2016 is undoubtedly the first real year of virtual reality’s second wave of existence to gamers. HTC Vive and Oculus Rift launched earlier this year with PlayStation VR to come in a few months. However, one spokesperson from the Oxford-based Rebellion studio has suggested that virtual reality is an “uphill battle”; one that’s “fraught with danger”.
Speaking in Edge #295, Jason Kingsley – CEO of Sniper Elite (developed by Rebellion) – had this to say.
“Releasing new hardware, especially if it’s not just a new console but a whole new way of delivering entertainment, is always fraught with danger. People are also conservative: they naturally know what they like and like what they know, and they rarely vote for change. It’s always an uphill battle to sell something like VR when nobody has VR yet – it’s like when telly was first being introduced and they were marketing it on the radio. It misses the point entirely.”
“There aren’t any elegant words we can use too describe what we’re talking about yet, which is both wonderful – because it means that we’re at the cutting edge – but also slightly awkward when we try to communicate to players what a VR game is.”
Virtual reality certainly hasn’t found its way into the typical 21st century household just yet, but that’s likely got more to do with its current price point than the way it is marketed. Either way, allowing more people to go hands-on can only be beneficial for the technology.
