Computer Game developers on the potential of VR
Nine years ago, when the first iPhone was about to debut, not many people imagined a revolution that will basically change the model of the game industry (for good or for ill). As we await the forthcoming release of high-end consumer virtual reality headsets from the likes of Oculus, Valve, and Sony, it feels like we are at a crossroads that is similar.
Unlike the slow, quiet dawn of smartphone gaming, the ballyhoo around VR has been building into a constant, deafening pitch for years. Yet despite people observing, the business and this hype it appear relatively split on the ultimate impact of VR gaming. It could be a smartphone-level technological change--the biggest the gaming industry has seen in years--or it might be a fast unrelated fad on the order of Kinect or the Wii.
The reply to that question will determine the state of the gaming market for a long time. So as many of the sector's largest names collected in February for the DICE Summit and Awards ceremony, I asked everyone I could get my hands on which they thought virtual reality gaming would look as a decade from now. The number of answers shows how unsettled, and unsettling, the destiny of the most recent virtual reality boom really is.
Lessons of the past
The ones that have really been in the business long enough to remember the last wave of VR hype, back in the mid-'90s, mostly agree something feels different this time around. "We needed Snow Crash to occur, and then we put on the things, and it was only Pterodactyl Panic, and we all threw up," said Double Fine creator Tim Schafer (Monkey Island, Psychonauts). Maybe he's being told by it's misnamed the less-than-striking '90s VR installment Dactyl Nightmare, but Schafer is confident in the present. "I believe there is been a huge leap [this time]."
"I remember when Lawnmower Man came out, or Disclosure," freelance game writer Rhianna Pratchett (Mirror's Edge, Tomb Raider [2013]) said, remembering the pop-culture obsession with virtual universes at the time. "Everyone was saying, 'Oh, it's planning to take over,' and then it went around nowhere. It is got its foothold now, and I believe that is important. It is http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=402052011 here."
"I recall when the Virtual Boy and the Power Glove came out," prolific video game voice actor Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite) said. "I used to play Battletech where you went to [an arcade]... I undoubtedly believe we'll get there [this time], because what games have shown us is a trend towards immersive content. The more that we can bring about that concentration into gameplay, it is really what people need. To me, [VR] is the most immersive thing you could get, where the reality that you're touching and experiencing is the universe these people create."
Even some who didn't bring up encounters that are direct with the VR of decades past think there is an atmosphere of inevitability about the current virtual reality shove. "I think we are due for virtual reality becoming really mainstream. I am not sure whether it is 10 years or 20 years, but I believe at some stage down the line we're going to make that jump."
"I do see that technology as something that'll become mainstream for us," Tom Lee, creative director at Team Ninja (Dead or Alive 5), said. "I don't believe it's a fad, I do not think it is a niche. I believe it has enough not gaming mice merely technology, but enough style for a lot of us originators to do things that we were never able to do, therefore I believe it is definitely here to stay."
And now for something completely distinct
The capability to make experiences unlike anything that's possible in a traditional gaming on a 2D display was a recurring motif as I inquired attendees about VR's future potential. "I was just a little cynical when I first put them on, but I need to say I was truly blown away," Fallout 4 Lead Producer Jeff Gardiner said. "I felt emotions that I think were impossible to copy without that medium--a real awareness of anxiety, a real awareness of wonder."
However great you do on a 2D display, you can't copy that."
"I believe it has so much potential for great storytelling, so much possible everywhere," Pratchett added. "Being able to put players into a relaxing environment, there are health benefits in that alone. Take away narrative and merely transport me to a beach, or a jungle, or the countryside in the event you live in the city, or the city should your home is in the countryside. That is really exciting."
"The thing I've discovered, at least among people I know who work in VR, is the fire is very mad high in a way I believe is fairly inspiring to find out. How excited the folks who are working on either the software or the hardware or awesome new games or solving problems that are new, is thrilled they're to be doing that stuff. That, to me, is a great sign."
Put the brakes
On the VR hoopla, there were just as numerous reactions ranging from somewhat cynical to downright bearish for all the over-the-top love from many industry movers and shakers. Even some who saw the prospect of the technology could not quite see the path to large-scale, mainstream success in the close future.
"I'm still having a hard time with it taking off," Mortal Kombat co-creator and NetherRealm Studios founder Ed Boon said. You really need to commit to the encounter, although it's very immersive. It is not like a cellphone encounter, where you take it with you while you are in the vehicle or something like that. [But] I believe its novelty is so powerful that there'll stay a spot for it."
"I think where we are at right now, it's still very much an installment thing," Baker said. "I don't understand what is going to bring it into the living room. For Oculus, they just declared you're going to need a $1,500 computer... You need to get it specced out if $2,000 the manner you desire. Thatis a huge price point, so I believe that it's going to be early adopters that have to really push it in."
Others saw the initial costs that were high for a brand new medium as a very natural starting point. "It's early tech, right?" Moon Studios' Gennadiy Korol (Ori along with the Blind Forest) said. "It's definitely going to be costly, the very first revision is definitely going to be rough. The first iPhone was not perfect either, right? It'll take a number of iterations, but there's little doubt that it is the future of amusement."
Even assuming the price point finally comes down, getting virtual reality in front of folks is going to be a tough but significant step to building the market. "I believe plenty of us in the industry argument how fast things will grow," Insomniac President and CEO Ted Price (Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank) said. "At the moment, early adopters for VR are exceptionally enthused and will drive a lot of the market. But to make sure that it goes mainstream, I believe folks will have to check it out. That means it must be reachable. You must manage to check it out at your friend's house you want, at shops. I believe content needs to be there to drive players and consumers in general to VR."
