Arcades ... key to helping push VR further mainstream?

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   Shogunposted 6 years ago

   Virtual reality is super fun and geeky technology, but the entry-level price point is still too much for most gamers.
   
   VR gaming is clearly still in its infancy, topping $286 million in 2017, although may climb up to $2.3 billion by 2020, according to SuperData Research games data market research firm.
   
   
   
   As noted by George Casseus, head of business development at the Yokey Pokey VR arcade in Brooklyn, New York, in a statement to CNBC:
   
   "There's not that much you can do if you're 13, 14, 15, 16 after school aside from if you don't play sports. You just don't want your kids to play video games at home. They come here. They play with their friends. They do more active things inside of here as well.”
   
   I think this is a great way to get more people introduced to VR, as the growing pains will continue in 2018. It'll likely be a bumpy road, but one definitely worth taking...
   
   As noted by a recent NPD Group blog post, ”immersive gaming VR will continue to struggle”:
   
   ”The barriers to entry for mass market consumers to enter the high-end, immersive gaming VR space continues to be excessively high. From play pattern to price point to having necessary physical space available, immersive gaming VR will likely fail to experience a breakthrough in 2018. Prices for hardware will continue to fall, but sales lifts will fail to follow. Game sales will continue to lag, and goalposts for success will continue to shift. Currently, VR has an exciting presence in mobile, and a bright future in many other use cases. Perhaps one day it will find success in immersive gaming; 2018, however, will not be that year.”
   
   (Image courtesy of Pexels / Bradley Hook)

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