Epic Games, purveyors of ubiquitous game engines, is investing heavily in Virtual Reality. According to company co-founder Tim Sweeny, the tech could “completely change the world.” Speaking to Polygon on the future of Epic and its game engine, and the future of games in general, Sweeny extolled Virtual Reality’s real virtues.
“We’re doing a huge amount of research in VR, working with Oculus kits,” he said. “We see this as a technology that will influence every game and every platform.
“It’s technology that I think will completely change the world. I think It’s going to be a bigger phenomenon than smartphones. You have to put it in perspective and realize we’re in maybe the [first-generation] iPhone stage right now where you have this really cool device, but it has some real flaws that prevents it from being a pervasive device for everyone.
While I do think that this time Virtual Reality is going to make a decent enough splash, I’m not sure it’ll quite reach the ubiquity and popularity of something like a smartphone. People “need” internet-connected phones, but nobody needs to be wrapped up in a digital world.
“There might be an audience for 10 million users of the current tech, but as it improves with each generation, the audience is going to keep growing until eventually you’re going to reach a critical point where you can put on one of these devices and have an experience that is effectively indistinguishable from reality.”
Just don’t expect the company to make any twitch-based VR shooters.
"Running at 30 miles per hour in an Unreal Tournament level makes you barf," Sweeny said.
Last Updated: April 2, 2014
Admiral Chief Railjack
April 2, 2014 at 14:05
*grabs popcorn*
Admiral Chief Railjack
April 2, 2014 at 14:05
More scares like this in gaming I hope
http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aoznLOA_460sa.gif
Rags
April 2, 2014 at 14:11
Holy shit, cat has air control. Or is that a wall dodge?
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 14:18
That was a flawlessly executed wall dodge man
Rock789
April 2, 2014 at 14:05
Holodecks just took 1 step closer to reality!
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:11
Finally, I can ‘have tea’ with Dianna Troy…
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 2, 2014 at 14:57
Can even you get in trouble if you don’t spell your virtual girlfriend’s name correctly?
Kromas
April 2, 2014 at 14:59
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 15:12
Not sure Yoda. And I wouldn’t be arsed to ask either 😛
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 15:13
Be sure that this technology is going to spawn a whole range of new indie games not suitable for children.
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 15:14
What, like games where you shove your foot up your mates arse and then run after a ball. Oh, fuck…
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 15:15
I don’t want to know what you do in your bedroom.
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 15:15
First article of the day noob. SLAP*
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 15:18
You hit like a girl!
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 15:20
I didn’t want to do this *Slap, but at least now you are symmetrical! BOOM!
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 15:41
Haha. Touche
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:12
*I cast OVG!*
Admiral Chief Railjack
April 2, 2014 at 14:12
*Casts bonus rage when OVG invoked*
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:14
OVG Bonus Rage Buffed *Ultimate Rage mode enabled*
Admiral Chief Railjack
April 2, 2014 at 14:15
[Post 1 April buff]
* Bonus CAST *
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:16
*Point of no return rage engaged, white rage unlocked” http://whatistheexcel.com/wooobooru/_images/7601e1c929a6fb54a91f23c2ba7ce9d7/2262%20-%20Raw%20gif%20hunter_hearst_helmsley%20rage%20wwe.gif
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 14:18
White rage caused OVG to undergo Super Saiyan transformation
Admiral Chief Railjack
April 2, 2014 at 14:19
*9000 level gains*
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 14:20
It’s over 9000!!!!!!
https://31.media.tumblr.com/16d8269489d6c0a1da9575850a07acbb/tumblr_inline_n381y1Nn1k1qioqlm.gif
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:20
OVG rage over 9000 Everyone GET DOWN!
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 14:23
http://www.ogeeku.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/kamehagif.gif
Kromas
April 2, 2014 at 15:49
Reminds me of this.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 16:22
loooooooooooooooooool
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 15:12
You’re all such racists.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 16:26
Why is that racist? I’m not talking skin color. I’m talking type of rage here. Like white hot rage????
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 2, 2014 at 14:55
Why does “white rage” look so much like “I’ve just experienced explosive diarrhea in public”?
oVg Errorist
April 2, 2014 at 15:23
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Feel the wrath of the mutant redheaded gene.
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 2, 2014 at 15:32
Redundant 😛
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 2, 2014 at 14:37
BBBBBBBVVVVVVVVVVVVMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:47
HAHAHA! Win 😉
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
April 2, 2014 at 14:40
You rolled a 3. OVG cannot be cast at this time. 😛
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:47
Silence! For someone who lives in the Matrix I would expect you to love the idea of VR 😉
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
April 2, 2014 at 15:22
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 15:23
*Dry heaves
oVg Errorist
April 2, 2014 at 15:22
I can only be summoned every 24hours.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 14:16
“until eventually you’re going to reach a critical point where you can put on one of these devices and have an experience that is effectively indistinguishable from reality.””
