Home Gaming Take 2 boss thinks Virtual Reality has limited appeal

Take 2 boss thinks Virtual Reality has limited appeal

2 min read
34

It'sa gotta no appeal!

Strauss Zelnick, the guy in charge of Take-Two Interactive -  the company that owns 2K games and Rockstar Games – doesn’t believe that Virtual Reality has enough of that mass market appeal to break out beyond the core.

"It’s apparently great," Zelnick said of the Rift on Business-focused Bloomberg TV.  "Our people who have tried it love it…Everyone says it’s great. I think for a core gamer, it can be a wonderful experience, someone who really likes to be immersed. But a lot of people who play video games, for example my kids, they play with their friends sitting next to them. So that technology is not going to appeal to them. So I think it’s very much a core technology."

As you can probably glean from his wording, Zelnick himself has yet to try the Rift or any of its competing technologies – which very nearly renders his expert opinion worthless. The biggest problem with Rift, he believes, is that it’s inherently anti-social – and the main reason mass market people do things like play games or even watch movies is to do them with other people. Virtual reality devices like the Rift shut the user off from the world.

"It is an anti-social technology," Zelnick said, adding that “we will support it to the extent it’s brought to market and it works for our games."

I have tried the Rift, and I actually have to agree with Zelnick. It is pretty amazing stuff, and I’m sure developers will make games for the Rift that go beyond any of our expectations. I just don’t see it taking off as a broad appeal, mass market technology any time soon. People in general, don’t want to be walled off. Where VR could really take off is in the realm of augmented reality, social experience…which might be where Facebook’s prowess lies.

Rift’s CEO Brendan Iribe wants the rift in a billion homes, connected to a billion people’s faces, while founder Palmer Luckey believes Virtual Reaity will replace traditional TV. I think they\re both rather mad.

Last Updated: June 2, 2014

34 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief Kilo

    June 2, 2014 at 09:19

    Lol, dat header + alt text = brilliance

    Wonder how Nana Jim feels about this nudity

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      June 2, 2014 at 09:31

      and the dismemberment.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Kilo

        June 2, 2014 at 09:35

        Madness!

        Reply

      • Dutch Matrix

        June 2, 2014 at 09:35

        … (Refresh) Why does one always have to refresh to see a damn image? Damn it Disqus!

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          June 2, 2014 at 09:37

          I want animated gif avatars, they said they would look into it.

          Reply

  2. Admiral Chief Kilo

    June 2, 2014 at 09:21

    Agreed with the VR, its not really sustainable I think. Since everybody wants to share everything these days…

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      June 2, 2014 at 09:25

      I’m sure it’ll take off once they invent an OR that fits perfectly on a penis.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Kilo

        June 2, 2014 at 09:27

        Will it be a COculusThRift then?

        Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 2, 2014 at 09:26

    No shit. The gimmick is a gimmick. Sorry, niche… for the hardcore.

    Reply

  4. Pieter Kruger

    June 2, 2014 at 09:35

    I quite like Zelnick! Didn’t he also recently say “gamers want better, not more”? That about sums up my feeling towards Indies vs AAA titles……

    Reply

  5. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 2, 2014 at 09:40

    Maybe people would find it more appealing if it’s wasn’t quite so blocky & had a more organic look.

    Reply

    • RinceofFuturePast

      June 2, 2014 at 09:43

      I’d buy that for a dollar!

      Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      June 2, 2014 at 09:57

      And didn’t mind getting face raped.

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        June 2, 2014 at 10:03

        Too late. Who bought them out again? 😉

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          June 2, 2014 at 10:13

          Tell me

          Reply

  6. RinceofFuturePast

    June 2, 2014 at 09:42

    Header win.

    Reply

  7. RinceofFuturePast

    June 2, 2014 at 09:44

    It’s just too heavy and bulky. If it was like a pair of goggles I think it would work. Nice tech though.

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      June 2, 2014 at 09:52

      Exactly. Needs to be simple & convenient to wear.

