Virtual Reality - Is It Really The Future Or Just A Passing Fad?

Join us as we take a look at the current state of virtual reality in gaming and beyond

- Christian Guyton

Virtual Reality keeps coming back, like a bad smell. Or a nice smell; a pleasing scent of sandalwood for the proponents of VR, as they insist that it’s “the future of gaming” or “the next level of immersion.” Some of us at Maximum PC are skeptics, while others think VR just hasn’t quite hit its stride yet. There are applications beyond gaming, too, with virtual reality headsets now being used in medical and architectural fields.

The problem is that there have already been a few “futures of gaming.” First it was webcam body-tracking, then it was motion controls, then it was touchscreens, then it was motion controls again, then it was, uh, figurines with NFC chips in them? Yeah, we don’t know what Nintendo was smoking when it dreamed up the Amiibo, but the point is that gimmicks like VR have been a part of gaming for a long time, and most of these fads have fallen apart.

Virtual reality has stuck around for longer than most, with the industry currently in its “third phase” of VR products. The technology is improving significantly, too, with newer headsets, such as the Vive Cosmos and Oculus Rift S, claiming to offer superior motion tracking, graphical fidelity, and immersion. The amount of money being poured into VR projects has certainly risen in recent years, with even Facebook swooping in to buy up big VR business Oculus for a staggering $2.3 billion in 2014.

Where is VR heading, though? Examining the history of the industry demonstrates a lack of innovation since the initial introduction of modern VR headsets. While the hardware has improved, the way VR works hasn’t really developed, and there’s yet to be a killer app that makes VR headsets a must-have product. So, we’re left asking: What’s next for virtual reality?