There seems to be a VR movement lately. It started in 2012 with the Oculus Rift, and a chain reaction seems to have occurred. Other than the two obvious pieces of hardware (Oculus and now Project Morpheus), there seems to be an onslaught of VR hardware in the past 1 or 2 years.

HMD/VR Headsets:

Oculus Rift (PC)
Project Morpheus (PS4)
Avegant Glyph (PC)
Gameface Mk IV (Untethered)
VRase (Smartphone)
Infiniteye (PC)
Durovis Dive (Smartphone)

VR controllers/interface:

Virtuix Omni
Sixense Stem
Razer Hydra
PrioVR

The interesting thing is that they all came into existence this past 1 to 2 years. A lot of them from crowd funding. It's hard to say that there hasn't been a huge push into VR recent, but will it all succeed?

I think it will. We now have the technology to create realistic visuals and screens to display those visuals actually. Motion sensors are also now more accurate. All the pieces are in place. I see this as the next evolution in gaming.

 

personally I don't think so, but crazier shit has caught on before

 

I'm voting "unsure". It's certainly an interesting concept, but just because technology is now better means it's good enough. In fact, a failure may not even be caused by technology (simulation sickness is still around).
And as much as I hate to say it, but the phrase "...from crowd funding" isn't really a positive thing. It means it has the POTENTIAL to be a huge thing...but I doubt every single backer tried the VR they were backing and thought it was the bomb.

Finally, a perhaps strange question: what can VR do for you outside first person games? When I look at my steam library, less than 1/10th is a FPS (and as much as I hate it, I can't play metro 2033 for longer times cause I get motion sickness ). So I'm certainly going to pass on it, no matter how good it is. But I wonder if the people voting this thing to take off have clear indications of what they are going to DO with it. After all, the novelty of being in the matrix (as if that's a positive thing ) kinda wears off after some days.

Wait...skip the previous 'finally'...another question: are these VR thingies fit for children? After all, nintendo has this awesome glassless 3D handheld. But it kind of sells DESPITE that gimmick. Which is no wonder, as it is unsafe for the eyes of their target audience in the first place.

 

Its really hard to say right now I believe that it will be as others have posted that it will be more of a gimmick to help sell consoles such as the playstation eye for PS4 and Kinect for Xbox One I just pray that it won't become another standard requirement for PS4 users and/or Xbox One users if we even get to that point before this current console gen is over. Who knows we might see this as a standard feature in the next gen consoles, PS5 anybody?

 

I... don't know. When it comes to VR in gaming, we're talking about another gimmick (let's face it, it's not much more than that), and those have proven to be unpredictable in the market place at best. Not many predicted the success of the Wii or DS's gimmicks, and the Wii U's GamePad and the 3DS's 3D screen have largely been met with indifference. PlayStation Eye and Move, Microsoft Kinect, these are other examples that were met with moderate success but remain gimmicks.

The main difference with VR is that it's mostly a solo affair (unless you use it as a replacement for split screen in multiplayer games). Wii Remote, Eye, Move and Kinect were all popular because they bring people together and they were all pretty much affordable. Oculus' CEO said that he hoped the Rift would sell for $300, though Sony's could be cheaper if they subsidise the costs. I just can't see that kind of thing being a family purchase.

That being said, VR is one of those things that we've strived to attain perfection with for a long time, it's never going away and the technology has a lot of uses beyond gaming and entertainment. My interest is certainly piqued and I'll be evaluating the PS4 bundles when Morpheus is released.

 

Do you have a source or article to back this up or is this just your own opinion? I would love to read more about that (I have no doubt about it that's for sure.)

 

The whole idea behind a gimmick is to get people excited for something, generating publicity. The Wii Remote generated a lot of excitement, but it was still a gimmick. The Oculus Rift is designed to get people excited about PC gaming in a new way, but it's still a gimmick because it's non-essential to the PC gaming platform.

It's not a gimmick if it's an entirely standalone device that runs on its own steam (although a particular feature of said device could be considered a gimmick).

 

Aw, those poor Chinese gamers they're stuck to the inferior race.

Consoleraceftw!!

 

i'm waiting for psychedelic drug induced gaming through suggestion.