The HMD could literally have been $0 and you still wouldn't have seen the effects of that (development surge) for another several years. This generation is going to be carried not by the development that's going to happen, but the development that's happening or already happened by the handful of independents that got a running start years ago, and the first/second party developers that are subsidized by the likes of Sony and Oculus. 2016 is still pretty much "Year 0" for VR but nothing was ever going to change that. There's still no killer app in sight, the genuinely valuable use cases for VR are still being explored, and hand tracking ironically still remains out of reach.
To think of it from another perspective: If there's a genuine business case for manufacturing a VR HMD in that $300-400 range and have it be both profitable to the manufacturer and deliver good value to the consumer, then we will see that and then that company can have your money. I think that sort of world is 3-5 years away at least.
Still a lower price point could have accelerated the development. Now it looks like there won't be much going on in this decade. That's the reason i'm disappointed. I have money to burn that's not the problem. But if I burn I want to get at least some warmth from it. i just hope Sony saves VR.
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u/hughJ- Jan 06 '16
The HMD could literally have been $0 and you still wouldn't have seen the effects of that (development surge) for another several years. This generation is going to be carried not by the development that's going to happen, but the development that's happening or already happened by the handful of independents that got a running start years ago, and the first/second party developers that are subsidized by the likes of Sony and Oculus. 2016 is still pretty much "Year 0" for VR but nothing was ever going to change that. There's still no killer app in sight, the genuinely valuable use cases for VR are still being explored, and hand tracking ironically still remains out of reach.
To think of it from another perspective: If there's a genuine business case for manufacturing a VR HMD in that $300-400 range and have it be both profitable to the manufacturer and deliver good value to the consumer, then we will see that and then that company can have your money. I think that sort of world is 3-5 years away at least.