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I'm not all that excited about John Carmack's antiquated view of the video game market. While there are companies releasing swaths of titles in different genre

I'm not all that excited about John Carmack's antiquated view of the video game market. While there are companies releasing swaths of titles in different genres, he's got... Doom 3. Yay, whatever. Most people will not spend $500 on a peripheral. You can get some hardcore gamers to do it, but unless the VR gear also includes a wireless headset, you're shit out of luck. So now you're looking at close to $600 bucks a unit. Good luck with that. I'd rather buy a 48 inch TV that I can use when I'm not gaming.

bluthru 14y ago
>So now you're looking at close to $600 bucks a unit. Good luck with that. The 60gb PS3 launched for that amount. From what I've read in other articles, Carmack's goggles are 1/10th the cost of comparable units.
slurgfest 14y ago
John Carmack has written 3D engines widely used in commercial games for decades now (most recently Rage - whatever its demerits as a game, the technology is cutting edge and the game is definitely not antique). Whether or not you liked the content in Doom 3 has very little to do with Carmack's very technical, back-end work. When the 3dfx boards came out, they cost something like $500. But it still opened up a big market. I don't see why you are assuming that a wireless headset is necessary and will not be included. Buy a TV if you want, all you've shown is that you are not in the targeted market at this early stage. (Probably because there is no way to provide that kind of hardware at lower cost, particularly without more traction) Carmack is certainly wealthy enough already, I would assume that his interest in VR headsets is that he is a geek who wants to move the state of the art forward (not too different from the reasons for doing Armadillo Aerospace)
- ctdonath 14y ago
  I don't see why you are assuming that a wireless headset is necessary and will not be included. Wireless VR is very important. Getting tangled in cables while you're physically thrashing around sucks. Trust me (owner of original Virtual iGlasses).
waterlesscloud 14y ago
Well, the kit cost $500. Once it's in the hands of a company that can mass produce, the price could be substantially lower. And with console manufacturers, there's always the possibility they'll sell hardware at a loss to move software. The point being we don't know the final end price yet. The real concern there is the Big Corp will compromise the design just enough to make it uninteresting.
Tooluka 14y ago
Video games market IS antiquated. Crappy gamepad controllers, requirement to use TVs, hardware upgrades lock for 5-6 years, dumbed down games (as a result of gamepad use). Sure, it has billion marketing budgets, easy to start using equipment, but technologically it is antiquated.

bluthru 14y ago

>So now you're looking at close to $600 bucks a unit. Good luck with that. The 60gb PS3 launched for that amount. From what I've read in other articles, Carmack's goggles are 1/10th the cost of comparable units.

slurgfest 14y ago

John Carmack has written 3D engines widely used in commercial games for decades now (most recently Rage - whatever its demerits as a game, the technology is cutting edge and the game is definitely not antique). Whether or not you liked the content in Doom 3 has very little to do with Carmack's very technical, back-end work. When the 3dfx boards came out, they cost something like $500. But it still opened up a big market. I don't see why you are assuming that a wireless headset is necessary and will not be included. Buy a TV if you want, all you've shown is that you are not in the targeted market at this early stage. (Probably because there is no way to provide that kind of hardware at lower cost, particularly without more traction) Carmack is certainly wealthy enough already, I would assume that his interest in VR headsets is that he is a geek who wants to move the state of the art forward (not too different from the reasons for doing Armadillo Aerospace)

ctdonath 14y ago
I don't see why you are assuming that a wireless headset is necessary and will not be included. Wireless VR is very important. Getting tangled in cables while you're physically thrashing around sucks. Trust me (owner of original Virtual iGlasses).

waterlesscloud 14y ago

Well, the kit cost $500. Once it's in the hands of a company that can mass produce, the price could be substantially lower. And with console manufacturers, there's always the possibility they'll sell hardware at a loss to move software. The point being we don't know the final end price yet. The real concern there is the Big Corp will compromise the design just enough to make it uninteresting.

Tooluka 14y ago

Video games market IS antiquated. Crappy gamepad controllers, requirement to use TVs, hardware upgrades lock for 5-6 years, dumbed down games (as a result of gamepad use). Sure, it has billion marketing budgets, easy to start using equipment, but technologically it is antiquated.