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PLAYSTATION VR: WHERE'S ALL THE HYPE? - by Mr Biffo

7/9/2016

17 Comments

 
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It's a little over a month until PlayStation VR is released. I mean... I think so anyway.

They are still releasing it aren't they? Alright, we've only just been spat out the other side of summer - a time when, traditionally, most messages fall on sunburnt ears - but the PSVR hype machine has yet to show up to town.

And it needs to show up, because, well, get this: after the initial early adopter madness, sales of PC VR headsets - the Oculus and Vive - have pretty much ground to a halt. The speculation is this: beyond the early adopters, nobody is willing to spend thousands for the privilege of putting a nausea-inducing helmet on their heads. You can get much the same effect by wearing a pig-slop bucket.

Add to this the sheer lack of games available - or any one piece of software which gives VR a conclusive reason to exist - and it isn't hard to see why sales have dribbled to a tawdry halt.

But wait! PlayStation VR! That's going to bring VR to the masses without the need for a rilly rilly, like, expensive PC! Even the headset is relatively affordable! And it's out soon! 

So where's the hype, Sony? Even I'm starting to think that PSVR was some sort of weird fever dream caused by licking an infected stetson.
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MAGS & FAGS
That's a question you can probably answer, if you're any sort of gamer: that hype is everywhere, right?

​Well, the games mags and sites are talking about it... but Sony needs to preach beyond the converted. The PlayStation VR is, essentially, a new hardware format.

​See, it has to be sold as a new format to justify the expense of developing games for it.

​But beyond it just being a new format, it's something else that we haven't seen since the Wii; a brand new way of playing games. Unlike the Wii, it's a harder sell: the Wii was unthreatening, inclusive. Switch it on when the family are round, and everyone could play together. The PSVR, by its very nature, shuts us off from one another. Word of mouth is harder to spread.

We know the PSVR is going to be £399, you can play it with the standard PS joypad or the Move controller, that it'll come bundled with a disc of demos, Rez Infinite will be a launch title (probably), and then... the solid facts dry up. I've no idea what games will be available for it from day one. 

Think back to major console launches: a month out from release, you already kind of knew which games you were going to buy, didn't you? I know barely anything about the PSVR launch titles. Furthermore, the games I know as confirmed for the technology aren't exactly getting me excited. Resident Evil VII might be something I want to play... but I've been discouraged by reports of it making players throw up in their own faces.

I played one of those rollercoaster simulators on the Oculus Rift a few weeks back, and lasted about a minute before I wanted to be sick. How am I going to cope with something that's more than just a demo? 

This is the gulf which Sony needs to have started bridging: they need to be telling people why they should own a PSVR, because the barriers in front of it are huge. 

If Sony isn't able to do that, then the system is going to go the way of so many peripherals: left unsupported, because it hasn't sold in sufficient quantities to make it worth creating games for. 

WORK IT, GIRLS!
I want the PlayStation VR to work. Let's face it, affordable virtual reality has been a dream of gamers for more than two decades. The potential of the technology is immense.

But the people selling these things need to wake up to the fact that it's a hard sell. Just as I predicted again and again, the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive were priced beyond the pockets of the mass-market. People will spend that money on a new car, or a fancy shed, or a big telly, but not something which is so unproven, and has still yet to justify itself.

The PlayStation VR is the best chance virtual reality has of breaking through, but I can't help feeling that Sony is already fondling the ball - and not in a good way. Unless there is an absolute barrage of hype over the next month - essentially they need to educate the public on what this thing is, and why they should be interested in it - it's just going to arrive into a vacuum of public indifference. A public, lest we forget, that was all too recently burned by 3DTV.

Already I have concerns about the games which we know are coming: there's nothing there other than the same sorts of games we already have. People want character, they want stuff they can hold onto. Not something as abstract and impenetrable as Rez Infinite, or yet more robots and sci-fi soldiers, or the CGI sterility of Battlezone. Did Tron 2 teach us nothing?

Stuff that reaches for cool - as so much PSVR software seems to be doing - simply alienates people. What cool kids fail to realise is that the majority of us think they're dicks, and don't want anything to do with them.

I mean, Sony's PSVR marketing has - to date - made me feel a bit ill. Take this horrible online ad for one thing. It's as borderline try-hard as a mid-90s Atari Jaguar commercial, somehow managing to appeal to nobody in its play-it-safe approach. We're a long way from the genuinely beguiling marketing of the original PlayStation.
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WHAT??!
So what happens now? My prediction is this: the PSVR will sell out at launch, there'll be shortages leading up to Christmas - unavoidable with such a global hardware release. The news sites will declare it a huge success. 

Then sales will taper off, because there isn't a single killer, crossover app. It will fail to break through to the mass-market. Sony will mumble something about it meeting expectations, without releasing actual figures.

Suspicion will mount that they're hiding something. There'll be reports of users experiencing nausea and headaches. 

Then there'll be a big push from Sony, to bring some big brands onto the hardware, to convince major publishers to stick with it. We'll get a few huge releases, which will disappoint sales-wise, and then development for the hardware will taper off. Sales will never quite pick up to the levels that are needed to justify its existence. It will be declared a failure. 

