
In 2017, VR Headset Shipments for Most Top Brands Went Down - JabavuAdams
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2018/01/vr-sales-shipments-2017-superdata.html
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leoc
> In many more words: 2017 sales of "full VR" rigs were flat or even negative,
> with Rift shipping slightly more HMDs in 2016 than 2017, and HTC Vive
> shipping less last year than the year before.

By those numbers, PC VR sales are only down in 2017 if you exclude Windows MR.
That seems a bit arbitrary, as the Odyssey at least is apparently a fairly
decent system overall.

Again by these figures, sales of all PC and console VR systems are up except
for the most expensive, the Vive, which was $800 US for most of 2017. That
seems to support optimism that future PC VR price reductions will improve
sales: especially an end to the cryptocoin-driven GPU cost (and availability)
crisis.

It also has to be said that people with inside information have publicly
expressed skepticism about the SuperData numbers:
[https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/959172783765729280](https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/959172783765729280)

(Repost of my comment: [http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2018/01/vr-sales-
shipments-2017-sup...](http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2018/01/vr-sales-
shipments-2017-superdata.html?cid=6a00d8341bf74053ef01b7c95052ff970b#comment-6a00d8341bf74053ef01b7c95052ff970b)
)

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seltzered_
One thing I didn’t see in the comments or the article: the price
rise/shortages in GPUs which is impacting those interested in pc gaming (and
thus vive/oculus VR systems).

I’ve actually been warming up to play with VR more but am concerned first-
party eGPU solutions (I.e a MacBook eGPU box) will get delayed.

~~~
swalsh
I definitely think this is part of the story. Most people need to upgrade
their systems to support VR, but it is becoming prohibitively expensive to get
a decent card.

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arpit
Popping a mobile phone into a VR headset is a pain, as is all the cables on
the high end (desktop) VR platforms. I am curious how Oculus Go[1], launching
soon changes the game (if it does). At the very least, it opens the market to
a lot of iOS users. Thoughts?

[1] [https://www.oculus.com/go/](https://www.oculus.com/go/)

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downrightmike
Can't use VR if you can't get a decent GPU

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ziqiaojin
Can't get a decent GPU if you can't get a decent CPU

~~~
lowmagnet
Can't use your CPU when RAM doubles and trebles in price.

ETA: I looked up my graphics card and it had also doubled in 'value' since I
bought it. From my cold, dead hands though.

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cryptoz
I have purchased multiple VR headsets (the kind that your phone goes into, not
"full vr") and each one has massively hurt my face. The Cardboard ones hurt my
nose from the very second I put it on or hold it to my face (while using it
and for some time after). The only way to get a good picture is to have
instant and intense pain in my nose.

Google Daydream is a bit better. With the nice fabric and straps it takes
about 1-2 minutes before the intense head pain starts. Not only is it insanely
heavy and makes any experience hurt my neck, but also, it hurts my nose too!
(I do wear glasses, but each of these products says that it doesn't matter and
that glasses-wearers can use VR too. Not sure if that is a lie or if this
affects non-glasses-wearers just as much).

Additionally, the content available in the Play Store is not of great quality,
in my opinion. The paid content is also a mess, not just the free stuff. There
are some neat games, but they don't work well (lose save state, etc) and
everything hurts physically after 1-2 minutes on a $100 system.

I'll wait many many years before trying to purchase again. It feels like the
'80s VR rush all over again, where actually using the product falls so far
short of the expectation that I'm disillusioned.

It's true that I have not yet tried a "Full VR" system - but they have been
too expensive so far and I am not certain that they would be any less awful of
an experience for me to use.

Do other people have the same head pain issues as I do? I would certainly
expect that the decline in sales is mostly to do with people finding out that
actually using VR isn't very fun (yet).

Edit: I bought a $10 game, Eclipse I think, where I have had to play the same
intro level to the game like 8-10 times, because my nose hurts so much that I
have to take a break. But you can't take a break or you lose your save state
(I have spent more time than I would like to admit trying to find a way to
save the state, this game looks super neat). But now if I want to play this
game I paid $10 for, I have to play the same sequence again and again, and try
to finish before the nose pain is unbearable. At this point, I am losing
interest in the game despite its amazing reviews and my previous intense
dedication to playing it.

~~~
notjustanymike
I have an Oculus Rift that I use for three setups: Sim Racing, Sim Flying, and
playing Elite Dangerous.

I've been able to put in multiple hours in all of them, with two caveats.

First, I take my glasses off. There's just no way that's gonna be comfortable
ever. You can buy prescription lens inserts for the Oculus, but my
prescription is mild so it doesn't bother me.

Second, you have to loosen the straps. If the headset is leaving an indent in
your face it's too tight! I learned that the hard way..

~~~
cryptoz
Interesting! Okay, thanks for the info. I did guess that the "glasses are
okay" business was more marketing than reality, so it's interesting to hear
you say you wouldn't use it with your glasses. Everything in VR gets real
blurry for me if I try without my glasses, and I'm not ready to buy special
prescription VR glasses either, so I'll wait a bit.

I'll try looser straps on my Daydream next time I try it, but it'll be hard to
keep it on my head that way too I think.

Thanks again for the info.

~~~
tobyhinloopen
PSVR works great with glasses though. I have quite large glasses and they fit
just fine.

Note that the PSVR floats before your eyes, hanging by a frame mounted on your
head. The oculus and rift push directly on your face

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usernam
I would have several actual uses for VR, and from the top of my head I'd kill
to have proper depth perception and enhanced controls while modeling the
solids I have to make.

The headsets make today would meet my requirements perfectly. The price is not
an issue. As a coder, I wouldn't have any problems with just a library
exposing the display and sensors.

However the VR market is just full of BS and lock-in. I'm not moving an inch
on any of these closed platforms.

