For me the biggest failure of all the VR headsets is there is no demo units at big box store and the lack of a TV app to see what the user is doing.
People don't want to blindly buy an unproven expensive gaming system without trying it out first. You can't go into a local Best Buy, Walmart, or Target and try the units out. You have to wait till someone you know gets it an is kind enough to let you give it a go.
With all the money Zuck has spent on developing these devices, it is surprising that no money was spent on demo kiosks.
I refer you to this delightful paper: "Bacterial Load of Virtual Reality Headsets"
> The results of these tests indicated that the Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from the headsets possessed high levels of antibiotic resistance.
They did. That was what lead to me buying my first headset; I tried a demo of the Oculus Rift at Best Buy. I'm pretty sure they did demos for the Rift S and Quest 1/2 as well once those came out. I agree it wasn't nearly as visible as it should have been though, and I don't think they were offered for very long.
Fundamentally, VR just isn't very social unless all participants have the proper hardware already. Sure, you can have a TV output to see what the headset user is seeing, but the TV-viewing experience is still very different from the headset experience. Not to mention, it looks really jerky and jarring as a non-interactive user.
I feel like VR is a technology that has no idea where it fits into the world. It's cool, but why should anyone care about it before they've put up the money to buy into the ecosystem? It's not like a TV which is an easily shared experience.
People don't want to blindly buy an unproven expensive gaming system without trying it out first. You can't go into a local Best Buy, Walmart, or Target and try the units out. You have to wait till someone you know gets it an is kind enough to let you give it a go.
With all the money Zuck has spent on developing these devices, it is surprising that no money was spent on demo kiosks.