Sony will - as they're already hinting - reinvest in mobile gaming, in the wake of Pokemon Go. Augmented Reality will be the next hot technology, and investment will move away from VR into the AR sphere. The second coming of VR will be just another footnote in gaming history. The future will be written by the lewd and hairy Jacobites of Augmented Reality.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
TOP 20 VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCES
​
GAMES OF MY YEARS: VIRTUAL REALITY - BY MR BIFFO
10 NEW USES FOR AUGMENTED REALITY
17 Comments
John Veness
7/9/2016 09:36:10 am

I agree entirely with your conclusions. Until we can get 3D/VR which doesn't need a headset, I don't think it will ever catch on. Basically we need Star Wars-style projected holograms, or Star Trek-style holodecks!

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Guppeth
7/9/2016 01:12:31 pm

I haven't had the chance to try it yet. I'm the kind of dick for whom Rez is a killer app, but I can't justify ordering a PSVR before I've tested it.

I think the technology is here to stay, because it has so many uses outside of gaming. The headsets will shrink and become wireless, and devs will figure out how to avoid Mister Pukus the Vomiting Fella.

I also don't think VR and AR are as separate as you do, Biffo. We start with shitty neutered Conker jumping on our coffee table, but then we turn the carpet into a lawn, the walls into a forest, the sofas into tree trunks and the coffee table into a farting bison. Your dad walks in but he looks like some sort of big villain. Stab him up, Conker!

My point is, with a VR headset and some fancy camera shiz, there's no limit to how far we can augment reality. And despite everything we see being 'virtual'. it's also really there, as your stabbed-up dad can attest.

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Ben
7/9/2016 01:15:50 pm

Wow, if I could put money on your grim prediction for the future of this round of VR, I'd bet it all, baby.

No one is going to pay that kind of money for this kind of novelty and if they do, they will doubtlessly regret it. It would do great in an arcade environment as a destination experience every now and again, but as a core entertainment format? No dice.

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Darcy
7/9/2016 02:03:31 pm

Have you seen that new Dara O'Briain show, "Biff"? I ask because reactions to it seem to highlight a divide that I think is relevant to this whole VR malarkey: that is, how "hardcore" gamers are completely oblivious to how ordinary people engage with gaming.

"They've clearly never played Tekken before," said the "gamers" in response to people flailing about mashing buttons... and yet this is pretty much how I, and everyone I know, plays Tekken.

"VR is the future," say those very same people. Everyone else? "It makes you look like a tramp trying to fondle an invisible woman whilst pretending he's in an episode of Knightmare."

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Clive Peppard
7/9/2016 04:38:45 pm

I think Im going to invest in a neo before i go near PSVR, i havent paid much heed but a friend of mine and has had two sets to play with. here are his views:

I’ve cancelled my PSVR pre-order and my advice is to avoid VR for a good five to ten years. I was fortunate enough to extensively test out a Rift CV1 and Vive and my conclusion is that the technology isn’t there yet. To be specific, the latency, 90hz refresh and Field of View are absolutely perfect. The problem is with the resolution being too low and of course even if the screens were higher res, the GPU technology couldn’t push it.

On paper the resolution sounds fine. The Rift/Vive render at 2160x1200 and the PSVR is 1920x1080.

So in the case of the PSVR you are thinking “yeah so that’s the same resolution as my TV and that looks absolutely fine, right?”

Well actually no. You would be wrong. I will use a driving game as an example. When using the in-car view on your TV you are looking at a small rectangular image with a very narrow field of view. In a right hand drive saloon car it might display the right hand wing mirror but the far left third of the windscreen is chopped off. Vertically it would go from the top of the windscreen down to the bottom of the steering wheel.

Now imagine the same scene but in a VR headset. Imagine keep your head rigidly pointing forward but moving your eyes around to see what the screen is displaying. You would be able to see your legs, the roof of the car and also see outside of both side windows.

Basically the VR view is like being encompassed by a semi-sphere. That view is probably the equivalent of nine TV’s sewn together in a 3x3 grid and wrapped around you. Unfortunately whilst nine times larger….it doesn’t have nine times the pixels. Instead it uses the same number of pixels as the little rectangle you view on your TV. All the pixels tightly packed into your TV are stretched and spread out very thinly over nine of them!

This means that the most important view directly forward out of the windscreen in VR is very poor - just a fraction of the resolution on your TV. My opinion was that the Rift/Vive perceived resolution was somewhere between a PS1 and PS2. You can clearly see all the individual pixels – just like touching your nose up against your workstation screen now.

It actually made driving very difficult as you couldn’t see approaching corners properly. You couldn’t see the curbs you need to clip or your braking markers. Cars a meter in front looked ace but at 20 meters they start turning into 8-Bit cars made out of coloured squares!

