it all began with a topic on the WAN Show there was an article on venturebeat
titled VR adoption among steam users has
crashed to a halt lonus was all like
what and I wasn't actually surprised and
I explained my theory as to why it was happening but that doesn't mean I was
happy about it I speculated that it was due to the marketing issues behind
explaining the experience to people that were unable to try it for themselves the
total cost of ownership being very high and finally that the inferior experience
of the gear VR which Samsung is marketing like crazy has the potential
to leave people unsatisfied with the gear VR and therefore uninterested in
other VR experiences in the car a couple days later I heard a radio ad for the
Samsung Gear VR this triggered some
trains of thought through my brain first of which was concern for people that had
the type-c connector with their Galaxy Note 7s and then going a little bit
deeper I began to question my original rant on the WAN Show who or what
actually killed VR who am I supposed to be mad at is it marketing is it cost is
it Samsung or is it Oculus let's dig
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order to answer this question we need to establish some data points the main one
of which being cost of Entry starting from nothing a gear VR ranges from about
$470 for a Galaxy S6 and a 2015 version
of the gear VR to about $1,000 for a shiny new Note 7 and a 2016
version of the gear VR now one thing that hurts the install base for gear VR
is that it is very unlikely that someone would buy a phone solely for the purpose
of playing with their gear VR but in that same vein especially with Apple's
so-called courageous abandonment of the
headphone jack this also helps them as
it is very likely that your next phone would be an S6 an S6 Edge an S6 Edge
Plus a note 5 a Galaxy S7 an S7 Edge or
a note 7 all of which are compatible
with the new gear VR 2016 computers are
similar in this way but scaled up a bit if you don't have a gaming PC yet you're
probably looking at about $1,600 for a rig that meets the
recommended spec and an Oculus Rift included slightly over three times the
from nothing cost of a gear VR and the top end well if you've ever watched any
of our videos I'm sure you know by now when it comes to computers the sky isn't
the limit for cost it's more like galaxies far far away on top of that
benchmarking VR is in its infancy so
choosing a VR computer is not only prohibitively expensive but probably
also rather confusing for most people now of course there are those of us with
computers fast enough to support VR already but unfortunately that number
whatever it is is assuredly much much
lower than the number of people that will already have a Samsung phone and
even a high-end one thanks to carrier subsidies and even if the starting
install bases were equal that still leaves desktop VR at $600 to $800
minimum for a headset versus 70 to 100
for a gear VR now that we've established that I need a couple people that aren't
me or anyone else at lineus Media Group I needed people with no experience with
desktop VR beyond the Oculus development kit one but who can appreciate
technology my plan was to have them try a gear VR paired with an S7 edge with
dark net Temple Run and Eve gunjack give
their Impressions to the camera and then try an HTC Vive with hollow point audio
Shield raw data and Google tiltbrush now there are a couple problems with this
test I could have changed the order that they tried the headsets in instead of
having them go on a rising curve from the gear VR up to the HCC Vive I could
have had them go on a falling curve from the Vive down to the Gear VR it's also
heavily app dependent I didn't show them the Oculus Rift I didn't show them any
seated experience and the game experiences aren't really Apples to
Apples as in I should have had them demoed EV Valkyrie considering they
tried gunjack but worst of all my sample
size it's small and I should feel bad if
this was a proper study it would have probably been a couple hundred people at
least but this wasn't a proper study and I think we got our answer anyways it's
surprisingly simple money it's just too
damn expensive when all of a sudden and done all the experience improvements and
health benefits mean nothing if people just playe can't afford it after
everything when I asked them which one they would choose between the two they
both chose to my utter dismay prefer the
gear I have to give it to the Gear VR
neither of my subjects had VR ready PCS also surprisingly they both had Samsung
phones compatible with the gear VR $1600
plus us is a hard pill to swallow when
you could just pass over a hundred bucks and get part of the way there even if I
would argue that it's not close at all
in terms of quality of experience it's
also not that close in terms of cost and you're able to shed the cable allowing
you to take it with you on trips and stuff as well though to be fair I did
hear from one of my test subjects that days later he was still thinking about
tiltbrush he even went as far as to say that it left a fundamentally different
psychological imprint but that didn't
make him want to buy it that made him want to try it again I still think the
lack of exposure for desktop VR and the overexposure of mobile VR are relatively
large issues I still think the fact that the industry is generally calling them
the same damn thing doesn't help matters
either but if my flawed study is to be
believed cost really is the root here desktop VR isn't dead it just had a bit
of a false start here's hoping they can turn things around soon tunnel Bears the
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thanks for watching guys if this video sucked I completely understand I don't
like saying negative things about desktop VR either so hit the like button
also if you liked it hit the like button too because why not that'll it's I I I
think I'm cheating here a little bit but that's fine get subscribed either way if
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Get Wrecked but you can buy other ones which would also be cool you can talk
about what I said in this video on the community Forum it's a fantastic site
check that out also watch this video which is like my review of the Oculus
Rift and in there I talk about some comparisons between the Vive and yada
yada y yeah anyways see you next time