Remember the cartoon series called Jonny Quest, where a kid would put on a headset and be transported into a virtual world where he had amazing powers? That’s exactly what we thought when we saw the Oculus Rift headset a few years ago. It’s been a while now and many have joined the bandwagon, but following CES this year, many say 2016 is going to be the year for VR.
But, we have our doubts. Don’t get us wrong, VR is cool, innovative, useful, and a bunch of other things, but, it may still be too early for it to be mainstream. Here’s why.
Many of us have tried virtual reality headsets, ranging from Google Cardboard to the real deal such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Samsung jumped the gun last year, with its Gear VR headset as the product has remained a novelty, something for the future. Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus made waves, while HTC’s collaboration with Valve brought us the Vive, which is perhaps a step ahead, with its room scaling features.
The problem, however, lies in the fact that their is very little content available for the VR platform. If you’ve used any variant of the Google Cardboard, you’d agree that it is fun, but not really functional. You can watch the Beatles play using the Cardboard, but it really isn’t as immersive as you thought it would be, right? That changes when you move on to headsets like the Rift and Vive. HTC in fact, showcased a really useful implementation of its Vive headset’s room scaling features. Wearing the Vive, artists can step into their drawings while they draw.
It’s such implementations of VR that will really make it mainstream, not just from a consumer point of view, but businesses too. In addition, the minute anyone talks about virtual reality, one thinks of gaming. Good and immersive gaming content is not only scarce at the moment, it’s also more difficult to make and the hardware requirements shoot up really fast for VR gaming. In fact, even developers working on VR games have admitted that they’re taking things slow right now.
Apart from scarce content, another thing that can make or break VR headsets is the price. Despite hopes that Facebook’s deep pockets would help in subsidising the Rift’s price, the Oculus Rift costs $599 and has been hugely criticised for it. But, that’s just the beginning. Even if Oculus priced the device at say $499 instead, the cost of the computer that you need to run VR games would drive the overall cost to nearly $1400. That’s about Rs. 95,000, which doesn’t include the cost of the games and other content that you purchase.
Increased volumes in manufacturing and competition would bring down the price of VR headsets eventually, but it’ll take a while. With VR, the promise has always been the Holodeck from Star Trek, but like Star Trek, you’re still looking into the future.
(Som Dasgupta is a freelance journalist who thrives on everything tech. After all the time he’s spent around technology, he’d like to think he’s turned into a robot.)
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