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Famitsu: PS VR Sells 102,000 Units in Japan




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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2758
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 5:50 pm Reply with quote
How is any game developer supposed to make a living off a userbase that small? I don't care about Sony's false scarcity tactics, that's a horrible figure for six months on the market.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 5:54 pm Reply with quote
I'm pretty sure almost a million VR sets put them above Oculus and Vive. Without any decent games there's no reason to buy expensive VR sets. All the VR games that I've seen on Steam are just garbage. Sony, Valve, Facebook or whoever is going to have to spend money to develop an actual decent VR experience, not just tech demos. There is no reason to get a VR headset yet, and that's an absolute shame.
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Ushio



Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Posts: 630
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 6:44 pm Reply with quote
Primus wrote:
How is any game developer supposed to make a living off a userbase that small? I don't care about Sony's false scarcity tactics, that's a horrible figure for six months on the market.



VR was never going to be a massive hit the way it's been pushed by game sites. The fact that 3D TV failed shows how much people have no interest in wearing dorky headsets in there home.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:12 pm Reply with quote
We need to give up on VR usage in gaming for good, it's too expensive, has no games, and too niche for it to thrive. It's better off in business, medical, and military applications, also porn.
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vision33r



Joined: 27 Oct 2008
Posts: 90
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 8:20 pm Reply with quote
Hoppy800 wrote:
We need to give up on VR usage in gaming for good, it's too expensive, has no games, and too niche for it to thrive. It's better off in business, medical, and military applications, also porn.


Absolutely wrong, VR will be amazing with anime & RPG games. VR is cheap because it cost less than the price of 3-4 monitors and still can't compare to a VR full 180 view.

RE7 showed that it's a lot more fun in VR than non-VR.

I know it's gonna take off with porn and the whole adult industry is scrambling to make VR videos.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:06 pm Reply with quote
For being a "popular trend", Virtual Reality seems to hardly fare that well with sales so small... Confused
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:44 pm Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
I'm pretty sure almost a million VR sets put them above Oculus and Vive. Without any decent games there's no reason to buy expensive VR sets. All the VR games that I've seen on Steam are just garbage. Sony, Valve, Facebook or whoever is going to have to spend money to develop an actual decent VR experience, not just tech demos. There is no reason to get a VR headset yet, and that's an absolute shame.


Until there's a Sony game--and a hit one at that--there's no reason. Nobody's buying a headset on movie and travel-based "Interactive experiences".

MY only reason for being interested in Playstation VR and not Oculus (apart from fears that I'm going to have finally go PS4 this year anyway, now that PS3's being retired) is that with Sony reportedly having "decided" that 3DTV was dead, the disks could reportedly play on the PSVR, and it was my best option to continuing to watch my collection of Blu 3D's.

Even if we never get a game, that's sort of a good headset killer-app to go in another direction--not as a game, but a "Viewmaster for 3D movies!"--but promoting the Playstation 3 as a media player instead of a game is what got all the gamer-boiz so upset at it in the first place.
And if we do never get a breakout game...that's still pretty sad. A lot of companies want VR to be The Next Big Thing without really knowing why, and this is the kind of thing that can happen.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 10:05 pm Reply with quote
vision33r wrote:
Hoppy800 wrote:
We need to give up on VR usage in gaming for good, it's too expensive, has no games, and too niche for it to thrive. It's better off in business, medical, and military applications, also porn.


Absolutely wrong, VR will be amazing with anime & RPG games. VR is cheap because it cost less than the price of 3-4 monitors and still can't compare to a VR full 180 view.
RE7 showed that it's a lot more fun in VR than non-VR.

I know it's gonna take off with porn and the whole adult industry is scrambling to make VR videos.