On PC you can use a super-sampling hack to rend at 4K and down-sample to 2160x1200. This drags the perceived resolution up to somewhere between PS2 and PS3 and was the difference between Project Cars being unplayable and playable. Of course you need a crazy PC capable of rendering 4K at 90fps…

I found this issue afflicted pretty much all games apart from the Vive specific “Room Scale” games where you are interacting with closer objects. Unfortunately PSVR/Rift won’t support such titles (even with the Touch/Move controllers) as it requires “lighthouse” sensors around the room. The PSVR also won’t have that super-sampling hack available to it as it could barely run VR at 1920x1080 @90fps as it is.

My view is that these headsets really need 2 x 4K or 2 x 8K screens and associated GPU power that doesn’t exist in 2016. Save your money for Neo/Scorpio. We have proof of concept but acceptable VR is a long way off. Of course I haven’t mentioned the motion sickness in first person games (when sitting down/standing-still in real life) or the sweat but you are all aware of that. I lasted all of one minute in Vanishing of Ethan Carter VR and that's a slow game!

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CdrJameson
7/9/2016 07:51:33 pm

Try being short-sighted, tt helps with all of these problems!
Possibly poke yourself repeatedly in the eye until it stops working properly? I'm not a doctor.

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Timothypooeth'd
7/9/2016 10:18:37 pm

I'm happy with just playing on my telly.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
7/9/2016 10:52:02 pm

I own a PS4 and yet my only real feeling about PSVR is that I just hope Sony don't lose too much money on it.

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Megalothorn
7/9/2016 11:30:00 pm

I feel like the aspect of "immersion" promised by gaming in VR has been misdiagnosed, more driven by the challenge to develop new technology that by what the gamer can actually do with it. As in: we've never had a problem being immersed in a medium if it's engaging. You can totally forget the rest of your room when you're watching a thrilling round on Bullseye, and your mind will embellish the emptiness of a theatre stage if you're given the right suggestions. VR, with its surround-me-do, is trying to do an impossible amount of work by curating the entire experience around you which your own mind would instinctively fill-in.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
8/9/2016 01:00:18 am

I suspect that much like Kinect, the technology will have far more application outside of gaming. It just seems like it's the easiest way to get it into people's lives as a consumer product for now.

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Dirty Barry
8/9/2016 02:45:35 am

If it's like the VR in that episode of Red Dwarf, I'm getting it. If not, I might not.

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Superbeast 37
8/9/2016 10:38:40 am

I have a Vive.

Basically I agree with everything Clive Peppard said.

I don't recommend anyone buys into it yet. It won't look a quarter as good as the videos you see online that claim to depict the images you see in the device.

Even the Vive doesn't look any higher resolution than a Google Cardboard. The Vive just has no lag and a wider field of view.

Whilst the PC can obviously produce better graphics than your phone, the resolution is so low that you can't really tell the difference between low and ultra settings.

If anything running it on low detail looks better due to it being cleaner. High detail is lost in the low resolution and just turns into a multicoloured pea soup. Best to have low detail so only the essentials are displayed and you can pick them out.

Crap basically.

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Jeep Barnett
8/9/2016 02:13:28 pm

I love you Biffo, but it's sad to see you so out of the loop on VR. Please set aside 1 hour to drive to the nearest computer center or friend who can demo the Vive for you. Until you have first hand experience with real VR you're going to continue sounding out of touch.

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ChorltonWheelie
8/9/2016 07:15:49 pm

He's not out of the loop. Like me, he's tried it and had a think. I'm daft with my newfound midlife income and spend silly many on my pc. I liked the initial Wow! of the Rift.... it was a buzz to see what we can do but.... but... an eight hour hardcore shooter session in one of those things? No fucking chance. Until we can decouple our inner ear from our brain, not get itchy, claustrophobic sweats and have tech that can do 4k per eye at 120hz then it ain't happening for the normals.

On another point... when did we lose our imaginations? The screen in front of my face is my cockpit window on the galaxy when I'm playing Elite. I buy into it. My mind makes me commander of my baddass Cobra. VR or more exactly the way VR is being g pitched now is as insulting to the human imagination as it is uncomfortable.
I'm not trolling you here, I get why you think it's ace but take a step back. It's not ready for the Muggles..... yet.

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Jeep Barnett
10/9/2016 05:47:32 am

I totally agree with you. A hardcore shooter on Rift is exactly the wrong thing to enjoy VR. Try Tilt Brush, Budget Cuts, or if you really want a shooter, Space Pirate Trainer. VR has its own strengths and weaknesses and you need to try stuff that plays to its strengths.

Darren McCoy
14/9/2016 10:21:19 pm

I got my pre-order in on the first day, so even If i don't like it, I'll probably get an extra £50 from CEX.

I really want it to change my life though. I'm getting close to 40 and all the games I play are getting a bit predictable / stale. I'm hoping this can reinvigorate things for me.

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Itchy
21/9/2016 08:47:33 pm

I like other people's opinions. There informative to the extent of people's expectations. Just one conflicting opinion of mine is most people who feel psvr will fail have not tried it. Nearly every review of people who have tried it have good feedback and often say it's changed their sceptical opinions to positive ones.

I'm going to invest in a psvr. I didn't refuse to by a ps1 because the ps2 would be better. Same rule applies. The next gen of vr will be better but I'd like to enjoy this one till then.

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