This is no secret. We have been talking about virtual reality for decades, but it has hardly been there. Despite all the advancements we have made in technology, VR still cannot bridge the physical and digital realms in any substantial way.
This is not because of lack of experimentation. In 2014, Facebook Acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion, This is a promising headset manufacturer, it has restored hope around a virtual future.
Compared with the estimated $82 billion in advertising sales this year, Facebook’s VR efforts are insignificant, and it’s easy to see Oculus as an interesting but unimportant side project. This misses the point.
Facebook is not a diversified company. Its hardware efforts are one of the ways the company strives to break through and get out of its advertising business.
Facebook CFO Dave Wehner (Dave Wehner) said that the sales of Quest and Quest 2 made a significant contribution to the revenue bucket allocated to them. This is the subdivision aptly named “Other”, and it is not a particularly high threshold. Last year, “Other” accounted for exactly 1.5% of Facebook’s revenue.
However, beyond attention, Facebook’s VR work is actually making progress. Facebook’s latest Quest 2 headset, priced at $299, is a leapfrog development of a competitive VR system, which is more expensive and lacks elegance and simplicity.
Most importantly, Quest 2 is a standalone unit and does not need to be tethered to an expensive gaming PC like Oculus’s original product.
Quest 2 can provide players with a full range of motion without the need to install sensors around the room. The latest model can also track the movement of the hand without the need for a handheld controller. VR still has a way to go, but Quest 2 is by far the most widely used device.
However, as always, VR content is still in the early stages of the development of hardware so far. Chris Pruett, who runs the Oculus content ecosystem, said that a common language is emerging around the platform. Pruett said that at present, VR game developers are still looking for the secret to success.
“Three or four years ago, we would not tell you that our prediction of popular software in VR will become a music game about circumcision,” he told me last week Defeat the saber Oculus’ VR title feels more immersive Guitar hero, Which swept the game world 15 years ago.
Defeat the saber It’s interesting, but it didn’t attract my attention for a few minutes. I asked Pruet what kind of games can ultimately help VR break through the masses.
He said: “My guess is highly immersive, involving the active movement of your body, and I will add the third part.” “This may be something you play with other people or share with other people.”
His last point is consistent with Facebook’s mission of “building a community”. The good news for Oculus is that Facebook already has billions of potential users. For VR developers, this is a vast market.
Pruet said that Facebook is focused on helping developers make money and is currently defining success with this metric at Oculus. He said: “I need an ecosystem that can create a platform for stable business.” “From this perspective, VR is still small, but we are developing rapidly.”
When consumers and critics argue about their preference for PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, investors are exempted from choice. We believe that new consoles will be a bullish event for video game publishers who have created games for both platforms.
The dispute will take some time to resolve.Share of
With two interactive software
(TTWO),
Activision Blizzard
(ATVI), Electronic Arts (EA) and
Ubisoft
(UBI.France) has fallen behind the market since then Our story in early October.
Now the good news is beginning to arrive. Players will be motivated by new consoles and staying at home.
In the past week, Ubisoft said Assassin’s Creed Valhalla The game sold more units in the first week than any previous work in the Assassin’s Creed series. “Alternating current The company is fulfilling its promise to make full use of the new hardware. ”
This news made Ubisoft’s Paris-listed shares rose 2.3%. This reaction may herald other video game publishers about to announce their game sales and the next round of quarterly results.
“Obviously, this illustrates the game quality and franchise momentum of the past few iterations,” KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Tyler Parker wrote last week. “But we also think this is a positive interpretation of the potential strength of the high-end gaming market during the holidays.”
For most parts of the United States, this will be a difficult December, but gamers and investors will have at least one escape route.
Write to Max A. Cherney in [email protected]