They said this about gaming and 3D graphics almost 10 years ago. We still haven’t reached that point in gaming so don’t see VR getting there any sooner
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:17
Yeah, but MS said 10 years ago that Kinect would work perfectly and now we have Kinect 2.0 and, oh, shit, yeah…
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 14:18
Still aint working perfectly lol
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 14:19
Me point 😉
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
April 2, 2014 at 14:31
lol, no it won’t. Although I think augmented reality devices will have more of an impact that VR ever will, but that’s just me. Hand me my google glass!!
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 14:34
Gimme google glass AR pokemon so that I can have AR battles with other trainers!!!!
DO IT! DO IT NOW!!!!!
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
April 2, 2014 at 14:34
AR baby!
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 2, 2014 at 14:35
RAWWWR!!!!!
Luca Forest
April 2, 2014 at 14:33
Nice article 🙂
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 2, 2014 at 14:38
Until you make it a pair of glasses & not a head set – no it won’t.
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 14:41
Didn’t they say this ten years ago also?
This time there’s actually a product at least.
Kromas
April 2, 2014 at 14:56
Virtual Boy as well as the power-glove came from the past soooo. They had products. It is just easier to forget them as they could not have been the worst products of their time.
John Van Rensburg
April 2, 2014 at 14:47
I think VR will make for pretty compelling communications device. I’m thinking in terms of multinational companies here, who often need to teleconference. VR will allow all concerned to be in the same room, rather than separated by screen. it will make the ability to sell ideas easier in that sense.
augmented reality is certainly the soft launch for VR. however, I think widespread takeup will only occur when AR devices become more ubiquitous, rather than so glaringly obtrusive. the mobile phone used to be nearly briefcase sized, but as technology develops (and access to rare earth materials becomes easier – assuming space mining with drones takes off by 2017), we’ll see giant strides made in these technologies.
oVg Errorist
April 2, 2014 at 14:55
Every decade it comes and goes.
I remember in the 80s it was the cutting edge of 3D, the M Jackson Thriller experience in 3D with those cut out glasses. Then it was VR with vector graphics that made people puke. Then Holograms.
Then in the 90s it was Lawnmower man and Virtual Boy.
Now its 3d TVs that died a quick death and Oculas.
Just waiting for the next Hologram investment.
oVg Errorist
April 2, 2014 at 14:57
Just make games DAMMIT… and ones that do not require WAGIE WiMotes and body aerobics.
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
April 2, 2014 at 15:05
What this man has said! Listen to the one called OVG!
oVg Errorist
April 2, 2014 at 15:12
10 years from now it will be retina GOOGLE glass 2.
But thanks to Piracy everybody will have to leave there eyeballs at the cinema desk before going into the theatre.
3D will be better than ever with next to no narrative in movies thanks to the cInema making more money from people buying the glasses instead of the profits from popcorn that costs more than a steak.
At least the 00s were a little bit different in their Trojan horses.
REMEMBER WIDESCREEN is the BOMB. LED IS THE BOMB, 1080P IS THE BOMB and your Bravia will go nicely with our new Blu-Ray DVD Drive in our SONY games machine.
Then 3d came around again and they thought people would rather prefer BLURRED SCREENS to get the 3d effect. Like smearing butter on your so called high DEF TV.
I wonder whats next?
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 2, 2014 at 15:15
Fully interactive TVs with little touch pad controllers so people can participate directly in reality TV shows.
Hopefully the world will flood first. So far so good.
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 15:16
Next they’ll be making 3D movies of that… Oh crap… BVVVVVVVVV
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 2, 2014 at 15:20
No, they’ll make 4D movies. You’ll pay now for a movie you’ll watch 5/10 years in the future & you’ll enjoy it because they said it will be awesome.
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 15:21
SNAP!
oVg Errorist
April 2, 2014 at 15:16
You nailed that on the head. Just think of all that marketing potential.
Rince
April 2, 2014 at 15:21
Oh you, you didn’t even see what you did there 😉
Rags
April 2, 2014 at 16:21
You are comparing a cart horse to a Bugatti Veyron.
Kromas
April 2, 2014 at 14:59
I want Johnny Quest style VR.
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 15:14
Dude. Yes.
Questworld. Log on.
Hopefullly they can douche block Questworld though.
Kromas
April 2, 2014 at 15:16
Hopefully it will have a puberty test. That should cut out every single CoD player and make life very nice already. 😛
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 15:17
Hehe.
bluegoon
April 2, 2014 at 17:55
Oh hell yes
Mark Treloar
April 2, 2014 at 14:59
Didn’t they say the same thing about Kinect?
Kromas
April 2, 2014 at 15:00
Only MS did. 😛
Jedi JJ
April 2, 2014 at 15:00
Forcing the new kinect on people hasn’t helped though.
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
April 2, 2014 at 15:14
Meanwhile on the bone…
oVg Errorist
April 2, 2014 at 15:21
The entire video has an IQ of a COD.
MakeItLegal
April 2, 2014 at 21:11
I could see it one day , in the future , maybe over even just one eye , with a contact lens printed with a circuit that projects straight onto your eye , having information pop everywhere ( watch dogs ) would be pretty sick , but um no privacy then and most likely minority report style policing minus the the crazy shit obvisiouly ….