I don't want a device for a platform by Meta or Apple. Valve Deckard was what I was waiting for, which seems to be called Steam Frame now[0].

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveDeckard/comments/1n7sn17/gabe_...

VR is in what I think of as a "native DRM" market. Why did the iPod take off? Because everybody already had gigabytes of stolen music on their computers with no content gated by record label distribution deals. The MP3 format was universally used and all that was needed was hardware with an easy interface to take it on the go.

With VR, it's different. There's SteamVR, PSVR, HTC Vive, Oculus, all with their own DRM'd marketplaces , pricing structures and differences in content availability. It can't be taken on the go. Most people who game already have big screen TVs. So where exactly is the value?

We are still in the very early days of VR. Does anybody remember the late 1970s when personal computers were toys for enthusiasts and rich kids? They were not ergonomic and served no purpose to the general public that couldn’t be filled by the technology they already had. Eventually they reached a point where they had value to enough people that they “took off”.

I believe we’re still in that period for VR. VR has not found its “killer app” yet, the closest thing we have is Beat Saber. People aren’t willing to put up with the inconveniences and cost of VR just to play a handful of mediocre games that would work just as well in 2D.

Valve has been the company really pushing this space forward, The Lab and Half Life: Alyx are hailed as some of the best VR software there is. If anyone has the chops to make a headset and software with mass appeal, especially after the success of the Steam Deck, I think it’s them.

I also have a personal theory that deep in Apple’s R&D department, a “consumer” level headset is brewing, which is the real reason for the “Liquid Glass” push. Forcing it onto their OSes right now is a move to familiarize end-users and developers with the design language so the market will be more receptive to the VR device that’s in the works. I haven’t had the opportunity to try the Vision Pro, but it has a reputation for having the best fidelity and “pass through” capability on the market. If the “Vision Air” comes close and comes in under $1200 it might be the final push that VR needs to go mainstream.

You can make the best flying car in the world, but why should anyone care if they have no use for one?

The Metaverse idea was DOA, and not because of lack of VR headset quality, but just for the obvious reason that no-one wants to work that way. RTO or WFH with Zoom calls is enough.

The only use case for VR that seems to have taken off, to whatever extent it has, is gaming. If a new headset is a bit better, or cheaper, than another then it might be expected to do well, but it's not going to be headline news.

I want to like VR, but there is still just too much distracting internal reflection and stuff through the lenses for me.

I really want a good headset for watching movies at home in a virtual IMAX, but yeah every headset I have tried leads to distracting blooming or other glare and reflection issues with the lenses.

Yes the Apple Vision Pro is not good enough, neither is the Big Screen 2 at least to my standards.

Inconvenient, most of the times freaking expensive or vendor locked, no privacy - these are major reasons why it doesn't work out.

A good VR headset will be most probably a form of wireless screen (not a beafy computer) that is simple, lightweight (at most 200g in front of your face), cheap enough so you'll be able to wear it with you and not worry that something happens to it or be able to afford it for each member of your family without major effort and most of all - it should be replacing computer/laptop screen for daily tasks.

We could do it today, big tech is just holding us back with their vision of products

Eww...

Meta is dead in the water with most gamers after they locked people out of their purchases and tried to shove a mandatory facebook login down everyone's throat.

Pimax is famous for over-promising and under-delivering - if they deliver at all, that is. Reddit is full of people complaining that they still haven't received their purchases from the launch before the last new announcement.

Apple’s Vision Pro was the price of a used car and you need to voluntarily lock yourself into Apple's ecosystem and pay 30% of all revenue to Apple for the privilege, so VR's biggest market (which is gaming) just said FY Apple and that's why it's one of the products with the highest return rate ever.

So you have Spyware vs. Vaporware vs. Masochism as your options. What a surprise that sales are down !!!! (not really)

I am in the market for a high-res VR headset for gaming. But there isn't any product for me to buy. Quest and Apple don't play well with PC. And for Pimax there's no shop actually selling them. (The article seems to agree, too. They have sales links to Meta and Apple, but no link for Pimax.)

I will not buy or use Apple or Meta and that's most of the market.

And I'm far more interested in AR anyway.

This is my first time seeing the term XR (Extended Reality) and I like it because it implies the inevitability of ER (Extinguished Reality)

They're still heavy, take you out of a space so are even less social than normal gaming, there are not really the games that take advantage of them, the controls are awkward in many games and people feel motion sick after a fairly short amount of time playing with them, etc. etc. etc.

Everyone pivotted to Ai.

A bunch of my friends in VRChat dropped $1500 or so on Bigscreen Beyond 2e orders earlier this year, and are ecstatic to finally be receiving their kits. I'm eagerly awaiting my own ship date email in the next few weeks.

The people who are hooked are hooked, but it's in too slow of a growth curve to keep the attention of the hypergrowth omninationals. Inshallah the megacorps remain minor players.

The metaverse is here, for those with headsets to see. But all Meta will be remembered for in VR is sad tech "demos" that turned out faked, and, for a time at least, solid budget wireless headsets.

Mass media is still waiting for faster horses, but the real transhumanists already have one foot out of the physical world. (And sometimes four!)

Meta can't be trusted. The data collection, the user hostility. I don't care how good it gets.

Odd choice to have the headline in present-tense ("are better") but then list a bunch of products that sound promising but aren't yet available...