      Reply

      • RinceofFuturePast

        June 2, 2014 at 09:55

        And also not make one want to vomit after 5 seconds of use…

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          June 2, 2014 at 09:59

          I didn’t have any physical sensation of discomfort, nausea, etc when I tried it. Either my brain is fantastic at differentiating stuff or, more likely, something is very very wrong with it.

          Reply

          • RinceofFuturePast

            June 2, 2014 at 10:00

            Lol. I’d go for the latter 😉 That being said, you didn’t try the thing when they had the roller-coaster experience.

          • Dutch Matrix

            June 2, 2014 at 10:19

            You forgot a third possibility: You may not have a brain… 🙂

  8. Sk3tz0

    June 2, 2014 at 10:07

    VR only good for one thing thats POV porn.. Its a going to die faster than the 3DO.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      June 2, 2014 at 10:09

      Or the Philips CDI, the headset should come with pins that you can plug into your skull to simulate touch as well.
      #4eversp
      ;_;

      Reply

      • Sk3tz0

        June 2, 2014 at 10:16

        If VR becomes a thing i bet u the publishers will start spitting out rehashes of old games like they do now for HD.. BurgerTime VR , Dig DUG VR,

        Reply

  9. Rags

    June 2, 2014 at 10:36

    So each and every other day we read about people getting more detached and anti social, now with his core research group ‘his kids’ people don’t want to be anti social. 😀

    Reply

  10. SlasherZA

    June 2, 2014 at 11:22

    I do think it has enough appeal to be successful. Its much like buying a expensive gaming mouse / keyboard – you don’t buy it to be social. High end headphones as well – surely if we wanted our friends sitting next to us to see what we are playing, we also want them hearing, meaning that gaming headphones also have limited appeal? I know I will be buying CV1 once preorders open and I know else that will too. DK2 is apparently a world apart from DK1 that I have and really makes it easier, less nauseating.

    Lets face it – sitting and playing games whilst your friends next to you have to sit and watch isn’t exactly ‘social’, leaning far over the edge of anti-social as it stands.

    It will never be used for competitive gaming, but there are already ‘Rift only’ servers out there for many games, incl Team Fortress 2.

    Had Oculus tried to sell the Rift at R5k+ before shipping it would be dead in the water. At R3.5k it really is an amazing piece of tech that I love. I still get extremely sick after stopping play (or whilst still playing if a demo is particularly badly done), but that doesn’t stop me for going back for more. I try easily 10 new demos / games each month on the rift and am willing to buy something like Dreadhalls once released. Lets not even start on if a proper AAA horror title like Outlast had to get Rift support.

    Racing games – epic fun.

    Using a controller really helps it as well. Lunar Flight (3d moon lander game) – insanely frustrating as you always die and never land it properly doesn’t stop you from trying again and again.

    Reply

  11. Tom Krager

    June 2, 2014 at 11:22

    I have to disagree. Everyone said the same shit about TV and radio when it first came out .. . “nobody wants to hear voices over the air!” . . . well guess what, they were wrong. VR is the future. Get over it ,. . .

    Reply

    • Mark Treloar

      June 2, 2014 at 11:29

      VR was the future one before but never became popular.

      Reply

      • Tom Krager

        June 2, 2014 at 13:57

        yeah same with 3D movies now its standard

        Reply

        • Mark Treloar

          June 2, 2014 at 14:29

          Sure but how many people actually use 3D? It may be standard but its still a gimmick.

          Reply

          • Tom Krager

            June 2, 2014 at 16:22

            3D tv’s are huge with ppl that can afford them. Everyone goes to 3d movies when the big popular blockbuster comes out in the summer. The technology and the vision are finally coming together for VR just like it is for 3D

  12. CAE9872

    June 2, 2014 at 14:25

    Personally I think it has very limited appeal – core gamers sure. General public? Not so sure – its like 3D TVs. The inconvenience of it all is the potential threat – get that right and maybe you have a winner. Otherwise I doubt it very much.

    Reply

  13. Pedro_Nascimento

    June 2, 2014 at 14:48

    This is a very erroneous opinion because the VR also promotes social conviviality. With VR we can talk face to face with all our friends around the world, and enjoy together adventure without boundaries…

    Reply

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