HardOCP News
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- Dec 31, 1969
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Was this year's E3 bad for the future of virtual reality? I don't think issues like simulator sickness, timed exclusives, and locking software down to specific headsets are "bad" for the industry because, over time, all these problems will get ironed out as the industry moves forward. Your thoughts?
To be fair, the accusations against Oculus are only partially true: Oculus is buying timed exclusivity in exchange for helping to fund a game's development. It's not actually taking games away from Vive owners; it's just delaying their delivery. Even so, that's never been done on PC before. Yes, game releases sometimes only sell on Valve's Steam platform, or EA's Origin, but players have never been barred from playing them because their PC wasn't outfitted with a specific brand of component. If a PC was capable of running a game, it was allowed to play a game. That's not the case with software sold through the Oculus store; if you own any other PC VR headset besides a Rift, you're out of luck. Even if that same VR title is available on Steam, without hardware restrictions.
To be fair, the accusations against Oculus are only partially true: Oculus is buying timed exclusivity in exchange for helping to fund a game's development. It's not actually taking games away from Vive owners; it's just delaying their delivery. Even so, that's never been done on PC before. Yes, game releases sometimes only sell on Valve's Steam platform, or EA's Origin, but players have never been barred from playing them because their PC wasn't outfitted with a specific brand of component. If a PC was capable of running a game, it was allowed to play a game. That's not the case with software sold through the Oculus store; if you own any other PC VR headset besides a Rift, you're out of luck. Even if that same VR title is available on Steam, without hardware restrictions.