"It's going to be amazing, cheap to produce, and open up a hundred new uses that will change the future of home entertainment!" is usually what companies say when they want to develop some neato bit of theoretical vaporware they saw demonstrated at the CES, without really using it themselves or knowing what it's for.
And then, when the public doesn't really know what it's for either, they make the porn joke, too. (Except, of course, that porn probably does have a better future in VR than it does on all the other new technologies we thought it would "rescue"...Remember when everyone laughed that it would probably win the HDDVD vs. Blu war?)

When we hear a lot more carefully crafted industry buzz about how big a new format's "going" to be before it actually IS, that's usually how it starts. 4K users know that only too well.
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 10:54 pm Reply with quote
Ushio wrote:
Primus wrote:
How is any game developer supposed to make a living off a userbase that small? I don't care about Sony's false scarcity tactics, that's a horrible figure for six months on the market.



VR was never going to be a massive hit the way it's been pushed by game sites. The fact that 3D TV failed shows how much people have no interest in wearing dorky headsets in there home.



I agree completely.

I think people don't want to wear the stupid headsets and glasses.

Also, several other factors that are not inconsequential.

1) Cost. Why would I want to buy a peripheral that costs almost as much as the game system?!?!?!?

They HAVE seen peripheral sales slide, btw. Console joysticks haven't sold as well this generation as they did last (XBox 360, PS3). The manufacturers had to make new joysticks dual-compatible for a while to sell them (PS3/PS4/PC) but a lot of gamers just bought replacement PCB boards (MUCH cheaper!) and kept their old hardware.
Some people are getting smarter!

2) 3D/VR is still very artificial. It's NOT how we see the world!
Digital 3-D is as fake to me as "old 3D" filmed through dual/stereoscopic lenses was.
I never cared for the effect that much!
I have only seen two 3-D films since they introduced digital 3-D and was not impressed. I've saved my money and seen regular old, flat projection since!
(And digital projection still isn't as good as 35mm in my opinion. Digital tends to be much darker than the home viewing experience. FILM projection always has a brighter image because of the light showing the 35mm celluloid strip. Digital 3-D projection is even darker and hazier than regular flat projection...)

3) Niche you say? That's a growth-limiting factor. It means hardware and software will be limited and people WILL have to look harder for VR support just as they are for 3-D right now.
There are people posting on these forums who are still in denial that anime is a niche industry, too. It's still profitable enough to stay in business but let's face it -- it's at least 20 times easier and more convenient to find many mainstream Hollywood films than most of the anime releases in the US! A lot more instant access to Hollywood content.

There are fewer 3D sets being sold... Very, very difficult to find in-store and most sets with 3-D function are much more expensive. VR is at a couple of computer shops and with very limited support among PS and XBox consoles.
The vast majority of gamers who I interacted with a few years back were NOT sold on 3-D. They didn't want to pay the cost and frankly most of them thought the effect was unconvincing and added little to the gaming experience.
I have the feeling 3-D and VR have been overhyped by online and print trade publications all along... Sure, industry insiders TEND to do this with any field BUT 3-D and VR in particular have misjudged general enthusiasm for the tech all along. I don't know who these people were talking to except the tech geeks who are always the first guys to buy the new tech toy on the market! Most of us aren't like that!
I don't know about you but I sure as hell wouldn't risk my company on this tech!

4) A significant number of people will NEVER enjoy this or bother with it because frankly the tech makes them sick. I'm not quite in that category myself BUT I have experienced mild motion sickness with BAD emulation of old games like Doom in the past!
There are people who feel like vomiting after watching 3-D films or experiencing VR. I'd say percentages are probably about equal for those who get sick from these experiences as well as people who enjoy 3-D/VR gaming...
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partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Oz
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 11:28 pm Reply with quote
@GeorgeC, reading that I can only assume you have never used VR, at least decent stuff. It is a very different effect to 3D. It is by no means perfect, has a ton of issues in fact, but given the only examples you use are of 3D definitely makes it seem like you are talking without knowing.

