[an4rchy]

One of the biggest barriers to consumer adoption of VR seems to be the cost.

Is there a reason why it doesn't make sense for the manufacturers to do a subscription service? Seems like everything from phones and consoles to game streaming subscriptions is the trend (and makes sense).

If nothing else, it can help increase distribution and awareness -- at the end of the day, more people using the devices is probably gonna kick off more content creation and economies of scale to produce cheaper/better hardware.

Thoughts?

[pradn]

I doubt if there's a strong market for VR even if a great headset was $50. Do people who are not enthusiasts really want to immerse themselves like this? A good chunk of the population doesn't seem interested even in game consoles. I imagine a subset of them are interested in VR gaming. Outside of VR gaming, there's little mainstream content designed for VR.

[andybak]

Potentially the audience for VR could be bigger than the audience for consoles as it opens up entire categories of non-gaming applications. Experiential, narrative, educational, social etc.

I've had very positive responses to VR from people that have never had any interest in traditional gaming.

Of course - whether this interest could be translated to purchase is a different question. Ease of use and cost would help as would a wide and diverse library of mainstream content.

I think a good stepping stone would be pervasive VR in schools, libraries, galleries etc. to get people accustomed to the medium.

[dwighttk]

Except for experiential, why aren't those categories already open on consoles?

[gpm]

Marketing?

Because consoles offer literally nothing over desktops for that, and schools, libraries, etc already have desktops?

[dwighttk]

true... what does VR offer in those categories over desktops?

[gpm]

Better IO?

There's almost certainly educational value in being able to view (and sometimes interact) with a 3d model of a cell/organ/body/physics simulation/3d chemical model/...

[ZhuanXia]

Neglecting inflation, amortization does not make it any cheaper.

[rocky1138]

I think it's fairly safe to say that for the general populace, that doesn't matter. If it's cheaper up front, people act like it's cheaper overall.