I would assume someone could easily integrate a controller for their app using the Game Controller framework [1]. So its not impossible. The only complaint I could see is there not being a standardize visionOS physical controller. But I assume that you could assume the PlayStation DualSense or SteelSeries Nimbus+[2] is probably what you should target controls for.
Unfortunately, a gamepad is just not sufficient for immersive VR gaming: you need something like the Meta Quest controller. And the lack of a first-party controller means that games will be forced to build sub-par gesture based controls as the default, with physical controls as an afterthought. (We already saw this play out with the Apple TV.)
As a result, I highly doubt we'll get anything as advanced as Half-Life: Alyx on the platform.
>As a result, I highly doubt we'll get anything as advanced as Half-Life: Alyx on the platform.
How many years of VR gaming on how many other devices have produced how many Half-Life: Alyxs? And even Alyx was basically a vanity experiment designed to sell hardware. There simply isn't much content that has justified the medium yet. At a certain point I wonder if the future of VR gaming is just providing the biggest screen in your house to play your traditional games with a Bluetooth controller.
* Universe Sandbox was the first pinaccle I experienced and still hasn't been topped in its own curious way. It demonstrated at the very beginning where VR UX could go, and that has nothing to do with stupid floating 2D planes.
* RecRoom "dungeons" are the best collaborative gameplay that I have experienced.
> a gamepad is just not sufficient for immersive VR gaming
This seems strange, since so many folks love giant ultrawide screens for immersion whether playing console or PC and whether with controller or mouse+keyboard. They carry on how much immersion there is, and it's not nearly as visually immersed. So it seems less likely it's about the controller.
If they find the ultrawide immersive, and the controller is fine, why not AVP, since the "look around" control is just turn your head?
Do you not feel immersed when driving a car? You have fewer controls, and can't run around, you just sit there in your car seat, turn the wheel, turn your head, and gas and brake.
It’s like how physically interactive Wii Sports felt 18 years ago, but even more so.
Could you play have played a bowling game with a gamepad instead? Sure. But then it doesn’t feel at all like bowling, it feels like playing a bowling video game.
The interaction through VR game controllers takes that concept much further, playing Walkabout Mini Golf or Eleven Table Tennis feels practically like the real thing. Playing those games with thumb sticks and buttons would be basically pointless.
It's funny you mention that metaphor in particular: driving a car does feel less immersive to me than walking. When I drive, I'm in the car; when I walk, I'm in the world.
But then you’re limiting the reach of your app even further to tiny % of people who have Vision Pro but also the tiny % who have the controller you designed it for.
Really vr games don’t shine with a traditional controller it’s actually the precision hand tracking from controllers not the 3d that makes them good. So you’d have to build for something specific then hope enough people own both to make you money.
As a result, I highly doubt we'll get anything as advanced as Half-Life: Alyx on the platform.