It Might Be Time to Admit the Great VR Experiment Has Failed

I think the situation isn't so much with VR and its offerings (Lucky (Oculus lead) being a lunatic doesn't help), rather, the economic situation that people are in.
People can barely afford to house themselves, let alone have a spare room that's empty to use as a holodeck.
And since most people seem to be renting, they're hardly going to be able to drill holes in the wall to put up cameras for VR
- Nah that's not true, maybe for some people. GPUs are selling like hotcakes as are processors. Consumers are buying gaming hardware like it's going out of style. I think that may be the case for younger gamers.
  
  I don't think it's gamers driving those hardware sales - GPU supply has been strained for over a decade due to their non-gaming uses. The introduction of cryptocurrency lead to all the high-end cards being snatched up by mining operations and scalpers, then right as crypto finally started dying down, the AI boom hit.
  Anecdotally I know a ton of gamers going with low- and mid-tier GPUs like the 3060/4060 because crypto/AI speculators and scalpers have driven up the prices of the high-end cards beyond the budgets of normal people (and that's when there are even any cards in stock).
  
  a gpu is a one time purchase of a luxury good. a house is 100 times more expensive than a gpu
  *If you're lucky
- It's not even necessarily that people can't afford the space, it's just that the space is being required in the first place. Being able to afford it is just one facet of why I'm not setting aside a whole room for VR.

Meta and Sony scrambling to monopolize it before the technology even got out of the womb certainly didn't help.
- i remember the massive interest in VR from tech enthusiasts back during the early Oculus days. Meta's actions after purchasing them destroyed so much goodwill with the developers they needed to make VR a success that they probably set VR back as much as (if not more than) their increased funding pushed it forward.
  
  And it really doesn't help that Meta is making the most affordable headsets. I would like to try a Quest 3, I have the budget, but I really, really don't trust them

VR didn't fail, the industry just didn't understand it and thought they could create Ready Player One in real life. VR has, and always will be a gaming technology first and foremost, and will not replace flat screen games. it failed to capture a consumer base it was never mean't to appeal to.

VR is great and continues getting better. What bullshit.

VR hasn't failed, the investors' dream to make it replace real life so they can fill it with ads has failed because, shockingly, people prefer to live in real life. It's the same way (most) people don't spend all their time playing normal games

It's not failed, it's just still too expensive for everyone. The venture capitalists have just moved onto AI though, which in the long term will actually be good for VR I think. It'll just slow down in development for a little bit.
- It failed because of prohibitive cost that didn’t scale down and it’s still a toy for wealthy people, even that budget Quest VR. There are still fundamental issues with motion sickness that are just brushed off by most.
  There is no guarantee ever that things will progress from where they are. People who bought into VR by now bought into modern day Nintendo Virtual Boys, which is cool but not exactly revolutionary. 20 years from now we’ll look at current technology like VR headsets from the 90s - impressive but still ways off.

Again?
How often have we been over the same ground?
- For each article claiming that VR would revolutionize gaming/work/engineering/social life, there shall be an article proving that it was a resounding failure. Perfectly balanced.
  
  It's awesome for gaming. The problem is it's often an afterthought. Alyx was amazing. There are amazing indie games. Hell, even the famous Beatsaber is an amazing fun game.
- Its like how 3D movies are here to stayandtheyregoneagain

VR is amazing, for certain things. It doesn't replace everything but for its niche areas it's unbeatable.
For example sim racing and other sim setups, flying etc.

If it was open there would be thousand communities around it but it is not.

Don't say that, I've just bought an ancient HTC vive, give me time to at least play through HL Alyx and then dump it back on the market before you crash the prices.
- It’s still great for games, it’s just not turning into the metaverse from snow crash like some people thought it would
  Get beat saber and learn to download custom songs, highly recommend

See also: 3D TVs

VR has its appeal, and I can definitely see use cases for certain games where it would up the immersion by a lot and really make a positive difference. I've banged on about Pacific Drive being a perfect VR candidate before.
In the end though, its just both too expensive for the average consumer and too niche - for most games the delta in terms of how the experience is with/without VR is just not big enough for it to be worth developing for VR most of the time. Particularly since the target audience will be so small due to costs.

Price and shit game selection/implementation aside, I simply can't use the fuckin' thing without getting headaches and nausea. Tried a couple of headsets and control schemes, but my shitty brain is just not wired for it. I get travel/car sick as well, in fact I had to leave a really good school I was attending to go to a shitty one within walking distance of home because I was puking every morning 😆

Failure is entirely subjective, and too blanket a term to use.
It hasnt made in the traditional gaming market. No one has gone from a high spec PC to using VR as their main machine, because AAA games arent on that platform.
I see the Oculus as a Wii type machine. Its for party games, its for experiences. My son loves the Oculus for big group, social games where people can be annoying together all over the world. I have family members who dont play AAA games that have an oculus for the different experience games.
I played Alyx and the Wolfenstein game, and they were really good, but wont replace my PC. Maybe if I tried the desktop thing and it replaced a monitor I might get on, but otherwise it wont replace current machines.

VR needed to be an accessory to an established console like system that was packed in with the console. So everyone had one but was not always required to use. But also keep it at the cost of a normal console sub $500.The other problem is when you are in VR you don't care but before you try VR watching another person do VR they look silly.
So that holds people back from trying VR. So a lot of people would prefer to only VR when no one is home even family. The other other issue is because VR is so isolated some people can't shake the feeling of someone is watching them or will do something to them. It puts you in a very vulnerable state. All this on top of motion sickness and other things that other people have mentioned.