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Let's say they sold 200,000 for the Xmas season - that would put Oculus Quest sales at around 600,000. https://gamedaily.biz/article/1337/report-oculus-quest-h

Let's say they sold 200,000 for the Xmas season - that would put Oculus Quest sales at around 600,000. https://gamedaily.biz/article/1337/report-oculus-quest-has-sold-400000-units-will-leapfrog-pc-headsets-superdata https://gamedaily.biz/article/1337/report-oculus-quest-has-s... And it seems VR sales (EDIT: shipments) are hovering at around 6,000,000 a year (this tends to include the crappy VR headsets that are sometimes given away for free with high end phones). https://www.androidcentral.com/nearly-half-all-vr-headsets-sold-2019-were-oculus-quest https://www.androidcentral.com/nearly-half-all-vr-headsets-s... This sounds like a lot...but it might not be. To put things in perspective, the Kinect sold around 20,000,000 units and was considered a failure by Microsoft which is why they abandoned it. I think the parallels between the Kinect and VR is worth noting, since most are really accessories to something else (or used for very niche purposes). VR definitely isn't mainstream yet, but it might get there in a few years. I think Half Life Alyx will be an interesting juncture and maybe even a make-or-break point for VR.

jrs95 7y ago
Kinect was also bundled with the Xbox One at launch though, and it was mandatory
- mikepurvis 7y ago
  A lot also got bought up by roboticists and hackers, though in the grand scheme of things, those users were probably still just a drop in the bucket.
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
People expecting a half life gaming experience have been disappointed while the rest of us are too busy playing Beat Saber. It is going down just like mobile gaming did, in a different direction from hardcore gaming. AngryBirds wasn’t half-life either. I don’t really game on my Quest, but I do use it for a one hour workout everyday. My system is pretty beat up too, if it stopped working tomorrow I would get a replacement immediately.
- Jasper_ 7y ago
  One of the hardest problems in VR has been locomotion -- how do you move from place to place in a way that's seamless and fluid? Even Half-Life Alyx struggles hard with this. You'll notice that whenever anything cool is going on, they have you put your hand on some pillar or controller to keep you from wandering off. Beat Saber is probably the best app for VR, because it solves that problem by not having any locomotion. The world locomotes to you. But that works well for an abstract rhythm game. I don't know how well that works for anything else.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    I basically use it for kickboxing, and the lack of locomotion in my apartment is a feature, not a bug. One reason I haven’t really gotten into thrill of the fight is because it involves actual moving, and I’ve found that isn’t really safe unless you have the space for it. Instead, I have to duck, lean, and weave enough with boxvr, and that is good enough for a lower body workout. I’ve never used the knobs and triggers on my VR controller for anything beyond game selection. In fact, I think Oculus would do better just to put out additional simplified controllers meant for fitness gaming. Nothing wrong with rhythm games if they can help you drop 40 pounds. The space problem is easy to solve with....space. A VR gym setup could easily solve it by putting you in a racket court with an appropriate guardian, and then let the VR system do the rest. Otherwise we will have to wait for Omni directional treadmill tech to get better.
    - kipchak 7y ago
      You might like to the top, it's not quite as much exercise as boxvr or beat saber but still a decent bit, and fairly minimal space requirements.
    - alias_neo 7y ago
