VR Is Becoming a Luxury – It Shouldn’t Be

VR was going to be the next big thing, but it has never happened. Cost became prohibitive, “must-have” software is limited. And with the announcement of the Meta Quest Pro, it seems the best is becoming increasingly out of reach. This is not good.

This tech isn’t cheap, and the Quest Pro is not aimed at your average gamer. But it’s not a good look for an area of the industry that has been on the edge of greatness for a decade.

You don’t break through to the mass market by making your product something people attain to. You do it by making it value-for-money, by making it widely compatible and easily accessed – you do it by making it must-have.

And my concern with the Quest Pro – and with all the recent VR announcements – is that none of them are must-have. PlayStation VR 2 looks awesome. But am I going to miss anything massively important without it? No. And Sony will likely make sure it stays that way until market saturation is such that, for instance, The Last of Us 3 can only be played with a headset.

Until then, it is a distraction. Until then, it is fun, maybe even great, but never must-have.

I remember reading articles around 2010 about how you’d be able to buy a ticket to a concert, and sit in the front row from home. The idea of sitting in a movie theatre with friends was also spoken about a lot.

VR has not penetrated to that extent yet. And if there isn’t a cheap way in, and ample reason to do so, it never will.

The problem is that the price is going the wrong way. The problem is that seemingly every player in the game wants their own walled garden, and so compatibility isn’t always guaranteed.

A VR Comparison

Let’s look at a tech success story. VHS was not cheap when it came out in the 70s. In 1977 it cost up to $1,400 (nearly $7,000 in today’s money). By the mid-80s it was the far more affordable $200 (still $500+ today). By the 90s, you could get a cheap model for $100.

Over the space of no more than 13 years, the technology became more than 10 times cheaper, and improved rapidly as well.

Same with DVDs. Original players cost $1,000. They could be had for $50 a decade later.

VR has not followed suit. It is more expensive than it was. Increased costs have been passed onto the consumer as technology improved.

PlayStation VR was $399 at launch. You can get it dirt cheap now, usually from second-hand stores. Which is kind of gross after a pandemic, but if you want to get in, you can without too much problem.

But you can only play what’s already out on PlayStation. The follow-up device will not be backwards compatible.

PlayStation VR 2 cost predictions run anywhere from $299 to $550. And you can bet it’ll fall somewhere in the middle – around the $400-500 mark.

It has improved. The cost will likely increase. People already sold on the brand will rush to buy it. The rest of us will wait. And wait. We will continue waiting until it’s no longer a flight-of-fancy for tech heads, but as necessary for gaming as VHS and DVD players were to film lovers. The market needs no less than that.