VR is the Leader in Gaming Innovation

With the flatscreen videogames feeling ever more stagnant, is VR becoming the leader in modern gaming innovation?

[RhinoGamer88]

But no one is buying enough of the games to generate the required profit for game publishers. :-(

[crazyCoconuts]

Give it time. Flat screens will be antiquated at some point

[mkis007]

Its amazing there are people who fail to see that we are always improving. I mean do they not know where we were 200, 100, 50 , 25, 10 years ago?

[JackBNimble]

Maybe when they start making AAA games for VR it might start selling better.
There definitely needs to be a better library to entice me in spending $750cnd on a psvr2. I already did that with psvr and was expecting sony to show a little more love for it .... but nope. Not falling for it this time.

[mkis007]

Think of early video games to what they are now. As long as it isn't abandoned it has no where to go but up. Technology is again the limiting factor, but compared to the regular games VR has a lot more room to improve by orders of magnitude.

[Crows90]

Only because its a separate peripheral. If VR came with every console purchase youd bet more people would adobt.

Imagine if Sony gave a servicable VR headset with the ps6. Then at the same time released the psvr3. The console headset would maybe be made to play only a set of VR titles. Maybe last gen VR titles. While the psvr3 would give players access to current gen VR titles.

[JackBNimble]

That would be a very expensive package, and if they tried to bundle like they did with kenect , it would fail on price alone.

[Babadook7]

“But no one is buying enough of the games to generate the required profit for game publishers.”

I don’t think that’s true. The games themselves are selling very well. It’s just that the cost of entry for customers to buy into the ecosystem is high for most.

[mkis007]

I mean to my eyes regular gaming just has evolutions left. Everything boils down to what we already have a primitive version of; ai, physics, raytracing. For VR we have just scraped the surface, we are at pong level right now. We only have head and hand tracking mainstream so far.

AR is more likely to be the future main tech but VR will always have a place in the home. Idk if it will ever be possible, but a full body VR experience where you can walk without moving is the end game for me. Perhaps full dive isnt just a fantasy, but even I can't go THAT far.

[ApocalypseShadow]

VR is great. It's more immersive than any flat game can be. But, we don't need to trash flat games to uplift VR games. Article says flat gaming has hit a dead end. But there's always more to improve there as well as VR gaming.

I was just as jaded by how nothing seems improve in gaming. The same fighting games, the same red barrels, the same stupid AI. I was almost done after playing for over 40 years of gaming. Then I got VR. VR made me feel like a kid again. Everything was new. I wanted to try all types of VR games. Found many great titles.

But, it reinvigorated my love of gaming too. Games like Ghost of Tsushima took gaming for me to the next level beyond great games like Onimusha. Or reflux 5 getting a great Spider-Man game story and all. Horizon went way beyond what Guerilla Games did with Killzone. Retro games became that much more fun again. Arcade and old school console games.

But VR does have a long way to go. It'll be years before we get to the point where modern gaming is now. But the journey is just as fun until we get there. Can't wait to see the more advanced VR games with more physics, AI, objects on-screen, etc. Just like what's happening in flat gaming.

Can't wait for VR to hit that Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-Man moment in VR. VR is innovative. But flat gaming can still surprise us. Even peripherals like Dual Sense brought unexpected surprises. Even though 3D sound does have its impressive origins in VR that PS5 and Xbox series enjoy now.

[generic-user-name]

I've definitely lost a lot of interest in traditional gaming since I started playing on PSVR1 and PSVR2. Big names like Spiderman 2 pull me back of course and I'll probably never give it up entirely, but since playing Firewall Zero Hour I find it difficult to enjoy 'flat' FPS games and online games in general. Playing online in VR makes you feel like you're actually hanging out with people, for me anyway.

The problem with VR, or PSVR2 at least so far, is that Sony aren't fully committing. They'll buy Nixxes to port games to PC but why haven't they got a dedicated team to make VR updates for their games? If Capcom can bring RE7/8/4 to PSVR, why can't Sony bring Uncharted/TLOU/GoW? There's a modder on PC called PreyDog who makes VR mods for PC games single handedly, why can't Sony manage this? They also need to be doing everything in their power to get GTA V/RDR2/GTA VI running on PSVR2. Any of those would move headsets.

[Storm23]

I'm jealous. I think I would really enjoy VR but I get motion sickness and just can't really do it.

[poppatron]

Oh man, I feel so so sorry for you. Lots of games have loads of additional comfort options to make it a little gentler, they use vignetting and teleportation locomotion instead of smooth which really helps people. From what I hear you can build up a tolerance. But it’s an awful lot of cash to lay out if you don’t develop one

[Storm23]

Yeah. I bought PSVR1 and some games I did ok but most I did not. I have heard PSVR2 is better but as you said, that's a lot of cash to find out I still can't do it. Too bad. I really want to play quite a few VR games.

[Inverno]

Can we really call it innovative when VR has been around longer than in the last decade? It's been improved, hardware always is. But I think, for games at least, and really anything with software being what drives the hardware, that innovation must be done within the software itself. The VITA had a lot of neat features that went mostly ignored later in its life. The DS4 touch pad and speaker were underutilized, I don't think I've played a single Nintendo made game that uses the touch screen for anything unique in any of their games. Hardware becomes a gimmick if devs don't wanna use it.

[poppatron]

I’m 40 now, I started playing games when I was 7/8. I periodically get really jaded and feel the stagnation in gaming. Get overwhelmed by an awareness I’m just playing the same things (and I really mix it up genre wise) or just retreading very similar paths. Which don’t get me wrong, I know the same could be said of practically any past time or media you’ve been enjoying for over 30 years.

Thankfully I’ve always found a remedy, a new game comes out that really breaks the mould, I’ve changed format, forced myself to really try something I’ve never been too interested in.

Post Elden ring (I really had no idea how much I’d love it, I platinumed it!) I’d found nothing I’d enjoyed as much. Psvr2 really pulled me out of a gaming quagmire. And whilst I’ll admit there really isn’t enough big juicy experiences on the platform, I’ve still got a few things that keep pulling me back in. I never could have known I’d play it so so much. Outside of a 2 week foray into Starfield and more recently teardown (really awesome game) all I’ve played is vr since June!!

My back hurts but it’s great!!!

[Dudeson]

I gotta say, got some great games lately. Hooked on Ghosts of Tabor (tarkov in vr, coop pvpve looting and everything) and Dungeons of Eternity (nice coop dungeon runner with great physics combat, bow and arrow feels great, magic staffs and more to come). Having a quest 2 is all I need right now, can do pcvr with or without cable and can bring it to a lanparty for some same room shenanigans. Love it!

Edit: also, hearing great things about the saints and sinners games, will try those next.

[RaySmith01]

personally i dont like VR