One prominent figure in the gaming industry has just such a stance on VR, and expressed his concerns with the tech during a recent ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Yabbly. Known for co-founding the Xbox branch of Microsoft, Ed Fries isn’t a name that many gamers take lightly in the industry, so when he has an opinion about new tech people tend to listen. While Fries hasn’t been employed by Microsoft since leaving the company in 2004, he didn’t shy away from his thoughts on Oculus or the technology in general.
Despite Fries’ uncertainty in the peripheral, there hasn’t been any sign that his former employer, Microsoft, plans on being left in the virtual dust — recently purchasing augmented reality assets for $150 million. What the house of Bill Gates has in store for the future of VR technology on PC or Xbox One remains to be seen, but Sony may have forced its rival’s hand after revealing Morpheus for PlayStation. Even Pachter agrees that Sony’s forthcoming peripheral is a bad idea, however, which only backs up Fries’ hypothesis.
“After watching 3D TV fail so spectacularly the last few years, I’m a bit of a skeptic about VR, at least for the broad consumer market, but for hardcore gamers, who knows? Maybe it will work and bring some amazing new experiences.”
It’s hard to tell which way Virtual Reality headsets will go, not even the co-founder of Xbox can say with absolute conviction, but it’s a tantalizing venue that many investors in the modern market appear eager to explore. Now, whether that translates to actual sales remains to be seen.
Do you think VR will appeal to the masses and become a success? Is it technology that first needs to be refined before commercialized? Let us know in the comments.
Follow Riley on Twitter @TheRileyLittle.
Source: Yabbly (via CVG)
