In an interview John Carmack did with Lex Friedman recently, one of the things that Carmack pointed out is that VR games such as Beat Saber were a perfect fit for requiring a controller since it was natural to move and slice through something without significant physical feedback (at least as represented in the game).
However, most VR games that require a controller for VR interactivity with "real world objects" tend to fare less well as they create a cognitive dissonance between the actions the player is taking and their perceived results. Anecdotally, for the few VR demos I've tried I agree.
The Novint Falcon is a force-feedback controller that gives that feedback. Imagine holding a pencil for writing, and using it to scratch the surface of a sugar cube and feeling the indentations, and then also touching the sides of it to literally feel out how big it is.
You might as well write “Not having a keyboard or mouse will be pretty limiting for gaming” fifteen years ago before mobile gaming took off.
Yeah, it will be limiting for the preexisting games built for preexisting VR systems. It will also be perfect for the types of games people envision and build for this generation of device. Not recognizing that seems more like a lack of imagination on your part than a failure of design on Apple’s.
Oh no, I thought of that. As a matter of fact I'm currently developing a VR game that would work just fine without controllers.
Still, sometimes you need buttons. While mobile gaming is obviously huge there are certain types of games that just don't work all that well on it. In the gaming space Apple will be directly competing against other VR headsets designed for gaming. Mobile games don't really directly compete with consoles or PCs.
Not having controllers will be pretty limiting for gaming - some types of games will be fine, others definitely won’t be.