Virtual Reality in 2023
My first experience with VR (well modern VR anyway) was three years ago, and I instantly fell in love. I think I was shown the archery game in Valve's The Lab first, which was pretty amazing. Then I played Beat Saber, and thought to myself that no matter what, I had to have more of this.
It took a bit of time for that to happen, but when the Quest 2 had a price drop, I jumped at the chance to bring VR into my home! Overall it's been a pretty great experience, apps like Beat Saber never get old to me, and there's some amazing titles on there, my favorite being Pixel Ripped 1995, which anyone interested in retro gaming has to find a way to play this very instant. But now that a couple years have passed, I'm a little worried about the future of VR gaming, and a bit hopeful too.
I'm worried because I feel there aren't enough big games happening fast enough, and it makes me wonder if developer interest in VR is waning. According to Road to VR, out of the top 10 paid games and apps in January 2023, only 3 of them were made that past year. And some of them were over 3 years old at this point. That could mean that those popular games are just that popular, but I think it might also point to not as many new exciting titles coming out.
I'm hopeful about 2023, though, because there's some new competition coming in the VR space, and I think that could give VR gaming dev in general a good shot in the arm. First of all, the new VR for PS5, the PSVR2, is coming out later this month. Sony thought the first VR set did well enough that they're making one for their new system, so it stands to reason that they will support it pretty well for a while. Combine that with a new Quest 3 expected at the end of the year, and a new competitor by the name of Pico VR that came out late last year, and there's a lot of options for consumers to enter the VR playfield with (EDIT: As I was writing this but before publishing, news broke that the company behind Pico VR is going through some pretty big layoffs now...). All that competition will hopefully mean good things for players, with each one trying to get better games, better UI and better deals.
A new trend that I'm not as thrilled with is the 'Pro' models, that seemed to be primarily aimed at business use, but still marketed to consumers. Maybe I'm just too biased since I'm a gamer and want them to focus on videogames, but it feels to me that they should try and focus more on gamers primarily first, in order to get that enthusiastic crowd to buy in, and then later when it's mainstream, you start showing what else the technology can be used for. It feels like it muddies the message when you've got one VR set that's more affordable and they're showing all the cool things it can do, and then you've got the pro model and they keep pushing it with things like 'do all your work from home and online meetings here, and oh it also has some cool new features for videogames'. People don't want to spend more money just to make VR Zoom calls.
That being said, I think VR can branch out to do things besides cool videogames. But I feel these new avenues for VR will hopefully happen naturally, with indie devs and hobbyists using VR in new unique ways. Already I find it a really fun tool for art using apps like Open Brush, or Gravity Sketch for 3D modeling. Meta's approach of pushing office usage feels like trying to make a solution for a problem that wasn't there.
I hope I didn't sound too negative with my outlook on 2023! Because I'm not, really! Moss 2 is out (which I haven't played yet), Resident Evil 4 VR came out last year and was so so good (my favorite way to play RE4 now), and I'm hopeful that new titles will start coming sooner with a larger player base. In the meantime I should really get around to playing Moss: Book II...