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> We would also have more competition because other players in the space wouldn't be as intimidated to go up against a business like Meta/Facebook I completely

> We would also have more competition because other players in the space wouldn't be as intimidated to go up against a business like Meta/Facebook I completely disagree with this. Competition is what drives innovation, not the absence of it. Other players did go against Meta/Oculus and their VR products were abysmal in comparison. They just didn't get what makes a desirable VR headset for the average gamers/consumers. And it's not all an issue of money. Sony, Google, Microsoft, LG, Apple, Samsung and other tech giants had equally deep pockets and hardware expertise to compete with Meta/Oculus in this field if they wanted to and if they knew the market. But they didn't. If Meta wouldn't exist in the VR space, it doesn't mean their competitors would magically have better tech now. Their products would still be crap or not even exist today. Same how other smartphone makers with equally deep pockets to Apple like Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola went against the iPhone and failed. If the iPhone wouldn't have existed it doesn't mean all their competitors would now be making better phones. Quite the contrary, the competition the iPhone bought helped move the technology forward, same how Meta's Quest moved the VR tech forward. Just look at Sony's recent VR headset for the PS5, needing physical cables tethered to a separate console you need to buy, is just a no-go in 2022 VR technology. Meta/Oculus moved the goalposts so much with their cordless, self contained Quest 2 headset, especially at the ~400$ price point, that going back to expensive headsets tethered with cables to separate PC/consoles is just not gonna be a VR sales success going forward. Up until the recent Quest Pro failure, it seemed Meta/Oculus really nailed the base recipe for what makes a desirable VR gaming headset with the Quest 2. All they had to do was improve on that, instead of pivoting to "professionals".

KptMarchewa 4y ago
>needing physical cables tethered to a separate console you need to buy That's an opinion, yet you present it as a fact.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  It is a fact that Sony's VR headset needs a cable tether. Where's the opinion here?
  - KptMarchewa 4y ago
    Clipped quote wrong. I was ment to include that part too: " is just a no-go in 2022 VR technology."
    - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
      It is a no-go for VR consumers in 2022. How many do you know in the market for a cabled VR headset? It's a huge step back for VR tech. Watch the sales and returns numbers in the future, they will reflect that and prove me right. You'll find the headsets on sale on craigslist or ebay for half a price after they gathered dust in people's homes for a few months. Want to bet on it?
grumbel 4y ago
> Other players did go against Meta/Oculus and their VR products were abysmal in comparison. Not really. The original HTC Vive outsold the original Rift by a lot and was a vastly superior headset (full 6DOF headset/controller vs front-facing/Xbox controller), while also costing about the same. It took Facebook quite a while, the release of Touch and a lot of patches to catch up. And on top of that they had to cut the price in half to stay relevant. Meanwhile PlaystationVR was outselling everything PCVR was doing combined by 5x. > Their products would still be crap or not even exist today The "not even exist today" might very well be true, the crap however not. Microsoft was the one pioneering 6DOF standalone and handtracking back in 2016. Google had one with the Lenovo Mirage a year before Facebook even entered that space. The issue is that they all left the market before the Quest was even out. They never tried to compete, they saw that VR wasn't selling and gave up prematurely. Which is a shame, as I really miss WMR, which was both substantially cheaper than a Quest2, as well as having really nice way to interact with 2D apps inside VR with WMR Portal. Meanwhile Pico4 just entered the market in Europe and happens to be a substantially improvement over Quest2 while also costing less. Quest2 still has a bit of an edge on the software side, but the gap is quite small when taking into account how much money Facebook spend. The strength of Facebook is simply endurance, they kept going despite miserable sales VR. And they did that long enough to reach the "good enough" point with Quest2. That said, they are really slacking on the software side now. There is no interesting first party content coming out, it's all just Horizon Worlds. High quality games (Lone Echo) or software (Quill, Medium) as we had in the early VR days is all gone, nothing interesting announced in years and Quill and Medium even got sold off. > it seemed Meta/Oculus really nailed the base recipe for what makes a desirable VR gaming headset But that's the thing, that was essentially an accident, not a grand strategy. Facebook doesn't care about gaming. They care about that "next computing platform" that VR is supposed to be, gaming is just a tiny part of that and they'll happily toss it aside in the hunt for bigger goals. That's really the problem with Facebook, they are far more interesting in dominating a hypothetical future VR space, than they are interest in improving the VR we have today.

KptMarchewa 4y ago

>needing physical cables tethered to a separate console you need to buy That's an opinion, yet you present it as a fact.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
It is a fact that Sony's VR headset needs a cable tether. Where's the opinion here?
- KptMarchewa 4y ago
  Clipped quote wrong. I was ment to include that part too: " is just a no-go in 2022 VR technology."
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    It is a no-go for VR consumers in 2022. How many do you know in the market for a cabled VR headset? It's a huge step back for VR tech. Watch the sales and returns numbers in the future, they will reflect that and prove me right. You'll find the headsets on sale on craigslist or ebay for half a price after they gathered dust in people's homes for a few months. Want to bet on it?

grumbel 4y ago

> Other players did go against Meta/Oculus and their VR products were abysmal in comparison. Not really. The original HTC Vive outsold the original Rift by a lot and was a vastly superior headset (full 6DOF headset/controller vs front-facing/Xbox controller), while also costing about the same. It took Facebook quite a while, the release of Touch and a lot of patches to catch up. And on top of that they had to cut the price in half to stay relevant. Meanwhile PlaystationVR was outselling everything PCVR was doing combined by 5x. > Their products would still be crap or not even exist today The "not even exist today" might very well be true, the crap however not. Microsoft was the one pioneering 6DOF standalone and handtracking back in 2016. Google had one with the Lenovo Mirage a year before Facebook even entered that space. The issue is that they all left the market before the Quest was even out. They never tried to compete, they saw that VR wasn't selling and gave up prematurely. Which is a shame, as I really miss WMR, which was both substantially cheaper than a Quest2, as well as having really nice way to interact with 2D apps inside VR with WMR Portal. Meanwhile Pico4 just entered the market in Europe and happens to be a substantially improvement over Quest2 while also costing less. Quest2 still has a bit of an edge on the software side, but the gap is quite small when taking into account how much money Facebook spend. The strength of Facebook is simply endurance, they kept going despite miserable sales VR. And they did that long enough to reach the "good enough" point with Quest2. That said, they are really slacking on the software side now. There is no interesting first party content coming out, it's all just Horizon Worlds. High quality games (Lone Echo) or software (Quill, Medium) as we had in the early VR days is all gone, nothing interesting announced in years and Quill and Medium even got sold off. > it seemed Meta/Oculus really nailed the base recipe for what makes a desirable VR gaming headset But that's the thing, that was essentially an accident, not a grand strategy. Facebook doesn't care about gaming. They care about that "next computing platform" that VR is supposed to be, gaming is just a tiny part of that and they'll happily toss it aside in the hunt for bigger goals. That's really the problem with Facebook, they are far more interesting in dominating a hypothetical future VR space, than they are interest in improving the VR we have today.