The Question Every Virtual Reality Evangelist Must Answer Today

"Do you still think high-end VR will go mass market when Oculus can't even interest the average consumer in a free demo?"

I mean seriously:

Facebook is closing around 200 of its 500 Oculus virtual reality demo stations at Best Buy locations across the US, Business Insider has learned. The scaling back of Facebook's first big retail push for VR comes after workers from multiple Best Buy pop-ups told BI that it was common for them to go days without giving a single demonstration. An internal memo seen by BI and sent to affected employees said the closings were because of "store performance."

For the company's sake, for instance, I hope Linden Lab's board is asking that of CEO Ebbe Altberg today. Every answer VR evangelists usually give in the face of skepticism falls short:

"The market will be interested when the headsets get less bulky!" If they're not even interested in wearing them for five minutes, what makes you think a less heavy headset will make a difference?

"Mass adoption depends on great content!" Surely there's more than enough content now for a five minute demo?

"Consumers are just waiting for the price to come down!" Dude, they're not even waiting for a free demo.

Maybe I'm missing a clever way to wriggle out of the hard reality VR now faces?

Comments

[EgoAnt]

I think this is a bad indicator of interest. Demos in public spaces are tough, especially at a store. Setting is important - many people understandably don't want to flail around in a public space when they can't perceive what is going on around them.

I have given public demos of both the HoloLens and Oculus Rift and I can say that I had a bunch of people say that they were too embarrassed to put on the Oculus when there were people around. With the HoloLens I could explain that they could still see the "real world" and they would be a lot more likely to try it even if they were shy.

[Adrian]

It's a shame, when Oculus first hit the news, it was crazy and exciting. I was living in Santa Ana at the time, and so of course following them closely.

I can't help but think that FB slowed them down in coming to market, rather than helping them. I don't blame them for taking the money.. who wouldn't at that valuation, but look what has happened.

Before they even got to market, there were so many kickstarter campaigns with 'cheaper' versions. Oculus doesn't even work with Mac - well not fully - the platform for creatives. Theres plenty of VR content out there, just Oculus need to get the price and the bulkiness down. Google glass was the right idea, just too ahead of its time.

[Iggy]

Occulus sets itself up for hard-core gamers (souped up PCs) and I've no problem with that. I'm a Mac OS user and would buy an AR rig for content creation (graphic design...heck, floating shared spread-sheets). I don't play online games and only a few simple single-player ones, and thus Occulus holds zero interest for me.

But to put it in Best Buy, which is a consumer outlet for mass-market products like TVs and printers, makes poor sense unless it works with gaming consoles or some form of 3D television. No wonder it failed. More and more non-gamers I meet use their phones as their primary computing device. Seems an AR rig would be better for them, not a scuba mask.

[Shockwave]

Vr is a niche market. It always will be. Just like previous forecasts of a desktop-free worrld, the prediction of everything being vr are silly optimism.

If people would stop thinking blockbuster or fail, there is lots of room for niche products in the world. Take music synthesizer. Does one thing. Most people cant use it. Most people dont have the talent to use it. Yet they are still being built and sold, even if ma and pa kettle arent able to do anything with one. How about stock cars? Specialized tools for racing. Dump trucks? Specialized tool for construction. So we should not build something or sell something unless every tween on Earth wants to operate it???

The real world is not an app store. And abandoning any product idea the doesnt appeal to everyone will lead civilization to ruin.

[Sander]

The problem is that, as of right now, VR-hardware is extremely rudimentary. I have HTC Vive, which is the most advanced system available because it features room-scale tracking, and I almost never use it. 4 key improvements will come out this year and next year that will make me want to use VR daily: Higher resolution, wider field of view, but more importantly wireless and inside-out tracking. Wireless will come in two forms: Headsets that wirelessly communicate with a pc and stand-alone headsets that have all the compute on board, in the headset itself (see Intel Alloy). Inside-out tracking is a big one because external sensors are a pain in the ass. Friction in setting them up and just a bore having to turn them on every time you want to use the headset even though all you have to do is plug them in. With these improvements, especially the last two, the experience will be and order of magnitude (or more) better.

[sirhc deSantis]

The key here being the chimera of mass adoption (Shockwave hits it square on the head there).
I am not surprised the box store demos are not touched - I too would prefer flailing about in private if I have to. Well, would be no difference to me dancing in the kitchen but at least the only headgear I could use is a crash helmet.

[Better then Ezra]

Here is a different perspective regarding future mass adaptation of VR.
By Mr.Kevin Kelly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93MUmcDz1XQ

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=525887873]

I agree with Shockwave. The Occulus and its brethren are never going to be the solution to everything. It's a gaming device. Maybe a collaboration device on the enterprise level. But I can't justify buying a dedicated device that closes me off from the default world.

[FlipperPA Peregrine]

I think the reception would be quite different if it were in an Apple Store instead of Best Buy. People go to the Apple Store with a sense of wonder, and it is the right audience. People go to Best Buy with a sense of dread, and it targets a very different audience than those who would be interested in high end VR.

[Flashing Merlin]

I've been skeptical of VR hype, however to be fair I want to report this experience: I saw the Occulus at Best Buy and went to try it. I couldn't figure out how to get the demo running, and there was no salesperson around to ask about it. It's typically an effort to track down a sales person in the huge store, so I just gave up.

Generally I don't want to waste a salesperson's time unless I'm serious about buying, so I believe the failure of the Best Buy Occulus displays is Best Buy's fault. Either the display has to be set up so it's safe to try without a salesperson being there, or a salesperson has to be assigned to stand by the display and offer to demo it for any shopper who walks by,

There may in fact be little interest in wearing the goggles, but the result of this Best Buy display is not a reliable way to judge.

[Brian solomon]

The problem isn't the device, it's the content and the approach to making content. Right now there's not many people that understand how to produce experiential content that actually matters to an audience after they remove the headset. People are spending all their time nitpicking the tech and non of them are savvy enough to lunch meaningful content at scale. Also the manufactures aren't doing a great job with the setup. VR needs a location and a concept to drive people to see it. It needs to live on a creative place where people are already going for experiences and it needs to feel natural. Most people at GameStop and Best Buy Knox literally nothing about VR or differences between systems.

Artists, writters and scientists that like the medium and can understand people's physiology and physiology are going to be the ones that make any breakthrough.

[RDP]

I think EgoAnt is right that public inhibition discourages people from trying VR. Unfortunately, I also see this as suggesting a major problem with VR. Nobody wants to make themselves feel vulnerable and potentially silly around others. Nor are many in environments where this degree of complete isolation is acceptable. So VR is fine for people who live alone, or who have the freedom and desire to isolate themselves completely from others in the household. But for many others, VR is a non-starter.

[Carlos Loff]

Headseats comoanies saw a hype, that is a niche, went to make the hype bigger, so they could sell stuff and maje money - Enough geeks and techies bought the expensive stuff, companies are happy and moving on to next sales, maybe google watches or grapes or christmas trees, we should all be more savy and dont spend 800 bucks on some headsets - No highways ? No problem, people like Ferraries, lets sell ferraries to be left on garages, as long someone buys, lets sell

[Eleen]

Meanwhile the vr will be upgraded I will still play clash royale with my clash royale hack and win every match i can.