We have been hearing that VR will be the next big step for gaming for a while now- but until recently, when the VR market finally started showing some signs of life, we haven’t seen anything tangible to warrant that kind of optimism or confidence. The market isn’t aware or interested, software support does not seem to be there, and actual applications of the tech seem to be hard to envision for now.
However, creator Brian Fargo, best known for games like Fallout and Wasteland, thinks that VR is the real deal- and that unlike something like Kinect, it’s here to stay.
“When you play virtual reality games – and I play them all practically – it’s some of the most fun I’ve had in years,” he said. “So I’m taking my lessons from, ‘OK, where there’s passion, there’s going to be an industry.’ On the converse, you think about something like the Kinect, for example, which saw all this hype behind it, but it felt forced. You sort of play it and you’re grimacing through it and you’re trying to think, ‘How could this apply to real games more than the casual rafting or playing with pets?’ I never quite saw that. In that regard, we look at that and say, we shouldn’t have been surprised it didn’t work because there wasn’t the kind of passion you’d like to see with a new piece of hardware and new medium. That’s what VR has.”
He may be right- and I am not saying VR won’t be big in the future. I am just saying that from where we stand at the moment, VR has done very little to warrant the kind of hype that it has.