Nancy, you could become a touhou if only you had a reasonably stylish hat
gonna wing this so forgive me
games industry production conditions at large
- consumer vr production is a space that's mostly been propped up by speculative capital and VC, in most part because it's a young and distinct market whose revenue streams are still being figured out. all of that money is drying up rn and so cash will have to come from elsewhere (internal from studios, balanced out w/ some minimal publisher contribution, or platform subsidization which is what has been carrying a lot of it in the past year, though that is at risk as we will touch upon later).
- re: individual studio output, there was a big surge in vr development in 2020/2021 and then teams went "oh shit this is actually hard as nuts" because developing in vr is a difficult task, you have to draw to more pixels more often (72fps is bare minimum, 90fps is recommended, fps bar is moving higher as displays support it) with less horsepower and with many effects/tricks that simply do not work in stereo. it takes a wealth of internal knowledge to surmount that, as well as a whole unique set of best design practices. a lot of games got canceled, delayed, downscoped or outsourced because of this, and i do not see a big wave like that happening again with this new hardware gen.
consumer attitudes
- the metaverse shit from last year has really tainted the public perception of VR. its coolness factor is gone. since most of the big headsets launched have been pushing MR (mixed reality, mixing 3D video of your environment captured from cameras down into your game), that's all metaverse-adjacent enough to where i think it's a major stain on these platforms' cultural momentum and is keeping their buzz/hype ecosystems entirely contained to a small group of techno diehards.
- a lot of players have yet to find experiences beyond beat saber compelling in vr, through no fault of their own - the fundamental design problems of vr gaming are still an issue and the incremental approach of these new gen headsets seem to be focusing on non-gaming things rather than bridging some of the fundamental gaps to diversifying the vr play experience.
- headsets are still too heavy for the sustained use being pitched around MR features (more on that later).
meta
- meta's approach to vr hardware has been fundamentally flawed - they have treated their hardware ecosystem like phones wrt their incremental hardware upgrade cycle and have failed to realize that vr devices are not "daily driver" electronics in the same way that fuels the phone economy.
- rumblings are already that the quest 3 is significantly underperforming and with its price tag it's going to have to go toe-to-toe against the first serious "full mode" holiday for ps5/xbsx, and it's going to lose that battle.
- really, meta should have pushed the quest 3 out a year or two in the name of getting the price tag down. launching it only 3 years after the quest 2 at a higher price, and so close to the disastrous brief life of the quest pro, was a mistake.
- perhaps if they had not squandered so many resources on the quest pro, meta would have a bit more flexibility and investor goodwill to power through any downturn by subsidizing a fuckton of games for the quest 3, but that's not what happened, and i think their ability to carry the headset themselves financially is gonna shrink compared to their peak of output on quest 2.
apple
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imo, apple knows vision pro will sell few units, but hopes those who DO buy it are influential ppl who show it off/prime the public for a future headset...
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...but underestimates the aforementioned uncoolness the metaverse has inflicted upon MR in the public eye. imo, this will make their strategy fail.
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we have an easy analogue for this: quest pro. it did so poorly that it was discontinued <1yr after launch.
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apple likely thinks its brand will differentiate it to success, but a headset is inherently a much less social device than an iphone. social fomo dynamic won't carry it.
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also, the vision pro is aluminum + glass, making it potentially heavier than even the quest 3 when the battery is attached. this decision baffles me when so much of the vision pro's marketing is attempting to sell it as a lifestyle device.
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you can tell that they've tried to mitigate the isolating nature of a headset with stuff like the front-facing eye screen, but... considering how well the public received that at unveiling, i don't think that's going to have the effect they want.
pico
- hard to see them as anything other than a trendchasing blip on the radar rn. at least the pico 5 has a sane price.
sony
- lmao
R. Yirmeya raises the "worst halakhic question" of all time, is immediately asked to leave the yeshiva
This is why I don't let my cats outside. It raises too many terrible questions about the responsible practice of Jewish law
Holy shit AFCON really is as great as everyone said. I've been an absolute loser for just sitting on it all this time. It's Cape Verde's year this time baybeeee
Holy shit I finally caught up with all of today's highlights and I need a fuckin cigarette. Holy shit what a pair of games.
I just have to say, that free kick from South Africa is one of the best you're likely to see in your lifetime. What a fuckin goal