Facebook loves virtual reality so much it just axed its VR film studio

"We're now entering the next chapter of VR development, where new creators enter the market in anticipation of adoption and growth, and we've been looking at the best way to allocate our resources to create an impact on the ecosystem,"

Translation: "We paid a fortune for it because it sounded cool. Now trying to figure out how to make money with it, or at least minimise our losses."

Predictable

I think there is quite alot of interest in VR from consumers right now.

The problem (the age old problem) is that right now its quite new, its all expensive (the PS4 one seems to be most reasonable), and there is lots of uncertainty about future uses and compatibility.

I was honestly going to shell out for some VR kit, but after hunting around for the best set up, i figured the only one that will definitely perform for 12 months + will be the PS4 one, and i don't have a PS 4 or TV so the price tag for that became as expensive as the rest. $500+ for experimental hardware and unknown interactivity / standardisation is not a risk i will take on tech anymore. $500 goes quite far in hookers and weed and its not virtual!

I'm actually shooting VR

The know nothings did all the usual PR crap - hanging cameras from drones and flying over Iceland, putting you on stage in Blue Man group etc, which is a 1 minute wow, but not a long term connect.

VR phone goggle shows the potential but simply isn't good enough until screen resolutions go up 5fold from current top end.

VR will hit either via games (which I don't do) or when film makers (and actors) work out how to tell stories in VR, a system that kills all the usual tricks based on shot and camera placement.

AND

It's a modestly priced add on to your existing PC, NOT something that needs a high end machine that you don't own yet.

I'm playing with VR filming not because there is a market today, but because it's interesting. No one knows anything, and that's always fun.

FB are probably right to bail from production because they have enabled the WOW and now they need to wait for makers to develop the craft, and that can't be hurried. They should focus on next gen kit - trying to hit that quality/price.

If I was FB I'd even see some commercial logic in doing "A Container" - invest in the work and make available to all mfrs, on the grounds that successful VR equals more, better, eyeballs. Much like the guy who invented container shipping.

right now

The price of access is too high and there's confusion over which expensive system to invest in (because fuck having something useful for customers like and industry wide set of apis ) as not all games will work with all systems. There's also yet to be a truly killer game on vr.

If we saw something like Call of duty or gta getting in on VR them it'd be a different story. The fact that no major studio has released a big game yet is very telling.

Cost is a big barrier here

The problem with VR goggles is that, well, they are pretty restricted in what they can do. They just do VR human interaction.

I built a new gaming PC at the beginning of the year, pushing the cost/performance ratio about as close to the sweet spot as possible, resulting in a machine that can handle VR without breaking a sweat... ...if I had some VR goggles.

It cost me about as much as the Vive, which would be headset that I would go for, were I to get one today, yet, being a powerful computer can do, well, everything you would want a computer for.

In terms of what it actually /does/, VR headsets are still a peripheral, device, akin to my monitor and my keyboard and mouse (or my controller), albeit wrapped up in one package. The thing is, the package costs 6 times as much as the items above put together.

Assuming that you are not literally rolling in money when you go to bed each night, you have to ask yourself, is it really worth spending that much for what you get? And the answer is no. Well, it is for me at least.

The best way, as I see it, to make money from VR, is to make the cost of entry as unprohibitive as possible. In the same way that an Xbox console is a loss leader, with the money from the system being made on the content, that should probably be the way that VR should be monetised.

The unfortunate thing is that unlike the closed ecosystem that is a console, the PC market doesn't have a channel where the device manufacturers can offset the cost of the hardware by selling the content.

In a way, we rushed into VR when the Occulus kickstarter went live, and didn't really consider this enough...

Oculus with its inevitable price of many-hundreds (with or without price cuts) never stood a chance of making VR mainstream - it's just too expensive, full stop. Sure it would be nice to have/try, but nowhere near $600 nice. And I haven't even talked about the required GFX power and cabling yet...

I actually think the immediate future belongs to the cheap and cheerful "phone in goggles frame" devices, as soon as they finally sort out an actual, legitimate, real-world use case for the tech (regrettably, the one I'm waiting for has the industry dragging its feet/heading in a very different direction than I'd like to see), and given the nature of the, um, extra hardware associated with said use case I predict it will shirk brand-name offerings in favour of some dirt-cheap Chinese "alternative" du jour (see also iWatch vs. Xiaomi Mi bands).

it's not teh tech, it's the content.

there are some fantastic VR games out there, but there aren't enough that take advantage of the platform.

Of all the stuff I've played, there seem to be a few types that are gems. Space combat/flight games are fantastic. I've played the star wars battle for Yavin short that someone cobbled together. a proper updated x-wing/tie fighter game would fly off the shelves. I also really want a nice WW1/WW2 plane combat game, again earlier planes are simple to fly, close range. in general good fun.

driving games are good, very immersive, especially if you have a racing wheel.

but, platform games, and things where you have to move more than a few steps struggle, as it is difficult to create the experience of moving as a person, not in some kind of vehicle. the shooting games are a bit of fun, but really limited by the "stand in one place" mechanic they have to use.

I haven't tried it yet, but i have high hopes for subnautica