The biggest fear that many people have with the upcoming VR push is regarding its long term sustainability. Will VR actually stick around and become entrenched? What if it is a short term fad, like the motion control boom or the 3D push from a few years ago?
It’s a fair question to ask, especially considering the upfront investment that these VR headsets are asking for. And according to Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and Asia President Atsushi Morita (translation by DualShockers), Sony has a plan in place to prevent just that.
The first thing that will be needed, according to Sony, will be for games to be long, deep, involving experiences, rather than shallow or superficial ones that lose their appeal soon, of the kind that characterize the motion controlled games or 3D games of a few year ago. Secondly, the headset will need to be promoted properly, and Sony is working towards having kiosks set up so people can experience PlayStation VR for themselves. Finally, Sony will work hard to secure game support for the headset, so that there is actually some content to promote the new hardware and media paradigm.
It’s a fair plan, of course- but it’s nothing different from something like what Nintendo may have had in place for, say, the Nintendo 3DS (and the statement about needing people to experience the new hardware for themselves in stores in particular echoes what Iwata said about the 3DS in the run up to its launch five years ago). Let us hope it works out better for VR than it did for 3D or motion controls. The technology is already substantially better.