V
R first gained momentum at the same
time that 3DTV lost it. When Palmer
Luckey launched a Kickstarter
campaign for a new headset unit in
2012, panel manufacturers were still
half-heartedly extolling the idea of families sitting
around the telly in wildly expensive glasses, watching
something between a discernible movie and a magic
eye. Few of us were listening though. If we were
never fully committed to that future before, the idea
of fully immersing ourselves in a virtual environment
thanks to this Luckey chap’s new doohickey only
accelerated 3DTV’s demise.
The campaign raised over $2.5 million from 10,000 backers
by the time Mr Zuckerberg came knocking. At the time of
Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus in 2014, the
mainstream press started taking notice. Arguably the most
influential figure in tech evidently believed this headset was
the future – perhaps we should too, the thinking went.
FUTURE SHOCK
Had you stopped and polled people at that moment, eight
years ago now, and asked them where VR would be in
2022, their expectations of market penetration would likely
have been about 1,000%. Not only was the Oculus Rift
gaining massive media attention, smartphone giant HTC
was rolling out a rival headset called the Vive and even Sony
was getting in on the act with a PlayStation-compatible
model that also used the previously redundant Move
controllers. Few of those pollers would have predicted a
2022 that resembled our reality.
There have been mitigating factors in the intervening
years that curbed VR’s progress. Most obvious is the
pandemic, which both created soaring demand for all
gaming consumables and greatly inhibited their production.
As early as February 2020, both Oculus and Valve
announced that coronavirus was affecting production of
their VR units, and that some shortages were to be
expected. Like many tech firms, Valve relied on the Wuhan
province in China for its manufacturing, which was one of
the first regions globally to impose lockdown measures.
That short-term disruption turned into a global
semiconductor shortage as manufacturing facilities
worldwide yoyoed in and out of restrictive measures. At the
time in human history when consumers were perhaps most
primed for a device that immersed them in virtual
environments from the comfort of their own home,
companies simply couldn’t meet that demand.
VR sales worldwide saw a dropoff in 2020, according to
analysis firm Statista, with 4.9 million units sold and 5.4
million sold the previous year.The first
attempts
Long before
Oculus, there
was VPL
Research. In the
mid-1980s Jaron
Lanier founded a
company who
prototyped
headsets and
gloves designed
to put you in a
virtual space,
immersed in
every sense.
Lanier was the
first to coin
‘virtual reality’,
and VPL’s haptic
glove and full
bodysuit proved
as impressive as
they were
overambitious.
The company
folded in 1990.VR NOT AMUSED
Six years on from OCULUS RIFT’s launch, has the platform broken through?
T E C H
REPORT