~~~
eropple
Razer has an OSVR headset. Oculus is OSVR-compatible. Even Vive has a (less
supported) OSVR plugin. What's your complaint?

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leoc
There's also a Khronos standard in the works:
[https://www.khronos.org/openxr](https://www.khronos.org/openxr) .

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aphextron
VR is awesome, but strapping a cell phone to your face with magnifying lenses
is stupid. The technology needs to progress beyond this paradigm to ever be
successful. Even the high end “real vr” HMD’s are just a cellphone strapped to
your face. Perhaps once solid state optical waveguides are a thing we will see
mass adoption. But the current gen is extremely lackluster and frankly useless
once the initial wow factor wears off.

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fzeroracer
Saying that VR headsets are cellphones strapped to your face is just flatly
wrong. There is a lot of work poured into VR when you start talking about
room-scale plus intuitive control solutions.

I would far from say that it is extremely lackluster considering what I've
experienced and worked with thus far.

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tvon
I believe they are referring to those Android VR headsets like "Gear VR" by
Samsung.

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Apocryphon
Here we come across a great Trough.

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bitwize
Aside from perhaps Rez Infinite, VR doesn't really have a killer app yet.
Almost no other title can deliver a compelling experience without risking
motion sickness and eyehurt, and Rez Infinite just isn't enough for J. Random
Gamer.

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istorical
I'd wager my entire lifesavings that the stickiest, highest DAU/MAU app for vr
- SO FAR - is porn like the SLR app. Somewhere in Oculus there's a dashboard
showing user retention rates by most commonly used app and SLR or Honey Select
or whatever else is at the top. But they can't say that at a press conference.

Nobody wants to be the one to tell their buddy "hey check out this porn on my
VR headset" so it's not growing as fast as it could via word of mouth. But
it's a very very big step up in terms of UX.

Would someone pay $300-400 for a better porn experience? Probably not.

But if we're talking about "of the people who already own a VR HMD and still
use it often rather than letting it collect dust, what do they actually use it
for?"

The answer is porn.

~~~
matte_black
Meh, not really man. Porn is tired and obvious. The real killer app for VR is
social interaction with other people. It’s quite an experience to see someone
else in VR standing before you and interact with them naturally as you would
in real life.

~~~
tootie
Considering texting has more adoption than video chat even though video is
very accessible, I don't see how VR interaction is going to make a really big
dent.

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matte_black
Texts will be more widespread due to their transactional nature. You can’t
really do video chat unless you’re ready to sit down and have a conversation.

~~~
tootie
Voice still dominates video too.

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ergothus
I recently got the PS4 VR system, and....wow.

I expected a glitchy system that was too early to be useful but had neat
moments.

What I got was a glitchy system that has some useful parts already and the
neat moments really show the promise.

Despite it being not very realistic, my brain was happy to adjust. Playing
Skyrim with peripheral vision and being able to reach out to the side and snag
some item without changing the direction I was moving was surprisingly
amazing. I found my body reacting as if the projection was real - flinching,
trying to scratch my nose because I forgot I was wearing a huge mask, ducking,
reaching out with an arm, peeking around a corner, glancing. I'm a terrible
gamer, so "block" functions are something I rarely use...but pulling up my
shield when someone is swinging a sword at me was natural - and seemingly
worked.

Fruit Ninja VR is the sword/lightsaber game I've always wanted. Full angle and
rotational movement, I could slice, slap aside with the flat of the blade, and
even spear completely naturally.

Some games have the controller wands replaced by hands in the projection and I
would occasionally drop the controllers because I was trying to use my
"fingers".

Motion definitely makes motion sickness more likely. Smudges on the eyepieces
are terrible, and getting just the right focus and calibration is finicky,
especially vertical (some games have me stand at the same distance from the
camera that other games require I sit). Teleportation movement broke immersion
a lot, but constitutes an entire new genre of game as far as I could tell - I
tried a demo of a shooter that had only teleportation movement, and the
tactics it involved were totally new. Archery imitations fell very flat for me
- motions a bit too imprecise to "nock" an arrow, and holding a wand in each
hand is not close enough to a bow and sting. The lack of tactile feedback on
the draw strength was surprisingly less important than I expected though.

The Star Trek Bridge Crew game and Battle(something involving tanks) gave me
control panels to my immediate left and right that seemed perfectly natural in
ways that a flatscreen display has not.

Honestly, we're a lot closer to a big interface change than I thought. I think
the Input is now behind the Output. Get me Geek gloves so that I'm not holding
a controller and can have my fingers in game and some more natural way to
indicate walking/running/jumping and I'll call the package truly revolutionary
even with the various caveats and finicky-ness of the VR display. (of course,
I just listed some things I have no idea how to implement)

After a couple of hours, I was ready for the Singularity. Upload me and screw
this physical limitations business. The VR wasn't real, but it was already
close enough to make me very happy.

That said, while I have a blast each time I use it, I often elect to not go
through the hassle of getting it all set up when I have some rare free time to
play a game, particularly during daylight hours when the sun might wreak havoc
with the camera's ability to find the helmet. I'm not surprised sales haven't
been strong. I also won't be surprised if that changes dramatically when it's
a pair of goggle-sized goggles, even without input changes, and with input
improvements it's...surprisingly awesome.

