling games, movies, etc. They know they'll be seen as the hero when they bring comfortable VR to the masses, they already did great things with the PS4.

All they need to do now is to get the product out there with the right demos where the masses can test it and see that it's a must have item. Smart devs know that this will be a huge system seller and there is already a big base of customers on the most popular console. I'm almost 100% sure that they'll keep the price low and that benefits everyone since they'll sell more and there'll be more games and it will help it become commonplace. Obviously it won't be the best you can buy but there is the rift etc for those that want to spend more to get more.

@nukeitall Before my 360 broke I loved batman arkham city in 3D on my gaming monitor, maybe the problem was the pathetic use of 3D in many movies etc and the lower quality and smaller size of most 3D displays (I hear the bigger the better the 3D effect).

[SteamPowered]

3d certainly looks better on a big screen. I have a 60" Sony 3dtv and a 106" 3d projector and the projector wins 3d viewing everytime. No cross-stalk whatsoever.

[starchild]

I agree, but I really don't believe it will be a problem. The approach Sony has taken with their VR headset is almost identical to the Oculus Rift so I don't see any reason developers would have problems building VR games that would work on both platforms. It's not going to be much different than building a game on PC and PS4 is today.

[3-4-5]

uhhh does having more than one video game hardware making ruin gaming ? No, ok then question answered.

[medman]

When has competition ever been detrimental to technology? Competition fosters development, and may the best tech win. And even if one product becomes dominant, that doesn't mean it does so solely to the detriment of others. A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say. Competition also accelerates the rate of development, with companies vying to have the superior product. Competition is necessary to all industries, and when competition goes away, so does progress. Then all you get is more of the same, the comfortable, the familiar. Because there is no need to innovate if you're the only game in town and you know it.

[kewlkat007]

It's simple VR headsets should not have been part of Consoles...Let it thrive on PC first and see how it goes. at least you would be working with technology that is not limited..

[OmegaShen]

Yet not alot of developers want to lose money making games for PC (pretty much any PC game you can download for free).

Plus the hardware maybe limit, but more companys working on it can help alot.

[AgentSmithPS4]

You stick to running north Korea and we'll stick to having fun on our consoles.

[ThePandaMaster]

There are different phones, tablets, cars ect. this is a big industry that will have many diffrent areas for each company to go(not just games either). you could say the same about the gaming market :/.

And really some kinda HDDVD vs BLUERAY War would probably only bring consolidation and attention to the medium eventually.

[pupa]

I have my trust in Sony in that they are the ones that could bring this VR technology en-mass to the market. They have brought innovation to the industry before and they will succeed as in the past, they have an proven record to show. As for the rest I do not care.

Sony's got the tools and experience to succeed.

[ArbitorChief]

What needs to happen is all the VR companies need to settle on a single API for these VR headsets, otherwise developers aren't going to bother developing games for VR.

[Fluke_Skywalker]

Dunno about a single API but they definitely need to meet up and set some standards.
From what I've read there are a number of similarities anyway so hopefully there won't be too many issues for those wanting to develop on both platforms.
Surely it won't be any more difficult than making a current multi platform game.

[Dfooster]

Why not? If they can develop on ps3 and Xbox 360 architecture simultaniously this will be a walk in the park for any game studio out there.

[ArbitorChief]

Well it all depends on the sales of VR headsets but if there's going to 3 main VR headets (e.g. Xbox, Playstation and Oculus Rift) and they all operate on different APIs, developers just aren't going to bother with VR. They need to decide on 1 API to ease developers and give VR a chance.

[Dfooster]

It's moving your head to make the camera move and a screen strapped to your face. I'm sure they can bring multiplatform games out for all the VR devices without too much bother tbh. I don't see what the problem is?

[SteamPowered]

The Steam library already has many games that are supported by the Rift. I'm not sure how long it takes to convert a game to VR, but steam seems to be ahead of the game with some massive support.

[Agent_hitman]

I can see a great future for sony's VR for PS4, we only need are the games to showcase it's features and also cheaper price point.