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Do you really think not having Facebook around would have meant the Oculus wouldn't have gotten an exclusive store similar to an Apple, Valve, Google or Amazon
by swang 11y ago
Do you really think not having Facebook around would have meant the Oculus wouldn't have gotten an exclusive store similar to an Apple, Valve, Google or Amazon store?
Essentially you are future-worrying about something that historically has not happened. The only thing that comes close is the whole Microsoft/XBOX indie parity clause, which they eventually just took away.
My guess is that Oculus will not be the only game in town (Vive, and I'm guessing many other challengers) and that other HMD will be competitive enough where Oculus cannot do something completely unreasonable such as forcing developers to only develop for their store. Strategy wise it would be terrible too as that splinters a market that may or may not actually be mature enough to splinter.
PC Gamers are the biggest targeted market for HMDs (in terms of already having the hardware and the desire to buy one) and generally don't stand for this kind of thing. Most people don't object to Steam as a store because they haven't done something bad as to lock out a game.
- cma 11y agoIt's the exclusive games I was talking about, not the concept of an app store. >Oculus cannot do something completely unreasonable such as forcing developers to only develop for their store. I'm not future-worrying, they already have 20+ titles that they have paid for store exclusivity with.
- seanwilson 11y agoI'm not saying I love exclusives but options does Oculus have for making a profit if it isn't from hardware sales?
- cma 11y agoThey should do it from hardware sales. Just like most other PC peripheral manufacturers. They had to solve a chicken-and-egg problem to get things started, so it is somewhat excusable. But precedents like this tend to stick around.
- seanwilson 11y agoSeeing as the Vive and Playstation headsets are looking competitive with Oculus and likely more to follow, it does feel that trying to profit from hardware alone is going to be a difficult strategy for sustainability. Given Steam has so many devoted followers as well, I think Vive's partnership with Valve is going to be tough to compete with if you want to rely on hardware sales. I'm not saying exclusives are the solution but I'm curious how Oculus plans to profit given the competition is already heating up.
- cma 11y agoThey should have kicked ass on product. Instead they got caught with their pants down at the Vive announcement. And PSVR is going to be competitive with the Oculus recommended spec machines, which are 3-4X as expensive, due to smart choices in panel (less nominal resolution but more sub pixels saving 25% of performance for comparable quality; 60fps reprojected to 120Hz, saving another 33%). Both choices combined give it nearly a doubled performance boost relative to the hardware it is running on, allowing a similar quality of experiences for potentially close to a third of the total cost. And Oculus won't even have motion controllers until potentially the end of next year.
- sgift 11y ago> They should have kicked ass on product. Instead they got caught with their pants down at the Vive announcement. Amusing how everyone seems to think that Vive will be the best product on earth while Oculus will be "just Oculus", "not kick ass", "not great" etc. with nobody having either one so far. The power of "We love Valve" vs "We hate Facebook" seems to be really interesting from a PR/Marketing perspective.
- cma 11y agoI have a Vive and I've tried Oculus CV1. They are very, very, similar. 90hz, 1200x1080 per eye, low persistence OLED with global update, large fresnel lenses. Until you get to input and mobility: Xbox gamepad vs motion controls. No contest. Yoga-mat scale standing without full rotation vs. room scale, walking around with 360 rotation: again, no contest. Oculus wins on weight so far, though I haven't tried the Vive Pre yet.