PlayStation VR: A Promising Future, or an Expensive Disaster

<p>With the recent release of Sony’s PlayStation VR headset&comma; everyone seems to have something to say about virtual reality&period; Whether it be positive or negative&comma; gamers and non-gamers all want to give their opinions on the potential success or failure of the technology&period; And we here at BagoGames are no different&period; Read on for our thoughts on Sony’s journey ahead when it comes to VR gaming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>The argument that PSVR will go the way of PlayStation Move has been made one too many times&period; This time it’s different&period; The Move was a response to the motion-control successes realized by Nintendo&semi; PSVR is a response to something much greater&period; The VR movement is much grander than motion control because it has practical applications outside of gaming&period; Virtual reality will be used for performing procedures in the medical field or to act as your window into concerts&comma; plays&comma; and other live events without actually being there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PlayStation Move wasn’t perfect&comma; and PSVR isn’t either&period; The difference this time around is that Sony promises to iterate on the technology&period; The shortfalls are obvious&colon; processing power and resolution&period; A device to replicate your exact motions onscreen is much more nebulous&semi; that&comma; and the fact that Sony had no intentions to make new&comma; improved versions of the Move&comma; mean that it was somewhat doomed to underuse&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Besides&comma; have you seen the price of PS VR&quest; Clearly&comma; it is positioned as a new piece of hardware instead of an add-on peripheral&period; Virtual reality&comma; unlike motion control&comma; does not change the way we interface with games&&num;8212&semi;it changes what games are&comma; it challenges the idea of immersion&comma; and&comma; with the right equipment&comma; it works every time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114285" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114285" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114285 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;16210210&sol;PSVR2-1024x779&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Wii Remote" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"761" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114285" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Remember these&quest;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Because of these distinctions&comma; I have a hard time believing that VR will be an all-out failure&period; It certainly is in its infancy&comma; and there are some reports of poor resolution or elementary capabilities of the PlayStations VR headset&comma; but these can and likely will be resolved&period; In fact&comma; resolutions already exist&comma; as seen by the existence of premium headsets made for PC&period; Can you think of any motion devices outside of Nintendo’s Wii remote&comma; Sony’s Move&comma; and &lpar;in some respects&rpar; Microsoft’s Kinect that actually bring 1&colon;1 motion to gaming&quest; I can’t&period; There is certainly room for improvement when it comes to motion controls&comma; but no better device than the three mentioned existed&comma; and even if a more accurate one could be made&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t think motion control is comparable to the gargantuan shift in gaming provided by virtual reality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I am confident that PS VR will be a success&comma; at least to some&period; Others may have to temper their expectations&period; Though it’s fair to say that there aren’t many launch titles worth mentioning&comma; the concepts are there&period; Think about the poor launch titles for new consoles—they’re often atrocious&period; Virtual reality is a whole new method of play with far different philosophies than a simple controller-and-screen setup&period; Soon enough the small&comma; shining concepts boasted by the launch titles will bloom into experiences that will convince you that the technology is here to stay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Angelo De Bellis<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">PSVR offers the most affordable &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;high-end” entry point for VR&period; By all accounts&comma; it seems to be one of the comfiest as well&comma; which is a huge selling point&period; But what matters most is what matters to any other platform&&num;8212&semi;the games&period; PSVR’s launch lineup seems solid with games like <em>Rez Infinite<&sol;em> and <em>EVE&colon; Valkyrie<&sol;em> offering unique VR experiences&period; But&comma; we’ll need far more for VR to catch on for gaming audiences&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">The other major issue seems to be the motion tracking of VR&period; Using 6-year-old PlayStation Move technology was a gamble&comma; and it seems like it&&num;8217&semi;s mostly working&period; Having only used it briefly&comma; I can say that PSVR’s tracking seems okay&comma; but I can’t wait to spend more time with it in the coming weeks to see how it holds up in most games&period; There are plenty of complaints about its motion tracking so far though&comma; and hopefully that is something that can be patched through firmware and not exclusively in hardware upgrades&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114291" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114291" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114291 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;16210949&sol;PS1&period;png" alt&equals;"The original PlayStation console&period;" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114291" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">We&&num;8217&semi;ve come a long way&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">However&comma; this is the first iteration of something that will be iterated upon&period; The PSVR will evolve in terms of technical specifications&comma; as well as the requirements for it&period; I look forward to the changes&comma; but if you’re looking to get into VR for large gaming experiences&comma; I’d say you’re still kind of out of luck&period; This will be a niche market for a while and will hopefully catch on as it evolves&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Christopher Cross<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">I believe Sony will create a compelling experience on PSVR because they&&num;8217&semi;ve had plenty of time to learn what doesn&&num;8217&semi;t work with Playstation Move&comma; Playstation Eye Toy&comma; and Microsoft’s Kinect&period; They have also had time to watch the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift to see what we&&num;8217&semi;re expecting&comma; what works&comma; and what doesn&&num;8217&semi;t work&period; Furthermore&comma; I think we&&num;8217&semi;ll have some of the best experiences on PSVR&comma; as compared to Oculus and Vive&comma; because of how involved Sony is with the hardware and software development&period; I think at first we may see smaller experiences on PSVR but over time&comma; and as the attach rate increases&comma; we will see bigger and deeper experiences on the hardware&period; I believe in the PSVR and think we will be the ones to really help that sector of gaming grow and thrive&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Josh Nichols<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>You&&num;8217&semi;ve heard our thoughts&comma; but of course that isn&&num;8217&semi;t enough&period; Let us know what you think in the comments below&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version