The failure of 3D was not in anyway related to the issues VR faces. There are so many extra factors that influenced the failure of 3D. Some of the biggest were: screen size of tvs too small to make any big difference, 3D often caused eyestrain, very few movies effectively used 3D, and the 3D effect wasn't that great to begin with making it easier just to watch the film normally. And plenty more reasons that 3D was crap.

VR is a different ballgame, too soon to say which way it will go. However technology investment is currently much bigger than 3D. The main hindrance is currently price. However I would love to see numbers on phone VR such as the Gear. They are getting pretty ubiquitous. I see them all the time at exhibitions, museums and the like.

People like to say that Playstation VR is great because it is so much cheaper than the competition. However it really isn't, once you add the camera and move sticks the price escalates to be pretty similar. It is no surprise it sold less than $1m. In fact that sold extraordinarily well for such an expensive accessory. So really VR won't do much except for in the phone space, until the prices come down a lot.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 11:50 pm Reply with quote
I think the big potential for motion sickness, on top of the equipment costing as much as the price of a game console are the primary reasons why Virtual Reality will stay as a small niche for the foreseeable future.
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Gewürtztraminer



Joined: 14 Nov 2007
Posts: 1028
Location: Texas - Its like whole other country.
PostPosted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 8:31 am Reply with quote
I had a good bonus, and put myself on a list.
After a few weeks, back in February I got my Playstation VR.
For the PS4, I had waited until November for the Pro.

The main problem is I have been swamped by other games, Hatsune Miku Future Tone, Gravity Rush Remastered, Gravity Rush 2, and Persona 5.
So far, I have only bought the Hatsune Miku VR live concerts, and a Myst style puzzle game called Loading Human. I also just bought the VR Worlds disc, but have not played yet.
The potential is amazing, but developers are still figuring out what works an what does not.

Probably the most fun I have had came from an expected source.
Hatsune Miku Project Diva X. All of the songs and stages are fully compatible with the VR.
You can put yourself in a full 360, as well as looking up and down stage. I actually flinch when I am watching from a position when the performer quickly moves to that spot.
You just have to go into Concert editor, choose a module for the performer and save, then view the concert with the VR option.

3d Blu rays are good if you are a fan.The illusion created really feels like you are sitting in a dark theater looking at a giant screen. But like the theaters, the 3d effect is not great.

This stuff is in its infancy, but it is very exciting, I really am looking forward to what it can do.
And the porn of course... jk.
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Katamori



Joined: 03 Aug 2016
Posts: 33
PostPosted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 10:37 am Reply with quote
There are no words for how much I'd love it if VR tech would progress to SAO or .hack levels.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 3:54 pm Reply with quote
partially wrote:
The failure of 3D was not in anyway related to the issues VR faces. There are so many extra factors that influenced the failure of 3D. Some of the biggest were: screen size of tvs too small to make any big difference, 3D often caused eyestrain, very few movies effectively used 3D, and the 3D effect wasn't that great to begin with making it easier just to watch the film normally. And plenty more reasons that 3D was crap.


3DTV largely failed because
A) It had the most self-destructively bungled CES-happy debut marketing strategy in home-theater history ("Now you can see Avatar in your home!...But only if you buy OUR complete package of hardware for $1500-2000, sight unseen!"),
B) It was two years after Blu-ray, mainstream adoption was just starting, and audiences were still grumbling about being "shook down" by the hardware/studio "conspiracy" to "make them buy" new screens and players,
C) Bad CGI comedies, horrendously cooked-up retro-conversions and theater surcharges were inspiring knee-jerk tantrums from average audiences who wanted a scapegoat to punish for their theater complaints,
and
D) People who nagged about having to wear glasses kept holding out for those vaporware myths of that "Glasses-free set" Samsung claimed they'd have perfected any minute now....Someday, R&D says they've really got it this time!...

People knew why they wanted or didn't want 3D, but apart from the PS owners, they just weren't allowed a decent system under which to buy it if they did.
But the fact that they DID know what 3D was still has that little advantage over VR.
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