this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Game Development
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It won't, not yet at least. Game development is about audience size. Take for instance the latest Zelda. There are a ton of Switches out there. Or take Dave the diver, which is sold on Steam for PC. In each those cases the availability of hardware does not constitute a barrier to entry. You have a crapton of gamers that can get access.
But with VR though? How much does a VR setup cost? PSVR is probably the thing that is getting closer to bringing VR to the general public, but considering it has to be 120Hz in refresh rate or more and that you need the space to be able to move around in. Then there's the pricetag.
How much did an Apple Vision cost again? Oh right. Mad money. We're talking your 1%'ers, which don't move the gaming market like at all.
So until a VR setup is cheap, accessible and standardised, don't expect this to be one "the year of VR gaming" just yet.
Except for the F2P whales, but obviously that doesn't carry over here.
It's actually proof that whales are not good for the industry. You won't be finding top tier writers or game designers going to VR all that much, because they want to reach audiences.
That means it doesn't matter if you have a whale audience, if said audience is small. Creatives want to reach out, generally speaking. So there isn't that much incentive creatively speaking to develop for VR.
Oh definitely. Whales are the reason why many F2P models are notably more profitable than one-time purchases, at least for games with large audiences.