VR or Not VR: Debating the Future of Gaming Technology
Introduction
Currently the gaming market has a valuation of $282 billion, with approximately 2.09 billion active video game players and the industry shows no signs of decline. The gaming industry, which is characterised with innovation, has recently seen an increase in interest in VR gaming. But will VR become the future generation of gaming? History is bound to repeat itself, so first well take a look back at a few gaming consoles which I think relate to the gaming landscape currently.
History of Gaming Consoles
First I want to focus on the 1983 gaming industry crash. One of the main reasons for the crash was that the market was over saturated and there was a lack of quality control and innovation. Customers were overwhelemed with choice and those werent exactly appealing themselves! The console companies didn’t have control over the unlicensed developers who were flooding the market with poor attempts to make money. This is why Nintendo consoles can only play Nintendo games, they don’t want to repeat these events. What we learn from this is that gamers care about quality over quantity.
The next event I want to look at is the 6th generation of gaming. Sega released their Dreamcast in hopes of restoring their reputation as a gaming company, Playstation released their long awaited PlayStation 2 and Microsoft entered the market with their Xbox showing its never too late! The Dreamcast particularly struggled with sales due to its bad brand equity following the release of their previous consoles which were not received well.
Unfortunately, Sega’s competitors were excelling. Sony was running off the high of the successful release of the PlayStation. Their PS2 had a better game library (3,428 games) than Dreamcast’s (548 games), continuing new technology such as the CD-ROM approach for making video games and most importantly, had a good reputation following them. Showing that brand recognition is important for gamers. Interestingly enough, this was where Microsoft entered the market with their Xbox. Although the Dreamcast introduced online gaming (built in modem), it can be argued that Xbox perfected it with the release of Xbox Live in 2002. Showing us that it doesn’t matter if you’re the first to innovate, quality always prospers.
Is Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Next?
VR takes place within an artificial environment where they can interact with computer generated objects. Whereas AR is an interactive experience in the real world where computer generated information and elements are linked to it. VR is a very popular opportunity at the moment, with predictions of market users to reach 2,674.0 million users by 2028.
Many gaming companies now have invested in VR/AR development, such as Sony who recently spent $2.13 billion in 2023- doubling what it spent in 2020. Sony have always invested in innovative ideas, and it has paid off for them- CD-ROM technology they put in the original PlayStation. Although, their current VR device is being outsold by the Meta VR headset, the Quest 2, which is currently the top selling VR headset.
But why hasn’t it been fully adopted by the gaming community?
There are currently a few factors preventing VR from becoming gaming’s future. The main one currently being the price of a VR. The latest PSVR 2 costs £569.99 (not including the price of a PS5). Not only this but the development cost surrounding VR is just as expensive. Meta have spent $36 billion on their metaverse (since 2019) with the hopes of it becoming the de facto Metaverse destination. Instead, they are pouring money into the development of the metaverse with little to show for it. Meta needs to be careful with their releases of their VR devices as their original Quest which they only released in 2019 is no longer a priority for game developers. With the release of 3 more headsets since, Meta has rendered the $399 machine useless to its customers requiring them to spend $499 on a new device to play the latest games. This could reduce Metas brand equity, which we established is key to gamers previously with the failure of the Dreamcast.
Meta has also been struggling to keep people inside its meta verse, with various reports of it being an empty wasteland. We learnt from the original Xbox how important an effective online community is. The release of the Xbox and failure of the Dreamcast taught us that it doesn’t matter if you’re the first to innovate, you just have to do it right. Meta need to do it right soon or may risk another company taking over the metaverse. The Quest 3 is also in a comparable situation to the Dreamcast in that it does not have a massive game library. This can be a huge turn off to the gaming community at the moment, only recently have AAA games moved into VR which is a huge positive for the future of VR, but improvements in quality can definitely be made. As we know gamers prefer quality over quantity and there is a lack of quality games on the Quest 3 currently.
Overall, I think the biggest problem surrounding VR is the expenses. Both for the gamer and the developer. Due to the lack in popularity of the Quest 3, developers may see more of an development opportunity in Quest 2 games as there are more users to play it. Granted though when looking back on personal gaming computers, they weren’t adopted by gamers until the video game crash in 1983, when there was a price war on home computers that brought the overall cost down. So hopefully, as VR is further researched by more companies, development costs will drop and consequently the headset will too. VR itself has a long way to go before it becomes a profitable opportunity.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the potential of VR in shaping the future of gaming is immense. Yet, several critical factors demand attention before it can truly claim the mantle of gaming’s next frontier. The current high costs associated with VR pose a significant risk, underscoring the need for careful consideration and strategic investment. However, in an industry driven by innovation and fierce competition, no company can afford to ignore the possibility of VR emerging as the next generation in gaming consoles. Therefore, despite the challenges, the exciting possibilities of VR ensure that efforts toward its advancement will persist with determination.