      I remember trying a VR game in a shopping centre in Malta of all places in the 90s. They strapped you in a harness and you walked on an omnidirectional treadmill within a "ring". The game was basic, early "3d" (in the gaming sense), low polygon, low resolution, no depth or actual streoscopic, but this was the 90s. I tried to check it out again on a subsequent visit to Malta but it had of course gone. Real shame, I saw nothing of its kind for decades later.
kabdib 7y ago
There was a lot of frustration with the quality of games for the Kinect. Some nice, playable titles for adults, more for kids (who are more tolerant of "pointless fun" like balloon-popping and chasing things around). But there were many terrible titles, and I wonder how many companies were unable to recoup their investment in development. The Kinect experience could have been dramatically improved with a hand-held device (at least some buttons you could use to do grabs and stuff, and some kind of tracking looked possible). Several efforts along these lines were either canned by politics ("YOU ARE THE CONTROLLER" dogma that you thwarted at your peril) or by people dog-piling so many features into an initially simple product that the costs went out of control. It looks harder to convince customers to use terrible VR gear. (I could be wrong).
Nition 7y ago
It's a lot compared to the 6000 or so units Magic Leap has sold though, that's for sure.
tootie 7y ago
The Kinect was actually relaunched recently. It was a failure as a consumer product, but has a loyal following in some niches like experiential installations.
- sgift 7y ago
  Same with Google Glass. Failed as a consumer product, but companies used it and Google has now relaunched it as a product aimed at business users: https://www.google.com/glass/start/ https://www.google.com/glass/start/
whywhywhywhy 7y ago
>I think Half Life Alyx will be an interesting juncture and maybe even a make-or-break point for VR PC VR is a dead end for anything outside of creative tools, very few adults want tower PCs in their homes anymore. When I demoed my Rift to friends they were completely blown away and the first question was "Can I use it with my MacBook?" and that was that. When I demoed my Quest, one person sat down and ordered one straight after taking it off, he demoed it to someone at work and they ordered one, took it to a family barbecue and two of his relatives bought Quests.
- Someone 7y ago
  ”PC VR is a dead end for anything outside of creative tools, very few adults want tower PCs in their homes anymore.” Call it a tv and manage to get something to market before those have effectively gone extinct, and you have a market.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    Independent headsets are getting good enough that all the computational power can fit on your head. Getting rid of the PC is just the natural progression of hardware like this.
- MFogleman 7y ago
  CSGO just broke their record # of players at one time, at around 900,000[1]. Steam alone regularly has over 10,000,000 people logged in at a time [2]. I think saying "Adults dont want a tower PC" is a pretty wide sweeping statement. I agree about Alyx. If they release a full length game that has the same level of quality that Half-life 2 had, with the same level of mod and customization support, that is going to be the tipping point. If VR is still a sub-niche in gaming/PCs, we won't see it takeoff for another 20+ years. But we may see it become the new standard. [1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/808630/csgo-number-players-steam/#:~:text=CS%3AGO%20peak%20concurrent%20player%20number%20on%20Steam%202016%2D2020&text=In%20February%202020%2C%20Counter%2DStrike,playing%20at%20the%20same%20time https://www.statista.com/statistics/808630/csgo-number-playe.... [2]https://store.steampowered.com/stats/ https://store.steampowered.com/stats/
- 7y ago

