By Christian Guthrie, CNMS

Is Virtual Reality A Gimmick?

Back in 2011, a gentleman known as Palmer Lucky was developing a prototype for a head mounted display that would track head movements and simulate them in Virtual Reality.

It wasn’t long until John Carmack (co-founder of ID Software) tested out Lucky’s early prototype design. After an announcement that Doom 3: BFG Edition would support head mounted displays, it appeared that the concept of Virtual Reality could potentially be a profitable endeavor.

Within a matter of months Palmer formed a company called Oculus VR. The company launched a Kickstarter on August 1st, 2012 in hopes of getting funding to bring the Oculus to life. It didn’t take too long to reach its funding goal of 2.5 million dollars. Multiple well-regarded developers in the industry praised the Oculus for its innovation and potential on how video games are played.

Since then, many developers have released games with Oculus support, which added a whole new layer of immersion to a game. The Oculus has been worked on for quite some time, but finally on March 28th of this year it will be available for everyone to buy. The only concern so far is the price. Palmer recently detailed how much a “PC ready” oculus would cost in order to get the optimal experience.

With an already steep $600 price tag, you would need a gaming PC around $1500 to actually use it. $2100 for anything is already alienating a portion of your audience, however it is understandable that Oculus VR needs some return on their investment.

For now it seems that the launch will consist of a lot of early adopters who are eager to support the idea of virtual reality. While the industry may be ready for this technology, are the consumers? How much can the Oculus add to a gameplay experience and is it worth the price?

Hopefully these questions will be answered when the Oculus is available to everyone this year.