If you've been watching the Winter Olympics on NBC (and you should totally eat a churro and do), you've doubtless seen frequent promotional ads for the event's official VR app, available for Oculus/Gear VR, Google Daydream, Windows Mixed Reality, and Google Cardboard. (Ad below.) With over 10 million shipments of Google Cardboard alone, and a very easy to use Viewmaster-style user experience, lots of people should be trying out the free app available on Google Play, right?
Yeah, no: As of today, it has less than 50,000 downloads. (Again, from a potential audience of 10 million+.) User reviews are abysmal to be sure, but we should still be seeing much larger download rates for a free app that's being promoted to a US viewing audience easily over 20 million. Remember when VR enthusiasts promoted live sports experiences as a major use case for virtual reality? Maybe someday, but that day isn't now.
It would help, Hamlet, if they weren't so uppity about geographical restrictions so early in the life of VR. Folks who aren't in NBC's service area simply cannot use this app even if they are interested. VR enthusiasts are a very small group,and the Venn intersection between them and those who can access NBC is frankly going to be even smaller.
Posted by: Chong Kaixiang | Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 10:49 PM
Putting on a VR helmet makes me feel and look like a goober.
Posted by: still | Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at 08:22 AM
This isn't VR. There is no stereoscopic depth - it's just 360 video with headtracking. True VR has depth and it's incredibly immersive, but it REQUIRES dual 360 cameras. If this flat stuff keeps being promoted as "VR" people will lose interest thinking "it's kinda neat but not that impressive". It's not google cardboard or the phone's fault (they're entirely capable of great vr and there are some incredible experiences you can view) - it's literally the difference between 1 image cloned for both eyes, and 2 images from 2 separate cameras.
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Posted by: ios man | Saturday, February 17, 2018 at 09:20 AM
The feedback on this app is terrible. I've not read a single positive review...
Posted by: TonyVT Skarredghost | Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 02:33 AM
This is just 360 content with Head Trackking!
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Posted by: Chriss Woody | Wednesday, May 09, 2018 at 11:53 AM