jrs95 7y ago

Kinect was also bundled with the Xbox One at launch though, and it was mandatory

mikepurvis 7y ago
A lot also got bought up by roboticists and hackers, though in the grand scheme of things, those users were probably still just a drop in the bucket.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

People expecting a half life gaming experience have been disappointed while the rest of us are too busy playing Beat Saber. It is going down just like mobile gaming did, in a different direction from hardcore gaming. AngryBirds wasn’t half-life either. I don’t really game on my Quest, but I do use it for a one hour workout everyday. My system is pretty beat up too, if it stopped working tomorrow I would get a replacement immediately.

Jasper_ 7y ago
One of the hardest problems in VR has been locomotion -- how do you move from place to place in a way that's seamless and fluid? Even Half-Life Alyx struggles hard with this. You'll notice that whenever anything cool is going on, they have you put your hand on some pillar or controller to keep you from wandering off. Beat Saber is probably the best app for VR, because it solves that problem by not having any locomotion. The world locomotes to you. But that works well for an abstract rhythm game. I don't know how well that works for anything else.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  I basically use it for kickboxing, and the lack of locomotion in my apartment is a feature, not a bug. One reason I haven’t really gotten into thrill of the fight is because it involves actual moving, and I’ve found that isn’t really safe unless you have the space for it. Instead, I have to duck, lean, and weave enough with boxvr, and that is good enough for a lower body workout. I’ve never used the knobs and triggers on my VR controller for anything beyond game selection. In fact, I think Oculus would do better just to put out additional simplified controllers meant for fitness gaming. Nothing wrong with rhythm games if they can help you drop 40 pounds. The space problem is easy to solve with....space. A VR gym setup could easily solve it by putting you in a racket court with an appropriate guardian, and then let the VR system do the rest. Otherwise we will have to wait for Omni directional treadmill tech to get better.
  - kipchak 7y ago
    You might like to the top, it's not quite as much exercise as boxvr or beat saber but still a decent bit, and fairly minimal space requirements.
  - alias_neo 7y ago
    I remember trying a VR game in a shopping centre in Malta of all places in the 90s. They strapped you in a harness and you walked on an omnidirectional treadmill within a "ring". The game was basic, early "3d" (in the gaming sense), low polygon, low resolution, no depth or actual streoscopic, but this was the 90s. I tried to check it out again on a subsequent visit to Malta but it had of course gone. Real shame, I saw nothing of its kind for decades later.

kabdib 7y ago

There was a lot of frustration with the quality of games for the Kinect. Some nice, playable titles for adults, more for kids (who are more tolerant of "pointless fun" like balloon-popping and chasing things around). But there were many terrible titles, and I wonder how many companies were unable to recoup their investment in development. The Kinect experience could have been dramatically improved with a hand-held device (at least some buttons you could use to do grabs and stuff, and some kind of tracking looked possible). Several efforts along these lines were either canned by politics ("YOU ARE THE CONTROLLER" dogma that you thwarted at your peril) or by people dog-piling so many features into an initially simple product that the costs went out of control. It looks harder to convince customers to use terrible VR gear. (I could be wrong).

Nition 7y ago

It's a lot compared to the 6000 or so units Magic Leap has sold though, that's for sure.

tootie 7y ago

The Kinect was actually relaunched recently. It was a failure as a consumer product, but has a loyal following in some niches like experiential installations.

sgift 7y ago
Same with Google Glass. Failed as a consumer product, but companies used it and Google has now relaunched it as a product aimed at business users: https://www.google.com/glass/start/ https://www.google.com/glass/start/

whywhywhywhy 7y ago

>I think Half Life Alyx will be an interesting juncture and maybe even a make-or-break point for VR PC VR is a dead end for anything outside of creative tools, very few adults want tower PCs in their homes anymore. When I demoed my Rift to friends they were completely blown away and the first question was "Can I use it with my MacBook?" and that was that. When I demoed my Quest, one person sat down and ordered one straight after taking it off, he demoed it to someone at work and they ordered one, took it to a family barbecue and two of his relatives bought Quests.

Someone 7y ago
”PC VR is a dead end for anything outside of creative tools, very few adults want tower PCs in their homes anymore.” Call it a tv and manage to get something to market before those have effectively gone extinct, and you have a market.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Independent headsets are getting good enough that all the computational power can fit on your head. Getting rid of the PC is just the natural progression of hardware like this.
MFogleman 7y ago
CSGO just broke their record # of players at one time, at around 900,000[1]. Steam alone regularly has over 10,000,000 people logged in at a time [2]. I think saying "Adults dont want a tower PC" is a pretty wide sweeping statement. I agree about Alyx. If they release a full length game that has the same level of quality that Half-life 2 had, with the same level of mod and customization support, that is going to be the tipping point. If VR is still a sub-niche in gaming/PCs, we won't see it takeoff for another 20+ years. But we may see it become the new standard. [1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/808630/csgo-number-players-steam/#:~:text=CS%3AGO%20peak%20concurrent%20player%20number%20on%20Steam%202016%2D2020&text=In%20February%202020%2C%20Counter%2DStrike,playing%20at%20the%20same%20time https://www.statista.com/statistics/808630/csgo-number-playe.... [2]https://store.steampowered.com/stats/ https://store.steampowered.com/stats/
7y ago